Pros
Benefits, though slightly trimmed from year to year, are still very good relative to industry. Demands and tempo are slow, gentle, varying a bit by project. You can have a cushy, low-stress life here, for decades, and, if you stay in to make maximal use of the retirement program, you will end up a paper millionaire.
Cons
A while back, the management consulting vultures told MITRE it was sitting on an untapped cash cow, that its brand was solid but virtually unknown, that its reputation was growing dull, passe, pricey, that it could be five or ten times greater with some aggression and re-invention. Senior leadership has cycled a few times since then, proclaiming We Will Change, Grow, Take Risks, We Will Be Younger, Faster, Different, Less Ivory Tower... each more forcefully than the last. These goals are not, by themselves, "bad," but their rhythm has ramped up past the point of sanity. New business angles and buzzwords fly by faster than the organization's ability to focus. Unclear whether this is fear of extinction, or just executive ego and muscle-flexing. Whatever the cause, our random flailing cannot continue.