Pros
Job Security. Once you get in the door, provided you're a reasonably good employee, you'll most likely be set for life. If you respect others, take your job seriously, and perform your duties well, you'll be just fine. You won't have to worry about lay offs, downsizing, or loss of contracts. Provided no major catastrophe occurs, academia is second only to government work for job security. And Penn State has done a great job securing its funding from the state and bringing in additional income and donations from students and other customers. Health benefits. 90/10 Highmark is a great plan to be on in this day and age of the Obamacare disaster. Salary employees get these benefits rather quickly when they walk in the door, and wage employees get them after a designated number of hours (eg: a year or two). Rich atmosphere of research and development that makes Centre County and all of the branch campus throughout Pennsylvania shine! When you work here, you're working under a very big, well-known name. That has a lot of pull that extends deep into the state and private sector. For example, Penn State employees get a 23% discount on line fees for Verizon wireless services, and if you buy a Dell computer for personal use, you also get a big discount. Just mentioning the name Penn State will often get you some respect/credibility from most of those living in the US. Retirement. Hop on the state SERS plan. It's a state-funded employee retirement system that has some very good fail-safes in place. Financial gurus might argue for or against it, but for the average person out there, it's a good retirement plan to adopt. Of course you have to keep working for a Pennsylvania state agency to keep contributing to it, but it should be there in force when you retire. For those entertaining the idea of working at Penn State, please keep in mind that there are other private-sector retirement plans to choose from (you're not locked into SERS). Liberal vacation and sick leave. Penn State gives employees a lot of leeway in helping them balance work and their personal lives. Research is king here. Yes, this is a university, but this is also a business of research, development, and services contracted out to other agencies and businesses. Don't fret, because this is a good thing. The university has expanded beyond academics. They've utilized the power of their resources and branding to build a business and groundwork that underpins the traditional higher-education role. The academic and business sides of Penn State are now joined at the hip. They support one another. From Penn State University and branch campuses to Penn State Hershey and countless contracting services, that diverse framework helps us overcome recessions and funding downgrades. Football and other athletic sports. This university dumps a lot into its Nittany Lions and athletic teams. If you're a fan of any sport, Penn State probably has you covered. The fan following stretches throughout Pennsylvania, and even into other states. So if you want to be at the heart of it, you'll be working for the right employer.
Cons
Penn State knows they're the primary employer in State College, let alone Centre County. Therefore they have a lot of leverage in dictating standards for pay and benefits. With that said, don't get me wrong, the benefits are good and the pay is very fair. But still, this bargaining chap of theirs has dampened larger corporations from dropping roots in Centre County and competing with Penn State for educated employees. And Penn State knows this. It's not necessarily their fault, but they take full advantage of it. No ladder climbing here. I've learned that the best way to build your career and advanced at Penn State is to quite your current job and start another. Seriously. Advancement is laden with so much red tape that you'll be paddling at the same position for years until you even get the most narrow window to advance. It doesn't matter how well you preform or what level of ambition and dedication you have, once you start working here, you're stuck in that position until someone else takes pity on you and recommends some sort of promotion. Red tape. There's a ton of it. You can't sneeze on a form without jumping through hoops to get it approved and sent through the proper channels. Some entities and departments have it easier than others. For example, my entity only has to deal with Penn State for HR and Networking/Phone, so we have it easy compared to others. The culture: liberal BS that started in the 90s but continues and is even worse today. I'm talking about the hyper-sensitivity to office-place harassment, diversity & diversity training, hyper-environmentalism, "Penn State Recycles", and now the child safety documentation and exam we must process thanks to the reaction to Sandusky's perversion and torment of children. These liberal policies has completely changed departments of Penn State. One example is Purchasing. It's not just "Purchasing" anymore, it's "Supplier Diversity and Environmentally Responsible Purchasing". Yeah, that liberal BS is rampant in academia, but it's especially repulsive at Penn State. If you love hugging trees, proudly drive a hybrid or electric vehicle, and talk about your carbon footprint, then these policies may be a pro instead of a con. Either way, Penn State hemorrhages this stuff, so be warned. I've had to play along and keep a smile on my face through all of this. It's a little stifling, but it keeps you from being on the receiving end of these liberal policies. Parking for employees can be a nightmare for some. You can only park in certain lots, and the parking fees come out of your salary. Worse, because this is a liberal campus, they really frown upon auto-based traffic while encouraging bicycle and pedestrian traffic. That's why driving and parking on campus is a royal PITA. If you do work here or plan to work here, then I hope you can work off-campus, where this won't be as great a concern. And remember, parking for those of significant clout (the higher-up positions) is fine. It's the rest of us who have to put up with poor parking, especially if you're unlucky enough to be quite far from a parking garage. Computing. Nazi-like control over their networking/computing. If you're part of an entity that's separated from the campus, you may have more wiggle room, but if you're right on campus expect to have little computing flexibility. Granted, some corporations are even worse, but for a university, they're very strict. If you need any special privileges or functionality in your computing tasks, expect to wade through the red tape... that is if you're lucky enough to get approval for those exceptions.