Pros
-freedom to set development and research priorities -a lot of support by colleagues -easy access to international conferences (AIAA, ...) or journals -seemingly endless ressources in machinery, CPU, software... -big education program with internal and external options -phd after ~6 years very common -good salary compared to standard jobs -flexible work hours, 30d paid annual leave, home-office for some days
Cons
-some co-workers you depend on are hard to motivate -time and nerve consuming bureaucracy -if something needs to be done/fixed/organized fast: do it your-self -a lot of delay in projects due to poor overall poor time management, communication and organization between departments -government funding gets cut more and more, good people leave for industry fast, no replacement for retired colleagues -instead of synergy a lot of competition between departments and institutes, which is even enforced by new board of directors due to new funding-science-output policies