Pros
Flexible scheduling ( you can start anywhere between 6am-9:30) health medical and dental benefits are good You accrue time off every pay check (4 hours total) You have all the federal holidays off You can start as early as 6am during case break . Wasn’t affected by the shutdown Once tour in the agency (and if you can actually get past the 7-8 month training consisting of tests) there are other opportunities within the agency to apply to
Cons
You are in a school setting for 7-8 months You have a boatload of tests to take and if the whole class fail, but you manage to pass, you still have to retake it. The only time you can get tutored is during case break. ( If you are having issues with a subject why would they further allow you to continue without grasping the first subject and then waiting to weeks or months later to get tutoring ? ) You listen to someone talk to you from 8am-4:30pm . You don’t get to sit with actual BA (benefit Authorizers) who has been well versed in the role, instead you have different trainers every week... some who know their job really well, some who just do their job and cannot explain, and some that you just wonder how the heck are they training a class. You must learn on your own. They do not want you and your peers to help one another. It’s actually frowned upon! You have monthly meetings with management who threaten you about the job being temporary and how the agency can let you go at any time. Lunch is only 30 minutes. There are various microwaves on different floors, but everybody takes lunch around the same time, so you may have to wait to heat up your food (this counts as your lunch) you cannot be late coming back from lunches and breaks even if it took 15-20 minutes for you to actually get a microwave. There are fridgerator clubs that consist of a list of names being on a piece of paper and if your name is not listed on the paper your lunch will be removed . There is no free coffeee like a regular place of employment. The agency tell you that must have a 80 but they also will tell you that you must have a 70. If you are not used to a job where you have to code, number crunch, and do things the long way this is not the job for you. This is not a call center role . It’s manual coding type of work . The job description and the actual job that you do does not match!