Pros
There is a sense of purpose and commitment: protecting US interests and advancing its national security objectives. Leadership opportunities are available at an early stage in one’s career. Similarly, junior members can assume more responsible roles faster than peers can achieve in private industry. In addition, leadership encourages personnel to participate in numerous professional development and training opportunities. Professional opportunities can involve Information technology conferences, leadership training, postgraduate study at leading civilian universities, exchange program with industry and project mananagement courses. In many cases, an officer can expect to change positions every eighteen to thirty-six months, enabling one to learn new skills. This allows one not to become stagnate and, sometimes, provides a lifeline out of a bad situation. In fact, foreign travel is encouraged where one can experience and live in variety of cultures such as German, Korean, Japanese, and Nigerian.
Cons
Be prepared for shifting priorities where priorities seemed to be more personality-driven than mission-critical. Military life can be taxing on work-family balance. One has to remember the Air Force needs have precedence over personal desires. Be very flexible---one should expect to work weekends, Holidays, and very long hours. Also, expect to deploy to hostile locations with limited notice. A member has to constantly prepare loved ones for these situations--be honest. In my opinion, USAF leadership do not consider information technology(IT) personnel as critical assets, but expendable resources during the budget cuts and to fund pet projects. Until very recently, cyberspace was not considered another dimension of war like air, land, sea and space are. Very Reactive Mindset!! Like the private sector, one needs to cultivate connections with senior leadership constantly, especially for advancement. Often, it appears connections more than performance and capability is required for consideration for plum assignments, in turn leading to advancement. Regarding recognition, often an individual has to initiate process; otherwise, supervisor/management is too busy "putting on fires." Senior leadership seems to have adversial relationship with Congress--this may not serve the Air Force well in future budgets, especially given the huge deficits, financial bailouts and increasing need for economic stimuli from the Federal Government.