Pros
- make a real, immediate difference on a variety of important issues (environmental, consumer protection, etc.) - empower students on a regular basis: you get to work with people who care about these issues and give them the skills to be effective and make a real difference - learn a ton of skills quickly - opportunity for advancement - work with a GREAT team (seriously, the people I started working with right out of college are still some of my best friends) - opportunity to travel and work in cool places (I worked in LA and got to go to campuses all over CA, as well as work on projects in other states like Texas) - the skills you learn on the job help you in other parts of your life, which is pretty cool - definitely not a typical job- you get out from behind a desk, you get to work with awesome people all day - CALPIRG hires people from all different schools who studied all different things, so long as you have relative experience
Cons
- you don't make a million dollars, but you shouldn't go into the non-profit world expecting that from anywhere - the hours can be tough to get used to, so just prepare yourself