Pros
- Excellent pay compared to other internships. 45k/year paid pro rata (~$23/hr) with yearly increases - Work/life/study balance. Cadets & interns capped at 38hrs/week - Very laid back, meet great people and some very interesting characters - Engineers are highly knowledgeable about the railways - Everyone is very helpful - Not much stress - Not much office politics (as far as I can tell)
Cons
- Political agenda of currently elected government dictates operations - Bureaucracy - Not much incentive to perform. No bonuses for working hard, can be a bludger and make as much as a hard worker - Difficult to make things happen. Lots of forms and signatures from everyone needed - Very little engineering design work (very difficult to get placement as cadet/intern - even grads find it tough). Engineering work is almost all project management/construction related