Pros
Work-from-home. Company provides all equipment and supplies: computers, printers, cellphone, paper, pens, folders, printer-ink, etc. The opportunity to drive around town and constantly meet new people. This keeps it interesting and ensures that monotony does not set in. Fellow FIs formed offline/informal support networks to share both best-practices and relatable frustrations. Most of my co-workers were great. If I had an issue, I could get a much quicker resolution from them than from official resources. Fortunately, I had limited dealings with the ones I disliked.
Cons
Writing, writing and more writing. The training is intense. They'll cram 6-8 weeks of content into 4 weeks of online classroom instruction. They will cover every rule, guideline, standard, etc. Then when you are released to the field, your leaders/mentors will tell you "Forget everything you learned in class, the field is different." Lots of driving around the metroplex. Guidelines state you only drive up to 50 miles from your home. But reality is it could be twice that because there is a lot of remote area surrounding the metroplex that does not have any investigators assigned. Very strict deadlines... Much of the work conducting interviews and gathering records is dependent on other people, i.e. answering their phone, agreeing to meet/provide info/data. CACI guidelines allow for 5 business days to make contact and get the data. However, your supervisor will say call the individual on day one, as soon as you receive the assignment, and if the source has not returned a voicemail by day 2, to just write it off and let another investigator deal with it. In my experience, 75% of the time the individual/organization will call back in about 2 days. The problem here is that your salary is dependent on the work you produce...not on the work you attempt. It's a point-system. Additionally... The work you receive is based on the reports you submit. So if you are unable to immediately meet with your assigned subjects/sources to get the data, you will not be assigned new cases to work in the interim.