My experience in Alice Springs as an MOS employee has been poor
Pros
* The technologies are fun to support * The impact on the world * The pace of life versus a city in the USA * If you're going to get laid off this is the place to come and hide * Get to work with some Australians with no formal education or training * Fun to vacation in Australia but due to how short staffed the program is it is difficult to get time off
Cons
* If you've invested a significant amount of time and money getting an engineering degree the Raytheon contracts should be avoided in Alice Springs because your skills will erode * Horrible communication from management to the employees (the maintenance manager never shows up for a meeting he schedules with his people) * Management treats the employees as expendable * Several years into the contract the roles and responsibilities are still not clearly defined * Promotions are done via the "Good ole' boys club" * Management create jobs with a "title" to create the illusion that there is advancement. They are looking for a mule to do the work that they don't understand. There is no promotion or pay raise that goes with these jobs...but s/he gets a "title" * Non existent pay raises * High turnover rate so there are no domain experts who can train new hires