Pros
The pay was great at the time (14.01/hour). They start off part-time first and then you will bid on the full-time slot and if you are lucky enough you will get the hours. The benefits are excellent but expensive. The job is very tedious and made the time go faster. There is no such thing as a dual routine at this job. You never really know who or what will walk in the checkpoint. You see a lot of people. You do a huge favor for the people and your country. You have an extremely huge responsibility of keeping the skies safe and to make sure that all the passengers flying out make it home safe. You work with good officers and working closely together side by side makes you close like family. I had a blast and if I was offered to do it again, I would do it all over. Sometimes you will meet celebrities. You will always learn something new each and every day and there will always be that one or a few passengers that will really put a smile on your face no matter how bad your day was and make you realize how important your job really is.
Cons
Biggest downside was the management. Some of them if not most never held a job as a TSO. They were literally trained to manage. Some wants to find very creative and elaborate ways to make our jobs harder all while making the skies safer. You are constantly on a thin wire. One slight mess up will result you getting suspended or fired. Dealing with a heavy load of people on a daily basis is not as easy as it looks. Words can really cut you like a sword and I have seen TSOs outside bawling just because of rude and unruly passengers. The media can make your job easy or hard. The hours tend to get really long at times. while the job isn't really physically hard, it is mentally and emotionally exhausting. The job will drain you and you will do things that you will not feel comfortable of doing like pat-downs.