Pros
Honestly, the only "pro" is the scenic drive between properties if you like staring at vineyards while seething with rage. That's it. Nothing else.
Cons
Where do I even start? This was, without question, the most soul-destroying, demoralizing job I've ever had, and I've been in IT for over 20 years. Alila Napa Valley and Andaz Napa are marketed as these pristine, high-end Hyatt luxury resorts, but the IT operation is an absolute trainwreck held together with duct tape, prayers, and the sheer stubbornness of underpaid staff. Management is completely detached from reality. They have zero understanding of technology and treat IT like we're disposable peons whose only purpose is to show up and magically fix things without resources or support. The infrastructure is embarrassingly outdated, servers, networks, and hardware that belong in a museum. Outages happen constantly, especially during peak season when the properties are slammed, because leadership refuses to approve even the most basic upgrades or preventative maintenance. You're on-call 24/7 with no overtime compensation, no backup, and no mercy. One minor WiFi hiccup and you're getting screamed at by panicked staff while entitled guests complain about not being able to stream Netflix in their $1,000-a-night suite. Being forced to cover both properties made it exponentially worse, endless driving back and forth between St. Helena and downtown Napa to put out the same fires repeatedly because nothing ever gets fixed at the root. Corporate Hyatt skimps on everything: equipment, training, staffing levels. You're completely alone, no real team support, and when things inevitably go wrong, IT gets thrown under the bus while management protects their own image. The pay is insulting for the level of responsibility and stress. The culture is toxic—rampant favoritism, office politics, backstabbing, and zero recognition for the people keeping the lights on. Burnout is inevitable; I left exhausted, bitter, and questioning my career choices.