Well, duh. It's a great job. I have a small lab. I have some limited funding to pursue my own research projects. I don't have to teach classes except for an occ

Well, duh. It's a great job. I have a small lab. I have some limited funding to pursue my own research projects. I don't have to teach classes except for an occasional guest lecture. I don't have to serve on committees, or manage graduate students. It only took two years to get the staff equivalent of tenure. I have job security. Most importantly, I get to help a lot of people and collaborate on interesting projects. The downside is that the pay is rather poor, at least for me in the life sciences. Also don't expect to be treated with the same respect as tenured faculty.