Anyone here ever worked as an ADA or assistant public defender?

I did. Would not recommend. I got tied to a chair in a warehouse by some crazy clown guy and ended up dying because batman saved the DA instead.

My dad was a prosecutor for 25 years. He got a lot of late night phone calls. He never had to do a death penalty case, which he was thankful for. He put a few guys away from long sentences though. He never had any trouble from the people he prosecuted. He let them know it was his job, it wasn't personal, and he treated everybody with a certain level of dignity, no matter what they had done.

One of his most memorable experiences was when he and an FBI agent went out on Christmas Eve in a sleet storm and dug up the floor of a chicken house where a bank robber had stashed his loot.

I talked to a Marine JAG and he said his case load was insane

I was a part-time public defender right out of law school. It was easy work, mostly just paperwork and plea deals. Good way to learn the system if you are considering doing criminal law on your own.

Also, a full time public defender job is a pretty nice gig these days. Consider this: you could claim the public defender job on your student loan repayment, which qualifies under the 10-year debt forgiveness plan. It only requires at most about 20 hours per week (depending on where you live) so you could easily still do criminal law at your own private practice and really make some cash.

This only works if you are a "full-time" public defender, which again, in my experience isn't 40 hours a week.

Former ADA in Shelby County TN (Memphis) and Army Reserve JAG.

ADA life for me was easy. Ran the docket and negotiated pleas. I had no interest in extended trial work and there were entry of gunners more than willing. We started at 58k and ended at 64k after 4 years.

Reserve service was pretty shitty. Attached to the 20th and it was almost all paperwork and babysitting support teams.

Depends on the place. I did a few years in Orleans (DA). You get unparalleled experience, and are way ahead of anyone your age in terms of trials. Case load is certainly manageable once you know what you're doing. I didn't spend a lot of time working at night, and had nothing but murders, rapes, and armed robberies for my last year there.