A Formerly Great Company (and Research Department)
Pros
- Work with some really smart, mission-driven people - Early career people often given great opportunities to perform and advance - Build an incredible network within the higher ed industry - Generous community service leave policy to volunteer with local orgs
Cons
- New private equity owners getting ready to sell. That means cutting services to the bare bone and generating revenue at all costs, even when products aren't ready or don't deliver what is promised. Devolved from a meaningful service to an instrument to leech money from universities. - Pay is significantly below market for comparable roles and orgs. People leaving routinely get offered 20-40% more. Value prop has always been opps to advance and enjoy the work, but promotions are being slowed and remote work is simply not as engaging for many. - No remote work strategy. You're given a laptop and told to figure it out. No re-alignment of expectations, evaluation of necessary meetings or comms practices, etc. - Out of touch leadership. Research is led by sales-people who do not understand the product or what university partners value. Everything is about shortening research cycles and driving interaction volume. But all done with highly manual processes and no thought about how it burns out employees. Routinely gaslit by leadership who claim everything is fine, presumably because they're riding it out in expectation of a buyout/sale. - Failed re-org has removed agency from the employees. Every decision is incredibly complex, involving numerous teams. Everything must be filtered up the chain to the research politburo, which is too far removed from the partners or service to make rational decisions.