Nice place to work if you want to get started with the DoD - Research Associate Institute for Defense Analyses Employee Review

High-quality mentorship Professional development Exposure to real-world problems

Restricted or classified work (not so much of a con)

Very smart people across a range of STEM disciplines Freedom on what you get to work on Relative lack of office politics Interesting exciting projects available

Hard to think of a con. Every place has its own flavour and IDA CCS Bowie like anywhere else, isn't for anyone. I'm not positive either way about IDA's budget/hiring situation these days, with all the stuff going on in this general space. It also can be easy to find yourself getting lost when it comes to finding a good project if you are not careful. But even that is a bit of a reach.