High expections, low salaries - Project Associate Mathematica Employee Review

1.0
Jun 8, 2025
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

- Most colleagues were great to work with, very smart, and passionate about their work - Flexibility to work from home or while traveling

Cons

- Mathematica cosplays as a consulting agency, but pays non-profit salaries - Huge push to increase utilization by taking on all sorts of project work, whether or not that work aligns with your professional development and career goals - Push to increase utilization typically meant that charging even an hour of overhead a day would be flagged, thus being "encouraged" to take on additional project work. This inevitably piled on to the already standard sentiments of burnout and dissatisfaction that have persisted at Mathematica for years - No sick leave and only 7 paid federal holidays (despite primarily contracting with the government). Therefore, PTO had to be used as sick leave. - CEO tends to ramble on and was consistently dismissive of answering questions in all-staff meetings when asked about explaining important updates that pertained to staff (careers, well-being, project work, etc.)

Explore other reviews about Mathematica

5.0
Apr 11, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Great colleagues, 401k match, and interesting work

Cons

Work life balance could be improved and more ability to move between departments

3.0
Jun 29, 2026
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Smart people, impactful work. A real community.

Cons

Poor strategic planning. Rather than performing real analysis and proactive thinking, leadership reacts to the environment. Strategy development and implementation at Mathematica seems like leadership throws wet spaghetti against the wall to see what sticks. In the 2010s, it was predictive modeling. Rather than proactively using predictive modeling to support their client's goals and the organization's mission, they created a data analytics division, hired smart people, and provided no guidance to support the division. Today, AI has replaced predictive modeling. These examples provide two instances of failures of corporate leadership; many more exist. Unfortunately, the company suffers from short-term incentives and an aversion to long-term investments. As an employee-owned company, you would think that the board and leadership would be more responsive to the employees. No! Over time, they have removed employees' voices from decision-making and focused on increasing their own power and independence.

7
See reviews by: Helpful|Rating|Date|All