Overall great environment - Assistant Policy Researcher RAND Employee Review

5.0
Jul 5, 2022
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Very diverse set of projects available if you can navigate the internal labor market. Researchers at RAND are professional and kind. No hierarchy for the most part, except students have had little say in big administrative decisions which can be stressful. Best part of the PhD program are the excellent and friendly peers, as well as amazing professors for math/stats/operations research and microeconomics core. An excellent program if you want to become a policy specialist or work in government. A good-great program if you want to become an academic in public health/epidemiology or empirical economics. Economic theory courses train very well in understanding the intuition and fundamental mechanics of partial/general equilibrium and public economics.

Cons

The internal labor market takes getting used to and is highly competitive. PI name is usually anonymous when a work opportunity comes up. The curriculum could place more emphasis on statistics/microeconometrics, and less on the socio-behavioral sciences and policy analysis for the Research, Analysis, and Design stream.

Explore other reviews about RAND

5.0
May 12, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Really flexible hours, amazing project team members, engaging projects.

Cons

You will need to network and find your own projects, sometimes finding ~3-5 projects at one time to ensure full utilization.

4.0
Jul 19, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Interesting work, some brilliant colleagues, access to senior decision makers throughout government.

Cons

Stressful trying to stay fully staffed on projects (i.e., internal market within RAND)

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