Great place to work, but credentialism runs amok - Anonymous employee RTI International Employee Review

4.0
Oct 20, 2017
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Wonderful benefits, excellent work-life balance, generally supportive colleagues, work that you can truly believe is aimed at improving the human condition.

Cons

Credentialism outweighs skills and results. A recent hire with a graduate degree with little ability to deliver results on projects or clients will outearn a more productive or technically proficient colleague with a lower degree. Professional development and career arcs are about degrees and to a lesser extent results. Not always the most dynamic work environment, with a somewhat staid and subdued work culture. Slow creep of corporatism that comes from the top. Relatively low compensation, but balanced by excellent benefits and work-life balance.

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5.0
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Pros

RTI has a good mission

Cons

Adaptation to sudden federal funding loss.

3.0
Jun 15, 2026
Recommend
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Pros

Remote work and reasonable working hours

Cons

If you're a PhD who enjoys research and hopes to use empirical research skills at a research institute, you'll likely be disappointed as I was. Projects in my business unit were largely implementation projects that required very little creativity or data analysis. I was told by my manager that empirical-research projects are harder to come by and when those opportunities do arise, everyone wants them. Even then, project directors are very unwilling (in my experience) to let you branch out to other projects. Using any overhead time to work on your own research is also discouraged, so I ended up working on manuscripts in my personal time. And there's no funding to attend conferences either. On top of all of this, constant layoffs create an aura of uncertainty and the feeling that you're lucky to even be there even when compensation for similar roles in private sector is far better.

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