Great place to work! - Economist RTI International Employee Review

5.0
Jun 9, 2025
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

The former coworkers really care about their work, and each other. Curiosity, and integrity are pillars for working at RTI. There were opportunities to develop different skillsets and to work on a variety of unique projects. Before January 2025, there was stability and longterm retention of employees. One beneficial aspect was how they provided 2 week notices for layoffs, and that the CEO donated 20% of his salary to an emergency fund for struggling laid-off employees. This is reflective of the leadership as a whole, where their is great care for their staff. Additionally, everyone is generally very approachable even if they are at a high title.

Cons

Some coworkers had great knowledge in policy, but less so in advanced analytical methods.

Explore other reviews about RTI International

5.0
Jun 8, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

RTI has a good mission

Cons

Adaptation to sudden federal funding loss.

3.0
Jun 15, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

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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