Great people but uninspiring work and, at times, demoralizing environment
Pros
The reasons I lasted as long as I did: -Amazing coworkers. I can't emphasize this enough. Everyone is smart and helpful, and most are very friendly. Also, if you are lucky enough to find a good mentor there (I was), it is incredibly helpful. -Great health insurance that is better than most places these days -Flexible schedules/weekly telework day -Good place to start your career and gain a solid start in research
Cons
These are all cons for working on the Military Recruiting Research team, specifically: -It sometimes feels like you are trying to help trick kids into joining the military and risking their lives/emotional health. -You work with only one client who, to their credit, is reasonable and staffed by good people, but you don't get any variety or any experience working with other clients. As a result, this work stunts your professional growth after about 2-3 years unless you are really interested in military recruiting. -Lack of ability to grow or pursue your actual interests or to explore what might interest you. Your options are limited only to the projects on the team. -The work is repetitive and barely changes, as nearly everything you work on is a tracking survey. It's hard to keep doing the same thing over and over without feeling like a drone. -It's also hard to motivate yourself to do good work and stand out when you don't care about the purpose of what you are doing. Eventually, you mentally check out, which isn't good for you, them, or your coworkers. Advice to any future members of this team coming in without a PhD and below the Senior Researcher level: You are going to be fine and will develop solid research skills---just don't stay for more than a few years. I loved this company at the beginning and felt lucky to work there my first few years, but ultimately, my experiences on this team for the last 5 of my 8 years there made me feel bad about myself and my career prospects until I eventually (somehow) got out. It isn't their fault that the projects are the way they are (stale, limited), but they shouldn't be surprised when morale is so low and should really do something to fix it, especially because the people on this team are wonderful and hard workers. Overall cons for the company as a whole: -Favoritism -Some shady pay and promotion decisions -Loyalty and tenure aren't valued
