Good Work/Life Balance, Subpar Pay, Lots of Bureaucracy
Pros
- Technically a non-profit so work environment is fairly laid back. Most engineers have flexibility in their schedule, are not expected to work more than 40 hours a week, hybrid work with a bias towards remote work seems to be the norm now (they tried to take it away in one lab and lost people - message was received), office is mostly empty by 5:30. - Retirement benefits are good. Pension is an option if you plan to stay at least 10 years. Access to pre-tax accounts not available in the corporate world (403b, 457k) - 21 days of vacation and 12 sick days per year, plus 12 holidays including the whole week of Christmas. - Culture varies within each team but most people are smart, competent and friendly enough. - Will pay for advanced degrees at Georgia Tech and sponsor security clearances as well as professional memberships. - Some interesting research projects. Mostly DoD work if you like that.
Cons
- GTRI is essentially a defense contractor that has to compete for federal government contracts, but it also has to follow the often archaic rules for a university set by University System of Georgia (USG) board of regents. The result is about as bad as you would expect. Read on for more details - Pay has always lagged market rate, often severely, and it gets worse the longer you stay here due to lack of raises. Equity adjustments are the only opportunity to bring salaries anywhere close to market, and they were only enacted recently and will only be performed once every 2 years it seems. The adjustment process is very opaque and based on your work area and years of experience. - Bonuses are non-existent because we are GA state employees. Yearly appraisals cap out at "meets expectations" so no one gets the funny idea to ask for one. - Close to zero money is spent on employee events or well-being. Even free coffee was going to be taken away at one point, but I think they brought that back. Employee get-togethers are self-funded and the holiday party has to be disguised as a meeting. - Promotion process involves filling out the same package a professor uses to apply for tenure. A 20-page packet to advance from level 1 to level 2 is not uncommon. The reward for a promotion? A massive 6% raise. Promotion process is on rails and it is very rare to be promoted before you have the required years of experience for each level. No way to advance past level 1 without a Master's degree. - Massive red tape on everything from purchasing equipment to hiring new personnel to filling out an NDA. Two signatures need to buy a roll of duct tape (just buy it yourself and save your sanity). Hiring someone is a massive undertaking that often results in a selected candidate going with another offer. Support staff is understaffed and oftentimes a new hire who hasn't been fully trained. Many support employees are paralyzed by bureaucracy and don't want to make a decision on anything for fear that it may violate some USG regulation. All of this happening while we compete for contracts. - Most offices are very bare bones with minimal amenities or windows. -If you work on main campus and plan to drive in, you will have to pay for your own parking. If you work in office consistently enough to need a yearly pass, it is about $800 out of your own pocket. -Health insurance premiums are partly covered by GTRI, but you will still have to pay almost $100/month for a high deductible plan and almost $200/month for a copay plan. - Somehow we still have a high overhead rate compared to many companies, making us less competitive on contract bids. - Communication from senior management is sporadic and oftentimes can be summed up as: we can't do anything about that because of USG regulations. -Engineers and scientists are expected to publish papers and present at conferences, but many projects are classified and cannot be published. - High turnover due to everything mentioned above, which causes headaches for employees who have to take over abandoned projects, more inefficiency in every process due to new/untrained employees, and low morale. Support staff is treated even worse than the engineers and has massive turnover.
