Pros
HJF has really nice perks: everyone starts with 15 days sick time per year (rolls over, no cap) and 13 days PTO plus 10 Federal holidays; 403b retirement fund: 5% employer match at 100%, vest day 1; flexible work schedule; telework options depending on the position; good health insurance, dental and vision; pre-taxed public transit benefits; STD at 66% of salary. The company has a new CEO and he is a likeable guy. There is a lot of restructuring going on right now, but it sounds like it's to improve things in the long run.
Cons
No paid maternity leave, but can use STD up to 12 weeks (usually 6 weeks for non-complicated deliveries) or FMLA or 6 weeks unpaid leave. No tuition assistance. The biggest proportion of HJF employees are contractors at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences (USUHS) in Bethesda, MD, including myself. We are very removed from the HJF HQ where all of the company-wide events happen. I feel like a 2nd class citizen as a contractor at USUHS. For instance, I'll get an email about a great training on site, but it wouldn't be offered to contractors. Your experience with HJF is very much related to your site. USUHS is a very disorganized and slow place with layers upon layers of bureaucracy. It's very difficult to do work here...you may have a great research idea, but by the time you get it approved, your contract is over! My manager is completely disconnected from HJF and doesn't really respect HJF grant administrators. There is not much opportunity for growth within a position because most of research positions are grant dependent. It does seem that transfers within company happen quite often though. The communication system between my supervisor and HJF on site and HJF HQ is just so broken. I would rank my Research Associate experience as very poor, but it is a 100% attributable to my supervisor. It seems that other HJF employees can be happy - it really all depends on the site and your position! Contractors get NO PARKING at USUHS and getting to the University from the metro stop is a 15-20 min walk or a 5-10 min shuttle ride...but those get filled quickly and don't always show up every 15 min.
