Lawrence Berkeley Lab reviews

Full time positions are hard to get, in fact practically nonexistent.If you are a contractor, expect to stay a contractor. There is no path to moving up in the institution and people to fill any open positions will almost always come from external sources. Funding is dependent upon the federal government's whims.

5.5' x 8' cubicles. Management is kind of confused. They will send you to weeks of classes on subjects like agile projects and then tell you not to use it. They will tell you things in interviews that either don't turn out to be true or that don't happen once you get hired. They put micro-managers in who will tell you to do a project and then try to manage it from above or around you - getting resources involved at inappropriate times, telling others to do something on a project you're supposed to be managing. software engineers will end up with projects where they have all the responsibility for success and no way to get cooperation from the other people/groups. There was no IT function for a long time, so there were people programming who shouldn't have been and there is a lot of 'quick and dirty' stuff in every environment you can name. If you don't have a car, just getting there can be a pain. Plan on spending quite a bit of time standing on a street corner in Berkeley or a BART platform or at a bus stop on the hill. Benefits are good, salaries are so-so and raises are rare and small.