Impactful work, smart people - experience will be team-dependent
Pros
Milken is a sizable organization spread across distinct offices globally, with the headquarters in Santa Monica, CA and a solid office in Washington, DC. Because of this, both location and team/department will play a big role in your experience. I loved my team and thus really enjoyed my work and time with Milken. I was consistently surrounded by high-performing, empathetic, fun, brilliant, and kind people. Working relationships quickly transcended the office, and our team developed a culture of asking about eachother's families, celebrating personal milestones together, meeting eachother's kids/partners, etc. Our team's leadership worked hard to make clear promotion paths and criteria for all, leading to a more transparent and equitable approach to personal and professional growth. Our team's work had a real, demonstrable impact (as does much of the Institute's), which also gelled the team together towards a common mission-driven goal on a daily basis. The exposure of working at Milken, attending events, working with partners, etc. is second to none and a very cool way to peek into the corners of the world where big decisions are made and innovative programs are developed. Often this job will involve travel and participation in interesting events/meetings.
Cons
I've heard mixed reviews from other teams based on micro-cultures of different departments. If possible, utilize your network to learn more about your team of interest before accepting an offer. While it's a benefit that so many experts and thought leaders work at Milken, it can make it difficult to change a team's culture because leadership is slow to turnover. Because Milken is a non-profit, it can be difficult for team leaders to successfully advocate for proper staffing, so there were periods of working high volumes of overtime. Also, work can sometimes be travel- and event-heavy, requiring time at nights and on weekends. If you treat this as strictly a 9-5 job, you likely won't advance quickly.
