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      NIH

      Engaged Employer

      NIH reviews

      4.1

      80% would recommend to a friend

      (2,341 total reviews)
      avatar

      Francis S. Collins

      82% approve of CEO

      60% positive business outlook

      Ratings by demographic groups

      NIH has an employee rating of 4.1 out of 5 stars, based on 2,341 company reviews on Glassdoor which indicates that most employees have an excellent working experience there. The NIH employee rating is in line with the average (within 1 standard deviation) for employers within the Pharmaceutical & Biotechnology industry (3.5 stars).

      Reviews by job title

      2K reviews
      5.0
      Mar 25, 2014

      Incredible place to work

      Intern
      Recommend
      CEO approval
      Business Outlook

      Pros

      The NIH is a world-class center for research in Bethesda, Maryland. The people who are PIs are NIH are frequently people who were doing top, top work at their previous institutions, and then get offered positions at NIH which they take because of the more secure funding. Despite this, it can be harder to maintain a very very large lab at NIH, but changes in lab size are much more graded than in academia outside NIH.

      Cons

      As in all scientific research, your work-life balance will suffer. If you're working at NIH outside of R&D though, your life is probably fine.

      5.0
      Mar 24, 2014

      A good place to be

      Postdoctoral research fellow
      Recommend
      CEO approval
      Business Outlook

      Pros

      Work environment. Access to cutting edge science, collaborators, and instrumentation.

      Cons

      Because of the bureaucracy, it takes months for the yearly budgets to get passed effectively leaving the labs to operate on no money during this period.

      2.0
      Mar 18, 2014

      NIAID has many talented, hard-working staff, but they are hobbled by anxious and sometimes arrogant senior leaders.

      Anonymous employee
      Recommend
      CEO approval
      Business Outlook

      Pros

      NIAID's mission inspires most of the NIAID staff to dedicate themselves to their work. In addition, NIAID has significant resources and infrastructure to enable its staff to do their jobs effectively. NIAID's top leaders are well respected for their knowledge and skills, and as a result they have a great deal of influence at NIH and elsewhere in the federal government.

      Cons

      NIAID's senior leaders have been in their positions for many years. While this has provided NIAID with a great deal of stability, it also has resulted in (or at least contributed to) an almost habitual tendency among NIAID's senior leaders to dismiss and disparage ideas and approaches from other organizations. And while NIAID's anxious and volatile director is more receptive and humane than he was 10 or 20 years ago, a culture of fear still pervades NIAID. This culture of fear has stifled risk taking and discouraged alternative opinions and ideas that might enable NIAID to achieve better results from its important work.

      Viewing 2134 - 2136 of 2,341 Reviews
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      Glassdoor has 2,843 NIH reviews submitted anonymously by NIH employees. Read employee reviews and ratings on Glassdoor to decide if NIH is right for you.