Strong Potential Held Back By Management
Pros
I have been able to do a wide array of different tasks, learn a bunch of different skills, and try different things. Acumen is definitely a great job to have right out of college. They allow you to take on as much work as you would like so long as you prove you can handle it. The office atmosphere is extremely casual and there are weekly breakfasts, monthly lunches, and periodic holiday parties.
Cons
While I mentioned I got to do a lot of things, I got lucky. Others are dreadfully bored from doing the same thing. It is a coin flip. Management is hit or miss. Some managers are great, others are not. This is usually because managers are just analysts that have been there long enough, typically. Workloads can be very volatile. Some weeks you are wondering how to fill 8 hours with work and others you are finding yourself wishing for sweet relief after 12+ hours. There is an incredible lack of communication between branches of the company that can lead to issues. This would not be as much of an issue if certain tasks did not take several parts of the company to do. Salaries are low if you look at it from a tech company perspective but high if you look at it from a public policy perspective. There is very high turnover. Sometimes this is because people go on to higher education. The end result is less overall experience.
