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Chan Zuckerberg Initiative

Engaged Employer

Chan Zuckerberg Initiative reviews

3.4

44% would recommend to a friend

(94 total reviews)
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Priscilla Chan

70% approve of CEO

47% positive business outlook

Chan Zuckerberg Initiative has an employee rating of 3.4 out of 5 stars, based on 94 company reviews on Glassdoor which indicates that most employees have a good working experience there. The Chan Zuckerberg Initiative employee rating is in line with the average (within 1 standard deviation) for employers within the Information Technology industry (3.7 stars).

Reviews by job title

94 reviews
1.0
Nov 13, 2019

Hot mess

Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Many of the folks at junior/mid level are amazing, smart, and capable folks. They have so much integrity, drive, and vision - so much should be invested in them.

Cons

The lack of transparency, clarity, or integrity at leadership level makes it hard to do your job or feel that you are "safe" in your job. It seems that many leaders are in their position because they are good friends with the founders, worked at Facebook, or the organization had a hard time finding someone to fill the role so they promoted within. Many of the leaders are not qualified for the departments or orgs that they support. At the senior leadership level, it feels as if it is a constant power struggle where many will manipulate or play games to have "power". There is fear to speak out or ask tough questions, many leaders believe "If you're not happy, get out". There is no room to give actionable feedback, some leaders are insecure. Turnover is an issue, some teams were laid off, and there is lack of clarity on the bigger vision. CZI talks about diversity but many leaders feel that they are compromising quality when they hire diverse folks or that they have already reached their quota of diverse folks. It is also concerning when you see strong, diverse leaders leaving the organization. Engagement surveys are taken but no action or accountability is taken by leadership, many of the conversations that come out is on how to make leadership feel better about results and trainings to employees on how to be sympathetic to leadership.

5.0
Nov 5, 2019

would recommend CZI to others

Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

1. purposeful mission, sense of impact 2. smart and friendly coworkers 3. lots of interesting projects and freedom to propose your own ideas 4. good work life balance

Cons

1. the company grows too fast 2. the career path is not as clear as it was described.

5.0
Oct 22, 2019

A start-up philanthropy

Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Smart, kind colleagues who care about the mission; good work/life balance; intellectual challenge to build new programs/models for a new org that is part philanthropy, part tech company, part research /academic entity and part advocacy org. Very diverse team as a result — far more diverse than most Silicon Valley companies. founders are genuine, inspiring, patient and kind - Priscilla in particular.

Cons

Growth that was too fast and not fully aligned to work earlier on has had impact on role clarity, engagement and caused churn; consensus decision making at times makes things overly bureaucratic for the size of org; lack of tough decision making can be frustrating if you are from a background outside of nonprofits; very process heavy - modeled off of Facebook (but team is relatively small so that can be burdensome).

Viewing 70 - 72 of 94 Reviews

Glassdoor has 114 Chan Zuckerberg Initiative reviews submitted anonymously by Chan Zuckerberg Initiative employees. Read employee reviews and ratings on Glassdoor to decide if Chan Zuckerberg Initiative is right for you.