Pros
I have worked at two universities and one philanthropy prior to joining CZI, where I have been for over 2 years. This is, by far, the finest place I have worked. Most importantly, the mission ("a future for everyone") really does permeate the place. Priscilla Chan is almost always present and a constant reminder of the mission in both her words and, especially, in her actions. The place operates on the highest ethical standards. It also is interesting in its general aims. There are three philanthropic arms: 1) biomedical science research; 2) K-12 education; 3) advocacy for economic mobility, criminal justice reform, etc. That much is like very many other philanthropies, but there are two unique aspects. First, there are extensive software development teams assigned to each of the three arms. Priscilla and Mark's vision is to have a world class software development team at a philanthropy, a totally unique idea that seems certain to yield unexpected contributions. Second, because CZI is structured as an LLC, they have a 'Ventures' arm that can invest in businesses doing useful work related to CZI's aims, providing backing as needed. Bottom line: CZI has a good heart and a multifaceted, interesting structure.
Cons
The Cons are: a) growing pains; b) silos; c) Silicon Valley. Growing Pains. The number of employees has increased about 10 fold in the 2+ years I've been here and that inevitably causes two kinds of problems: 1) mismatch between headcount and workload; 2) operational errors. On Operations, the growth from a tiny startup to about 500 employees has had many fluctuations (so many different software packages!), but the place keeps adapting and is running so smoothly now. The Operations folks have pulled it off. .... As for workload mismatch, it surely varies in different micro-environments, but I sense that, generally across the organization, there are far more people underworked than overworked. That can be really dissatisfying. Managers should be held to a higher bar before being given more staff. The most overworked group seems to be Recruiting. That's a bad sign. Silos. The Tech sides are different from the Philanthropy sides, and the three Philanthropy arms have very different specific aims while all focused on increasing opportunity. Many of us hunger to know more about each other's work. Priscilla and Mark do their part with their monthly town halls and Communications does its part with the extensive website, but all that is kind of cheerleading/PR stuff. We seek deeper peer-to-peer communication across CZI sections. Silicon Valley. It's a great place for the Tech side because of the local concentration of software developers, but can there be a place worse than Silicon Valley for a philanthropy whose central concern is economic mobility? You're just not close to the problem here and this can lead to naivete. Wage stagnation, lack of opportunity, poverty -- an understanding of this is pretty shallow if it comes just from a freshman sociology class. Moreover, many who are fully committed to the mission may feel frustrated by those for whom this is just another stop on a Silicon Valley career path.