Pros
- the salary and benefits are good. - at the researcher level, the private office space is very nice - it's a very polite workplace
Cons
- the talents of survey researchers with advanced degrees are being wasted in the survey division - the survey work is boring, almost entirely focused on managing survey operations, and there is NO way to get interesting research work at all. Additionally, there is a lack of understanding of what survey research or methodology is, even by senior survey management. - Mathematica is very behind the times on survey technology - managers consistently disrespect staff they don't like. I speak from the perspective of someone in the Survey division (I suspect the situation is different in the Research division). But once you're branded, you can't get interesting work. This never happened to me, but I have seen it happen to many colleagues. - the lack of diversity among researchers and survey researchers is frustrating. Other reviewers have commented on this very nicely, so I won't repeat things except to say that the lip service given to "diversity" is bothersome. - Senior leadership in the survey division is frustratingly rigid and not open to suggestion. They take suggestions and requests as personal attacks, as though asking to work on a project when they didn't originally think of you for it is somehow disrespecting their authority. They will give lip service to hearing your concerns, but I haven't ever seen them actually take constructive criticism into account.