Pros
- Work life balance is generally pretty good, especially the flexible workplace policy. - I liked the PTO benefits and disagree with some of the other comments on here. It felt pretty generous and the company really respects time away. Though other benefits could be improved like healthcare premiums, tuition/student loan/professional development support, mental health, etc. - Lots of opportunity to create your own path and pursue work that you're interested in. The work was really challenging and fun at times, and some of clients are really great to work with. - Mission driven so the work has real positive impacts.
Cons
I noticed something strange going on at Mathematica of the last few years. Executive leadership really blundered on opportunities to be transparent and actually listen to the feedback of its employees (it is employee owned after all, but they seem to have forgotten that). I think the company is desperate for new leadership, in need of leaders that actually inspire and lead by example with empathy toward others. Echoing one of the comments below, after leadership dropped the ball on communications regarding new rules for our billable targets, there was a leak of some execs’ bonuses on their internal social media site. Their response was to fire the individuals involved, even those involved by accident—they then held an all staff meeting where the incident was completely ignored and they talked about “love” and “magic” as if that was supposed to fix things. Everyone else’s bonuses and salaries (those not in the c suite) are easily accessible in the company because of how we were staffed and budgeted, so what are they hiding? Maybe they’re embarrassed because they are so self focused and entitled. The CEO is pretty invisible so one might question how warranted his bonus/salary really is. But hey, they are all buddies and they make the rules, so as long as the stock price is going up (aka their retirement packages), who cares about the lack of investment in the rest of the employees. Many key people have been leaving left and right, many because of lack of promotions and professional development due to the backup of execs coasting into retirement. It also doesn’t really matter how much new work you can bring to the company or time you spend managing difficult clients or the time you spend on proposals, you’re just seen as unbillable. I left because I didn’t see a path forward and got a better offer elsewhere. Maybe I’ll come back some day but not with their current leadership.