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Gates Foundation

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Gates Foundation reviews

3.7

63% would recommend to a friend

(561 total reviews)
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Mark Suzman

81% approve of CEO

70% positive business outlook

Gates Foundation has an employee rating of 3.7 out of 5 stars, based on 561 company reviews on Glassdoor which indicates that most employees have a good working experience there. The Gates Foundation employee rating is in line with the average (within 1 standard deviation) for employers within the Nonprofit & NGO industry (3.7 stars).

Reviews by job title

561 reviews
3.0
Sep 11, 2012

A very manic-depressive place to work

Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

The mission, the people, the campus, the chance to do work that actually makes a difference in the world.

Cons

Hierarchy, back-stabbing, bad decision-making, layers and layers of process and bureaucracy on top of everything. Most of the good work I've done here, I did in secret. If I had shared my plans, someone would have tried to kill it.

1.0
Aug 13, 2012
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Amazing to work on projects with the potential to have scaled impact on people's lives Some of the smartest most talented people I have had the pleasure to work with (but they are not the managers and leaders)

Cons

One of the most poisonous political environments I have ever experienced - this is academia supercharged with large check books. Fifedom's abound. Senior managers lack good management skills and have no accountability for their own organizational health Very little visability with executives/leaders - senior managers control all the information flow. Incredibly bureaucratic for an organization of this size - Microsoft has a more nimble bureacracy than BMGF Many unhappy people inside who live in fear because they have few career options in Seattle with the same prestige, so they are forced to stay there Abstracted from the real work on the ground and depend too much on consultants who make $200+ per hour to inform their decision making. Don't value on the ground immersion and don't reward telling the truth when something is not going well on the ground, in fact they punish it

Viewing 517 - 519 of 561 Reviews

Glassdoor has 699 Gates Foundation reviews submitted anonymously by Gates Foundation employees. Read employee reviews and ratings on Glassdoor to decide if Gates Foundation is right for you.