Career opportunities: Good luck. It is so hard to get a full-time job here. You have to solely rely on someone leaving to get a position. Upper management has made it clear that the program is primarily an intermediary job for most peoples careers. It is also a finite project, so long term employment is not really an option. Compensation & Benefits: You can get benefits so there's that. When I was employed there, we were told that all domains pay rates were based on Columbus, OH. Not too bad if you're living in the Dakotas, pretty terrible if you live in the Portland metro. For temporary employees, be prepared to have/find roommates and know you will not get any financial help from the company to relocate but maybe you'll get a group email sent to you to see if any current employees can help you find living accommodations. It is hard to get a decent raise as a full time employee and pay is low to begin with. You also get a $100 stipend for gear your first year and every three after that. In other words, be prepared to have all of your outdoor gear ruined. Culture & Values: Trying to convey the cultural issues here is like talking to a brick wall. I brought up issues that I know for a fact had been brought up before and was met with confusion by the manager. As if somehow this was all new to them. Cultural surveys were given out to temporary staff and those concerns were addressed as either 'The people who probably wrote this are gone now, it's not actually an issue' (which was not true as I wrote those concerns) or ' we'll have full time staff meetings to talk about these concerns, pat ourselves on the back, and never address them again because they've been magically fixed.' There have been many instances of bullying at the workplace, but no real consequences given. Diversity: There is usually a healthy mix of both men and women, and people from different walks of life. Because you are in the conservation/ecological field, it would be hard to find intolerance amongst the employees. The applicant pool is usually very small so it's hard to higher more diversity, but at the same time, there isn't really an effort made to advertise the project to get a more diverse applicant pool. Senior Management: Don't rock the boat and you'll be fine. Try the better the project with it's cultural issues, bring up issues temporary staff aren't comfortable doing themselves and either be largely ignored or be labelled as a problem and/or an instigator. I had little respect for most senior management and staff by the end of my employment. Work/Life Balance: Depends on who you are. Full time staff give a lot of time to the program and are expected to do a LOT, between scheduling, expenses, managing temporary staff, a bunch of admin responsibilities, managing and maintaining equipment, data qc, keeping up on changes to protocols, the list goes on. And as they are often short-staffed, workloads will stay high. You can have very long hours there and some people have to travel and stay in Blue River, OR frequently which will result in more time away from home. Temporary staff will have a lot of changes to your schedule on very short notice and will work odd hours because of the nature of the work. In short, some people can find a decent work-life balance, some won't be able to even if the try.
