Navanti is a good, but challenging, place to work. It is also Improving.
Pros
First, I would like to say that certain personality types excel at Navanti. To do well here, you must be as competent working in a team as you are on an individual level, both capable of receiving instructions and giving them, working on a tight and sometimes stressful schedule, and creative in your problem solving abilities. The more you have to offer, the more likely you will be brought onto other contracts, which is critical at a small company. This is particularly true if you have a good personality and come with solutions more than you raise problems. Navanti is not for everyone: sink or swim is the reality of working at Navanti and quite a few people have sank because they cannot communicate well with others, do not work well with others, work on their own schedule, or generally have a poor work attitude (usually all of the above). Unfortunately, the company as a whole went through some rough patches from 2014-2015, but a lot has been done to redress some of those issues and the company is on a positive trajectory. Now, in no particular order, are what I see as pros to working at Navanti now that the company has done a lot to right itself and its workforce from 2016-2016: --Opportunities for professional and personal growth: Navanti is an ideal company to work at if you are a junior analyst, have regional experience but limited professional experience, and/or are fresh out of graduate school. Given how slow it can take to be hired for a federal job, Navanti is also a great place to do great work and serious analysis while you wait for such an opportunity to come through. --Slim workforce: The company used to be a lot more bloated with middle management. Thankfully, there is really no one anymore that can be singled out with the question: "what does this person do here?". Because the company is lean, and because the work occurs at breakneck speed universally across all contracts, Navanti is certainly a place to wear many hats and to learn to be more efficient at time management. Invariably you will be asked to do something out of your comfort zone. Everyone, no matter their role, has to become proficient in: clear, concise writing; editing; product layout and design (essentially aesthetics); geo-spatial analysis; and social media analysis -- all while on a fast approaching deadline. Oh, and if you know a third language but it is a bit dusty, you may have to brush that off and provide some real-time translation or analysis. In short, there are lots of challenging learning opportunities. If you can step up, and there is a contract to support your upward growth, you will likely be rewarded. --Smart workforce: I am in awe of the kind of talent Navanti brings through its doors. There are a wide range of analysts with interesting personal life stories. In short, the people here are not boring. --Interesting work: The subject matter the company deals with is very cool. It can become dull after you've been there a while, as does anything, but it is worth reminding yourself that the work is beyond interesting, it is rewarding, and it is highly needed and praised by clients of all stripes. There are certainly worse things you could be working on. --New office: The new office is very cool and is in a great location. It's enjoyable to come to the office, which matters quite a bit considering you may spend more time there than in your apartment/condo/wherever you live. --Access to management: Navanti is a small company - which can be positive. It's incredibly easy to get face time with the CEO or CFO. Anyone at the company will gladly give you time to meet, whether formally or informally, if you would like. This is great for mentoring and career advice, if you are smart enough to use this accessibility to your advantage. --Decent benefits and Flex Fridays (!): There are matching 401K benefits, for which Navanti has done its best to pick the best funds, commuter benefits, decent healthcare, and an incredibly flexible schedule. Flex Fridays enables everyone to take long weekend trips, and the long hours are sometimes compensated with telework. Management is aware that a lot is asked of its analysts, so when it can, it does its best to ensure a healthy work-life balance. Moreover, quite a number of employees have had, over the years, family issues come up. This is life. Thankfully, Navanti understands this and is very family-friendly. If you don't suck at your job, you will be given a lot of latitude in teleworking to deal with these family matters. This is not overlooked by the analysts and is universally appreciated. --Better at communicating with its employees and increased transparency: The company is in a far better place than it was in 2014-2015. Because it is a leaner company, and in response to valid frustration among analysts, upper management has done a far better job at honestly communicating with its employees. The CEO and CFO are doing everything they reasonably can to improve on this, and the changes are apparent today when compared to 2015. Things that have been (finally!) communicated to analysts include: real opportunities and threats to an analyst's contract, much needed "real talk" as opposed to keeping analysts in the dark and treating them like children; transparency in pay (the introduction of verticals for growth and pay bands was HUGELY needed and has helped clear up a lot of notions about unfair pay and lack of growth); and the financial situation of the company as a whole and "real talk" about bids and contracts that could be won, as opposed to leading analysts on by thinking far-fetched bids could be won (when they failed to transpire, everyone became frustrated). --A note on past complaints on Glassdoor, in particular accusations of misogyny: About half of my time at Navanti has been working under female managers. One female VP did a lot of mentor me while I was in a more junior role, which was invaluable. I have seen female coworkers be promoted into better positions at Navanti and then move on to take even better jobs in the federal government. They have left their mark on their coworkers and the company, and they are missed to this day. The leaner workforce has helped tremendously since there are no longer toxic managers who enjoyed suppressing junior analysts, and there are not people getting paid handsome salaries for doing very little. Everyone now pulls their weight and things feel generally better and fairer .Navanti is hiring more and more women, and improvements in communication with regards to pay bands, pay potential for each vertical, and the company's contracts and overall health are doing a lot to clear up the rumor mill which was running exceptionally wild from 2014-2015. An example of this could be a translator not being given a requested senior analyst position, despite working at the company for a few years. However, while the translator may have great skills for the translation vertical, the translator may not have great skills in the analytic vertical. In the past, because the company could not communicate a single damned thing properly, rumors would then swirl around that the translator did not get the job because of country of origin, ethnicity, sex, etc., when the reality was that the company never clearly communicated standards and expectations. More recent accusations of misogyny on Glassdoor (here is looking at you, May 24, 2017) can be, with near-certain precision amongst Navanti analysts, connected to an individual with performance problems in their individual capacity to do their job. With regards to recent accusations, the trend is clear: someone who underperforms, has a toxic personality, and/or alienates coworkers and is subsequently fired then goes to Glassdoor to slander the company and their coworkers--even if they were given generous terms of separation! Incredible.
Cons
--Navanti is a small company - which can be negative. It can be hard to move upward when there is not a new contract or an expansion of an existing contract that enables you to do so. This is the reality of working at a small company dependent on government contracts. This is why it is hugely important for analysts to start applying for those coveted federal jobs while still at Navanti. Make the most of the opportunities at Navanti, contribute as much as you can, and if a better opportunity comes up elsewhere then be free to take it--or hopefully an opportunity opens up at Navanti and you take that position and stay. The choice is ultimately yours. --You are beholden to your production schedule, required by your contract, which can be very stressful at times. Sometimes it can be outright demoralizing. However, I cannot think of a single job that does not have those moments, at least in this field, and I have friends who make those sacrifices but are not rewarded by their company with telework or the ability to bank their holidays. There is a nice balance in the end. --I know everyone on here says "win more contracts," which is easier said than done. I don't have any novel insight into that and of course can only reiterate that more contracts means more room for analysts to move vertically/laterally and keeps everyone happy. Beyond winning more contracts, which is not easy, the company has done as much as it can to ensure job security, but has been more real with analysts about the reality of the situation. --There is still a lot that feels ad-hoc between teams and contracts. While there are positive steps being taken to standardize teams so that there is a "Navanti" feel across each contract, there is still a long way to go. Recent initiatives to provide analytic training to everyone is great and has been helpful. Perhaps loosening the terms around the education fund up to a certain limit would also compel more analysts to take advantage of that fund. --Again, most cons on Glassdoor seem centered around lack of job security and grievances stemming from the 2014-2015 period. Things are getting better, particularly with the CFO's financial acumen.
