Is RAND a good company to work for?

RAND has an overall rating of 4.0 out of 5, based on over 556 reviews left anonymously by employees. This rating has been stable over the past 12 months. 73% of employees would recommend working at RAND to a friend and 35% have a positive outlook for the business. The best reviews about RAND have been left by employees working as Summer Associate , Research Assistant and Assistant Policy Researcher .

Does RAND pay their employees well?

According to anonymously submitted Glassdoor reviews, RAND employees rate their compensation and benefits as 3.7 out of 5. Find out more about salaries and benefits at RAND. This rating has improved by 5% over the last 12 months.

How satisfied are employees working at RAND?

73% of RAND employees would recommend working there to a friend based on Glassdoor reviews . Employees also rated RAND 4.3 out of 5 for work life balance, 3.9 for culture and values and 3.5 for career opportunities.

What are the top reviewed jobs at RAND?

Research Assistant (45) , Administrative Assistant (22) , Assistant Policy Researcher (17) , Analyst (15) , Researcher (15) , Summer Associate (12) , Manager (7) , Policy Analyst (7) , Assistant Policy Analyst (6) , Finance (6) , Behavioral Scientist (5) , Policy Researcher (5) , Senior Analyst (5) , Associate Policy Researcher (4) , Senior Political Scientist (4)

What are the pros of working at RAND according to real employee reviews?

"Great people and very intellectual" ((in 68 reviews)); "Great location and colleagues with expertise in their field." ((in 59 reviews)); "The benefits for time off and health insurance can be good." ((in 44 reviews)); "Collaborative, crazy smart people, committed to evidence" ((in 10 reviews)); "Civilized work environment." ((in 10 reviews))

What are the cons of working at RAND according to real employee reviews?

"Low pay relative to outside (non" ((in 18 reviews)); "Long hours because of gripping topics and always juggling priorities on different projects." ((in 12 reviews)); "salaries are low (at least at the Europe office)" ((in 10 reviews)); "aggressed by managers and directors that I relied on for work and management was unequipped to deal with these issues." ((in 8 reviews)); "Senior Leadership can treat their staff with contempt." ((in 8 reviews))

What are employees saying about RAND layoffs in 2026?

Explore Glassdoor’s employee reviews to understand what current and former employees are saying about RAND layoffs and their outlook for job security at RAND in 2026.

What are the top reviewed RAND locations?

Santa Monica , Washington , Arlington , Pittsburgh , Los Angeles , New York , San Francisco , Boston , Idaho Falls , Chicago , Bristow , Randolph , Austin , Honolulu , Arcadia , Woodland Hills , Pawtucket , Baltimore , Central , Crystal City

RAND reviews

4.0

73% would recommend to a friend

(504 total reviews)

Jason Matheny

53% approve of CEO

35% positive business outlook

Ratings by category

4.3

Work/Life balance

3.9

Culture & values

3.8

Diversity & inclusion

3.7

Compensation and benefits

3.5

Career opportunities

3.3

Senior management

RAND has an employee rating of 4.0 out of 5 stars, based on 504 company reviews on Glassdoor which indicates that most employees have a good working experience there. The RAND employee rating is in line with the average (within 1 standard deviation) for employers within the Management & Consulting industry (3.7 stars).

Ratings by demographic groups

Race / Ethnicity

Gender

Sexual orientation

Disability

Parent or family caregiver

Veteran status

Reviews by job title

504 reviews

3.0

Nov 1, 2008

A great place to work, but buyer beware.

Researcher

Recommend

CEO approval

Business Outlook

Pros

The people and environment are top notch, you cannot beat the location! I really loved my coworkers, the office location and how everyone got along there.

Cons

Salaried employee compensation is sub par with most of the payroll going to insanely high executive compensation. There are a lot of "adjunct staff" there which are basically contract employees with no benefits, because Rand is too cheap and greedy. I was privy to some of the salaries and was shocked when I saw that... I had people working under me without benefits because "it wasn't in the budget". I guess that was true since even the lowest level financial analyst was making a decent 6-figure salary.

5.0

Oct 6, 2008

Great place to work.

Behavioral scientist

Recommend

CEO approval

Business Outlook

Pros

RAND is a non-profit organization, which is very similar to a university, without students. It has a slightly shady reputation, but that is undeserved (although it might have been deserved in the past). One gets involved in research which is cutting edge, and is surrounded by very bright very hard working individuals. There is relatively generous paid vacation time, and in something that I think indicates what RAND think of their staff, vacation pay is higher (for researchers, not sure about others) than normal pay. That is, if you take all the vacation allocated to you, your pay will be about 5% higher than if you did not take any vacation.

Cons

Coverage. Finding 100% coverage (i.e. 100% of your salary) is the thing that all researchers finds stressful, and particularly stressful to start off with, and for your first year or two at RAND.

5.0

Jun 15, 2008

RAND - Objective Analysis steps from the beach

Research assistant

Recommend

CEO approval

Business Outlook

Pros

Prestige, brilliant and fun coworkers. Across the street from the beach. Santa Monica is way cool.

Cons

compensation compared with similar institutions seems a bit low. They have a graduate school? Strange.

Viewing 502 - 504 of 504 Reviews

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A great place to work, but buyer beware.

Great place to work.

RAND - Objective Analysis steps from the beach

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