Institute for Defense Analyses Reviews

Current Employee – been working at Institute for Defense Analyses full-time for more than a year

Pros – - A real commitment to education and professional development
- An almost academic atmosphere (difficult to find re: DoD work)
- A lot of fascinating subject material, for the most part
- Good range of tasks and personnel, from hard sciences to liberal arts-types
- Great reputation in the industry and the region
- Very stable

Cons – - Even with a shuttle service to/from the Pentagon, not the most convenient location
- Can get mired in the bureaucracy and inside baseball endemic to the Pentagon
- One often must find work for themselves among tasks within a division
- Not as much of the "liberal arts" stuff as one might hope
- Hard to advance especially far without a PhD

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend – I'm not optimistic about the outlook for this company

Former Employee – worked at Institute for Defense Analyses full-time for more than a year

Pros – -Good work/life Balance
-Lots of control over projects
-Heavily utilized my educational background
-Friendly co-workers
-Research-driven environment

Cons – -No room for advancement, especially for those with no doctorate degree
-Low raises/bonuses
-Task leaders succumb too easily to sponsor "requests," which distorts the objectivity of analyses
-High turnover rate

Advice to Senior Management – Create incentives to retain talented individuals.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at Institute for Defense Analyses

Pros – Supportive environment, Many educational facilities, Many advanced training opportunities, The benefits are excellent and the work environment is very good

Cons – The senior management is very mundane and not leading in innovation,they are not aware of the pace of technology change and how the new technologies affect the workplace.

Advice to Senior Management – The management needs to get their hands dirty to understand the details of new technologies and how they fit the dramaticallyc changing customer environment

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at Institute for Defense Analyses

Pros – Highly collegiate staff. Everyone is intelligent and pulls their own weight. The work is never boring.

Cons – The experience is much like a consulting firm, where the experience can depend on the team members and client for that project. Staff members need to wear many hats, which sometimes don't fit so well.

Advice to Senior Management – The projects require constantly changing skill sets. More structured training on-demand is needed to facilitate ongoing education. Better planning of the work flow pipeline, to reduce gaps and bottlenecks in staff hours.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at Institute for Defense Analyses

Pros – Flexibility
Freedom
Ability to take indicatives
Very good working environment, very good ability to contact experts,
Good support facilities and good employee programs

Cons – Only pilot work which has to be funded by customers and very little is funded from internal funds and internal organizations

Advice to Senior Management – NONE

Current Employee – been working at Institute for Defense Analyses

Pros – The working conditions are very good. The library is very good. The work is balanced and does not become chaotic. The work is varied and interesting. The atmosphere is collaborative and a small percentage of the colleagues are brilliant.

Cons – The work is fragmented. Continuity of work so that real expertise that is gained is accomplished by major effort from the individual. Real research is done in very few projects - the rest of the projects use buzzwords but are mundane.

Advice to Senior Management – Very little synergy between research divisions There is little long term vision and few projects that support such a vision. Among peer FFRDCs IDA is NOT a shining star..

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend