US Geological Survey Reviews

Current Employee – been working at US Geological Survey as a contractor for more than a year

Pros – Very laid back. They give you the freedom to get you work done at your own pace; that is assuming you get it done. Summer times are especially great because you are outside, usually in pretty remote places making discharge measurements.
Any travel you get pretty nice per-diem. Per-diem was new to me so I enjoyed that.
Easy job, not a stressing environment.

Cons – If you are a driven person...you will stand out. However, for a civil engineer like me, I didnt find a lot of purpose in what I was doing. Sure I enjoyed my work, it was great being outside (except for the winter) but The USGS are Data Collectors and that was never a passion of mine. I feel all that accomplished at the end of the day

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend – I'm optimistic about the outlook for this company

Current Employee – been working at US Geological Survey part-time for more than 3 years

Pros – They pay you to learn and gain a scientific understanding.

Cons – Transitioning from a part-time student employee to a full-time permanent employee is more difficult than at a private company because it is the government.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at US Geological Survey full-time for more than 10 years

Pros – Love working with high quality science and people. The caliber of individuals is high and management continues to get generally better.

Cons – Constant worries about budgets and not always having the resources to do what I need to do. Constant reorganizations don't always help.

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

Former Employee – worked at US Geological Survey as an intern for more than 3 years

Pros – Safe
Comfortable
Relaxed but professional workplace.
Public hearings, seminars and lectures open to employees
Good solid science

I was there as student intern and it was great experience, each semester I grew professionally and took on more duties. Sometimes there would be some built in inefficiencies that were frustrating or those who had been there for decades and just waiting for retirement but overall it was a great student job. And I would highly recommend any student to try to get a job there.

Cons – Low pay
Some employees waiting for retirement and phoning it in till then
Some red tape and inefficiencies to overcome to get things down

Advice to Senior Management – Reward those that do well and try to correct people that dont.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at US Geological Survey

Pros – Very supportive of students. Works well with scheduling around classes. Friendly environment. Great Place to work to gain work experience.

Cons – The Company is not in complete organization. Pay is not great for the work that you are required to do.

Advice to Senior Management – Management needs to make sure that there is enough time for all the tasks to be done properly instead of being rushed

Current Employee – been working at US Geological Survey

Pros – Government job security. Some good science gets done. Can be like grad school but without all the classes to teach.

Cons – Extreme risk avoidance. Pay can be like grad school.

Advice to Senior Management – Take more chances. Do more science!

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at US Geological Survey

Pros – - hey, at east you aren't a grad student
- you get to do work you're actually interested in
- good benefits (transportation subsidy, $80/month for great healthcare, semi-pension/401k)
- flexible schedule
- 40 hours a week
- did I mention 40 hours a week?
- people find it interesting to meet someone with an interesting job that isn't in tech

Cons – - low pay (especially starting out at gs-5: even starting elementary teachers make more than you)
- as a tech you rarely deal with them but upper management is largely a bunch of people who have abandoned science and aspire to be mid-level government bureaucrats. why did you even join the USGS in the first place?
- it's in menlo park, which is a very expensive area

Advice to Senior Management – - the IT policies are really silly. we can use flash drives but not dropbox (even the website)? facebook but not pandora? huh?

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at US Geological Survey

Pros – This place is AWESOME for student workers. They really care about your college life and give you time off as needed. I simply came in whenever I wanted and worked on whatever task I needed too.

Cons – Don't feel important all the time - some of the projects took forever since the big servers where in CO and would go down randomly. It was rather aggravating at times.

Advice to Senior Management – I would say - make your students feel a bit more important instead of doing "research" all the time. We do want to solve your problems!

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at US Geological Survey

Pros – It's very easy to balance life and work at the USGS, and there is great flexibility when it comes to scheduling working hours. I get to collaborate with highly intelligent, capable people who do very fascinating research. I'm given a great deal of freedom and I'm able to, for the most part, choose the projects I work on. I'm encouraged and allowed to take time to learn emerging technologies before applying them to my projects.

Cons – It's generally frustrating dealing with the bureaucracy involved with a federal government job. It's difficult to promote or demote employees, so the few bad apples tend to hang around while those who work hard may not move up very quickly. The pay is below average.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

Former Employee – worked at US Geological Survey

Pros – They give you very generous time off

Cons – term and temp jobs only, no room to grow

Advice to Senior Management – fight harder to renew employees with expiring contracts