A E I Reviews

Former Employee – worked at A E I as an intern for less than a year

Pros – Great people, great opportunities. AEI is an excellent place for policy, economics, and some social interests. Of all the think tanks in DC, it's the least political and dorky.

Cons – Low comp. There's no reason to work here just for the pay. Pay will be extremely low, but you wouldn't take this job for that. It's to meet great people and work on ideas that make a difference.

Advice to Senior Management – keep up the great work

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

Former Employee – worked at A E I as an intern for less than a year

Pros – Best internship program among DC think tanks. Myriad networking opportunities and access to infinite educational resources. Frequent speakers and events. Even for interns, opportunities to contribute substantial research.

Cons – Will close some doors with groups aligned with opposing ideologies, but for most people who would go work for AEI in the first place, this likely is insignificant.

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

Former Employee – worked at A E I full-time for more than a year

Pros – As a research assistant your colleagues are all young, intelligent, and professional people. You also get to work closely with the scholars with is worth a masters degree in and of itself. There are a lot of perks to working there: free books, free lectures, an amazing in-house dining room, free cookies every Friday

Cons – Some scholars as their research assistants to do menial tasks like putting money in their parking meter or have them go pick up their laundry. This isn't widespread and the management typically clamps down if they hear about it

Advice to Senior Management – Keep up the great work!

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

Former Employee – worked at A E I

Pros – the work atmosphere is great and everyone is nice

Cons – didnt really understand everything that was going on, lack of communication

Advice to Senior Management – Communicate

Former Employee – worked at A E I

Pros – AEI is one of the leading think tanks in dc but along with the amazing scholars you have to deal with some very biased opinions

Cons – You will find yourself disagreeing with some of your co workers, who are often better paid and far more influential than you

Advice to Senior Management – Interns at AEI perform more substantiating work than interns at competing think tanks, and this is certainly a perk of working there

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

Former Employee – worked at A E I

Pros – I was an intern at AEI with one of their scholars as a graduate student. I had good opportunities to do interesting research, review papers, and help brainstorm talking point for public appearances.

Interns are treated really well by staff and scholars, in my opinion. They get opportunities to tour different orgs. and departments around the DC area. The gourmet 3 course meals are pretty amazing. You'll gain weight at AEI if you're not careful.

Cons – There's a strong conservative ideology at AEI and very little else from along the rest of the spectrum. I've found that AEI's reputation on the outside isn't as good as people at AEI think it is. Many people see it less of a think-tank and more of an ideology-center. So, if you want to pursue research and you're already firmly rooted in a conservative position, then this might be a good stepping stone for you. If you're a moderate or liberal person, AEI's a good place to be exposed to to understand what it's like and get the viewpoint, but you'll probably not want to stay here long.

Advice to Senior Management – The whole place has the feeling of an old boys club. It'd be nice to see AEI become a bit more diverse - in terms of thought, look, and feel.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

Former Employee – worked at A E I

Pros – I learned a lot and got to work with some of the leading conservative minds. Plus, you get a free gourmet lunch each day.

Cons – You only hear one main viewpoint, conservative, so if you're not conservative you would either have to get used to defending your views or find another place to work.

Advice to Senior Management – None. I wholeheartedly enjoyed my internship and if the pay was better, I would apply to be a research assistant.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

Former Employee – worked at A E I

Pros – You get to work with very intelligent people, they respect individual opinions and you get to work on a number of interesting projects.

Cons – Some scholars may have entrenched views and may not necessarily be willing to look at an issue from the opinion they have held previously.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at A E I

Pros – They offer a competitive pay scale to newer employees. You get paid for well for your hard work. Long hours though.

Cons – Sometimes your hours vary and your social life may not complement your work life. Cannot really afford to take time off.

Former Employee – worked at A E I

Pros – AEI was a good place to be a research assistant for a couple of years. I learned a lot about Washington, both from the work that I was doing and from being around the kind of insider-y people who I got to meet. I got to do a lot of research and writing. People were basically friendly. You'll eat lunch with senior staff members. Because there are so many young people working as research assistants, it's easy to make friends. People are in general very bright and reasonably competent. You can disagree with the ideology, at least as a research assistant, and no one's going to ostracize you.

Cons – There's very little training either for assistants or for the people managing us. Very little in the way of performance reviews. Whether you get significant feedback on your work depends strongly on who you happen to be working for. People are very proprietary about their areas of expertise, both on the research and non-research side. Assistants aren't fully utilized intellectually, and there are some rote tasks that I feel like assistants do because no one ever thought through whether there was a better way to do them. The ideology is strong, which can be a great learning experience, but if you want to write things for AEI, especially as a junior person, there's a company line.

Advice to Senior Management – I know that there's a "hire smart employees and let them figure it out" sentiment, but people who are managing other people should have some training or guidance in how to do that. Also, you could be getting a lot more productivity from your RAs.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend