GAO Reviews

Pros

Work/Life balance, flex-work schedules, very supportive, great feedback on performance, and you get to work on timely issues that matter to the country.

Cons

uncertainty around budget, organization is contracting not growing, pay is below market rate.

Pros

PDP program/Union allows new employees the chance to increase their salaries fairly easily.

Great reputation/credibility

With the right backing, an employee can rise fairly rapidly.

Depending on the team you are on, it can be a very pleasant experience

Cons

Ultra-competitive work environment

Can be a shark tank - people backstab for sport

Too much attention placed on surveys, rather than actual work accomplished. Agency seems more interested in patting itself on the back instead of improving.

Agency talks the talk regarding diversity, but does not walk the walk. If you don't conform, you don't succeed.

An obvious caste system - certain mission teams and individuals within them have more respect than others.

Many managers make decisions based on gossip and opinion, rather than facts. Confidentiality is a joke.

Agency is undergoing a major transitional period. There has been a lot of turnover in upper management.

Resistance to change

Management hears what it wants to hear.

Advice to Senior Management

Practice what you preach...GAO prides itself on its integrity, however, not all employees or managers live up to that standard.

Pros

Great benefits, location is convenient, work can be interesting, pay for performance can lead to higher salaries than seen in the federal government, young and motivated workforce for the most part

Cons

A lot of those people in your PSC 101 class who couldn't get hired at Booz or Deloitte fighting over jobs that don't matter, senior management is often comprised of "yes" men, performance reviews mean nothing and don't provide useful feedback

Pros

-GAO is a great place for those who are entering the job market. It has excellent professional development opportunities.
-As others have said, opportunities exist to double your starting salary within a few years.
-Some middle managers are very good at what they do and great to work for (see comment below).
-Lots of opportunities to work with many types of people in many different fields.
-Opportunities to travel.
-Some training opportunities.

Cons

-More emphasis seems to be placed on recruitment rather than retention. No clear retainment strategy.
-Most middle management is very poorly trained. Analysts are promoted with only analytical skills and no people skills. If you want to be treated like you are an audit, work here.
-The agency breeds passive agressiveness and egos.
-Report processing takes FOREVER. This can lead to burnout.
-Do not expect to attend conferences in your subject matter.

Advice to Senior Management

Speed up report processing.
Train entry level staff to be managers as well as analysts.
Come up with a clear retainment strategy.

Pros

Great opportunities to see how government agencies work
Knowledgeable colleagues who care about doing a good job
Excellent opportunity to learn about evaluation/auditing practices
Highly educated workforce
Not overly hierarchical for a government agency
Executives are generally somewhat flexible regarding staff life issues and most want to keep good employees

Cons

The internal culture in some teams is constricted due to the audit process. However, the cultures in the teams vary a bit depending on the executives.

Pros

Great work-life balance, potential to work on a variety of issues and on issues that are pertinent in the news, great professional development opportunities

Cons

Can feel far removed from policy implementation

Pros

- get to work on a wide variety of topical issues.
- really smart people work here

Cons

report development processes are slow.

Pros

Despite some intense periods, managers and staff generally are very respectful of work-life balance; people are generally very nice and very smart; there is a lot of flexibility in terms of telework, time off, etc.

Cons

Work can be very slow because of the various layers of review everything must go through; it can be very beaurocratic; there is a general aversion to risk so a lot of GAO reports end up being pretty mild; also, once you get past the senior analyst position there aren't a lot of opportunities for advancement.

Advice to Senior Management

The report-writing process is very slow (it typically takes about a year to write a report). Streamlining the process would make the work environment more dynamic and our work more relevant.

Pros

Going into the PDP program, one has the opportunity to double his/her income. You also have the opportunity to become an expert on issues of real importance to the well being of the United States. Office culture is laid back, but people are really smart.

Cons

After a point, you plateau in the amount of money you are able to make. Employees top out at 170k. It is hard to figure out where people go who do not stay at GAO for their career because so many employees are career employees.

Advice to Senior Management

Keep doing what your doing.

Pros

Flexible schedule is good for family life.

Cons

Promotion Structure does not always ensure the best person gets the job

Advice to Senior Management

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