Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory Reviews

Pros

This place is the best existing one to learn applied physics. Their applied physics laboratory is amazing. They have all imaginable equipment, great professors and great students. Amazing developpement are going on.

Cons

Location is at the country side. It is a bit painful to reach such a place in the middle of nowhere.

Advice to Senior Management

You are doing great. This is all great. Nobody could do a better job than the one you are doing.

Pros

It's the best place to work and learn. I have access to a lot of world class professionals. It also has one of the best benefit package.

Cons

It's not a place to make you wealthy but it has an ocean of knowledge for you learn from.

Pros

Good place, good reputation, very good benefits, good job security

Cons

Dilbert principle applied in dealing with poor performers

Advice to Senior Management

Consider 180 degree reviews to get a good idea on how managers are doing

Pros

benefits, feeling like you are actually accomplishing something, cutting edge technology, great people to work with, cool projects to work on

Cons

its still work! a little top heavy with mid-level mgmt, in 10 years i went from 3 above me to 8 and my dept never changed size, parking can be terrible

Pros

Lots of critically important, truly meaningful work happens here. We build spacecraft bound for Mercury and Pluto. We build gadgets that are taken to war zones as soon as we finish a prototype, with troops clamoring for more as fast as we can make them. We invented satellite navigation. And, of course, the coolest and most important stuff can't be described on an open web site.

Very good job security; the defense budget may go up and down, but classified work can never be moved overseas.

Excellent blend of the intellectual stimulation of academia with the immediate, real-world impact of a high-tech defense contractor.

True geniuses work here by the dozens.

In a few departments (though not all), you have shocking freedom to work on whatever you find interesting and can get funding for. It's almost like being a freelancer, but with much better benefits.

Free Master's degrees! Collect the whole set! And the classrooms are just steps from your office.

Overall quality of life is very good. There are lots of clubs and intramural sports. It's super easy to switch from full-time to part-time and back again. The facilities are fairly new, with two cafeterias, a gym, tennis and basketball courts, softball fields, and a fishing pond. It's near cosmopolitan DC and Baltimore, but still out in the sparse suburbs where trees are plentiful, housing lots are big, and schools are good.

Cons

The good projects are not evenly spread. There is really important work going on, but not everyone is on such a project. Some departments have a large burden of routine, crank-turning work that is frankly not worthy of this organization.

Talented junior people will not rocket to the top, especially not without a Master's degree or PhD. It is possible for recent grads with a BS to advance, but it takes a lot longer than at, say, an internet startup. We lose too many good associates because they get impatient with the pace of advancement. The situation is better for those in mid-career with advanced degrees.

APL has historically been very technically driven, heavy on engineering and light on management, but this has been changing recently. It is still possible to have a decades-long career as a pure techie with steady advancement and plenty of recognition and respect, but it isn't as commonplace as it used to be. We need to halt the slide.

In the departments where you have freedom to work on what you want, you have a corresponding responsibility to find the money for it. If you can find a sugar daddy, this is an awesome situation. If you can't, it can be supremely stressful to come to work each day not knowing where your coverage is going to come from.

Advice to Senior Management

We're always seeking out new, high-impact work, but we do a poor job of jettisoning work that has become old and routine. Breaking up is hard to do, but it has to be done.

Don't reward program managers on the basis of the quantity of work they bring in. Reward them on the quality of the work.

When it's time for someone in the higher ranks to move on, tell them so. We can't afford keep making up silly positions for people that have been moved out of high-profile jobs, continuing to pay them upper-management salaries while they contemplate their navels.

Pros

Diversity of interesting projects, benefits, flex-time

Cons

No technical advancement tracks, management favors the most likeable

Advice to Senior Management

Create technical ladders for staff to get promoted vs just having line or program ladders

Pros

challenging and rewarding work occationally.

Cons

no upper movement. top performers can be overlooked.

Advice to Senior Management

need to move good people up.

Pros

pay & benefits are amazing

Cons

some groups in some depts are very dysfunctional, you have got to bail out early if you suspect this. It is easy to make lateral moves if you do it early on in your career

Advice to Senior Management

find those weak points and eliminate

Pros

1. Good place to start career
2. You can take classes for free, take advantage of that
3. Friendly atmosphere, plenty of young professionals
4. Cool projects, group dependent.

Cons

1. Living is very expensive

Advice to Senior Management

As long as the military machine keeps on going you'll be ok at APL.
Never really dealt with senior management.

Pros

Good work/family balance. Understandable management. Laid back.

Cons

Raises are slow ..favortism. Slow raises.

Advice to Senior Management

nothing