NIH Reviews

Pros

NIH is an intellectually interesting place to work and a place where you can always find something new to learn.

Cons

NIH is a very complex place and it can be hard to learn how to make things happen or how to manage multiple competing interests.

Advice to Senior Management

I find the lack of emphasis or attention to employee health and wellness (e.g., subpar fitness facilities) to be ironic given the mission of the NIH.

Pros

Great place to work. Very knowledgeable people.

Cons

Sometimes it can be intimidating especially when working with people who due to their experience and intelligence tend to show a high degree of ego that makes it difficult to communicate with

Pros

High stipend, good equipment, reasonable people

Cons

Long hours needed, but not constantly. Being a postdoc, with few benefits and little guaranteed time off can be hard.

Advice to Senior Management

More effort to align the goals of biologists with postdocs would be helpful.

Pros

World class opportunity to work with some of the best scientists in the world in biomedical research. Whatever research you are looking for will be there.

Cons

Bureaucratic power struggles within and between most labs can have a detrimental effect to the quality and timeliness of research.

Advice to Senior Management

Encourage competition among scientists, but make sure that they work together as a team in order solve the diseases of this world.

Pros

a good enviroment for research, enough funding,

Cons

lack of mentoring, low payment

Advice to Senior Management

Taking too much advantage from your postdocs, but not much return

Pros

World "famous" research institutes. That is it.
A number of real scientists.
Good salary for postdoc
Lot's of interesting talks

Cons

You have to work very very very hard, or elso, your boss will make you unhappy. If you do not follow after that, you will be blamed. Then, yelled. Then, make you fill you are nobody.
There is no respect, no ethics.
Of course, it all depends who your boss is.

Advice to Senior Management

A number of scientists are not worth to be paid at all. Some tenure-track PIs lost their spirit, they treat their postdoc as postdog, or even worse.

Pros

vacation, benefits,people and location of office

Cons

worload,challenges and utilization of resources

Advice to Senior Management

go public

Pros

Easy collaboration and exchange of ideas. My colleagues work normal hours. Most people seem satisfied with their work load and can focus on their scientific creativity. Many interesting guest speakers. I appreciate the many career fairs and opportunities to learn about potential career paths. Also many opportunities to present data in posters or talks.

Cons

Ordering can be slow and sometimes disrupted by admin people. Admin can also make it a difficult and long process to hire new people.

Pros

Hard money means you have resources to perform experiments.

Cons

Good health insurance, but few benefits. All the hassle of working for the government with few of the benefits.

Advice to Senior Management

Improve benefits for postdoctoral fellows, retirement benefits in particular.

Pros

NIH provides good training on research for approximately 3 years to 5 years as a postdoctoral research fellow with better fellowship than other US institutions.

Cons

There is no opportunities for further job opportunities at NIH. Therefore, all postdoctoral fellows have to look for a job outside the NIH unless they are so lucky to get few federal positions.