SRI International Reviews

Pros

Cutting edge research - always exciting to come to work. Fair benefits. Great flexibility and work/life balance. Good management team. Great job security - no fear of being laid off.

Cons

High cost of living in the immediate area - homes in Menlo Park start at $1 Million. So you either need to rent a small apartment or commute 2 hours everyday.
Also, it's sometimes frustrating how different parts of the company are unwilling to work together.

Advice to Senior Management

Keep up the good work! And, try to break down the walls between different orgs / labs. There should be more sharing of talent and resources... and I shouldn't have to deal with 3 different IT help desks.

Pros

Meetings = free food
Many perks = caltrain tickets, free programs, cafeteria

Cons

Disconnect between worker and management

Pros

It's got quite a distinguished history and some groups still manage to do cutting-edge stuff.

Cons

Dreary facilities, enormous and incompetent bureaucracy (partly dictated by the government agencies that they work for). But the real killer is the presence of fatally incompetent and just plain insane managers, and upper management that tolerates them (as long as they can keep grants coming in). There may be no more than a few of these, but I got one and that colors my experience, resulting in by far the worst experience in my working career.

Advice to Senior Management

Do your jobs.

Pros

Conducive to creativity without the pressures faced by publicly traded companies.

Cons

Lack of promotional opportunities due to small size. Benefits do not include stock options due to SRI being a non-profit entity.

Pros

Work with educated professionals that are dedicated to their jobs.

Cons

Salaries are not as high as some competitors.

Pros

If you're coming straight from college and need a gig to boost your research CV this is the place to be. Each department has a specific culture. I worked in the Policy Division and found that Work hours are fair, company culture is cheerful, open and collaborative. If you're self-motivated, ie. know what kind of projects interests you and can come up with ideas to collaborate or involve yourself more deeply into a project you will most likely be heard. Yet it also depends on your supervisor. At first you're placed with a supervisor, yet after the first year you can honestly reevaluate your working relationship with your supervisor and request to be placed with another if it's not working out.

Cons

Like most academic-type work spaces hallways are quite and sometimes too quiet! One can easily be lost in mountains of their own work and think-space forgetting to venture outside of the office or even speak to others. If you're not self-motivated be aware that you can be stuck with some really boring tasks---like data coding for months without end.

Advice to Senior Management

Take time at least once a week to sit down and talk informally.

Pros

Few bureaucratic interference or obstacles.
Creative environment.
Exceptionally benevolent to employees.

Cons

Lower than competitive industry pay
Little business discipline.

Advice to Senior Management

Executive management would benefit from some new blood - you're getting stale.
Consider acquiring or merging with one of the larger non-profit R&D organizations in the US to gain increased efficiencies and market share.

Pros

Important work is done here, across a broad variety of disciplines
Collaboration across divisions and labs is good and getting better -- much better than in a university
There is a great deal of personal freedom -- you can do what you want so long as you keep your sold time up
The people are terrific -- very smart, well-meaning, empathetic. Social skills are sometimes lacking, but hey, it's a research environment
Commercialization focus and competence is unique for a research institute, and creates both financial upside and a possibility for good ideas to actually reach the market

Cons

Bureaucracy can be difficult, although that is more a function of SRI's status as a government contractor than anything else
SRI is a bit of an old dog -- she can learn new tricks but usually won't unless things get pretty broken
Management believes it is innovative, but decision-making is glacial and changes are only incremental
Commercialization upside is meaningful only for a subset of the population, those who work in areas where market-focused IP is created. For others, commercialization upside is very limited.

Advice to Senior Management

Step back and really look at the place with fresh eyes. Invest in new labs and talent in important new growth areas, and cut back or eliminate labs that have failed to grow. Be bolder.

Pros

Creative and smart people to work with, albiet without much social grace. Interesting backgrounds, very diverse culture, people basically good to be with. Made many friends there.

Cons

Upper management talks and walks two different directions. They talk of change and progress, but ultimately want to maintain the "relative" safety of the status quo. Time to join the 21 century and stop living off the laurels of accomplishments made 60+ years ago.

Advice to Senior Management

Get your head out of the ground and really listen to your staff. Employees are fearful of change.
CEO spends too much time pushing his book, too little time engaged with lower management.

Pros

a place to study and answer challenging and important research questions. colleagues are supportive. facilities are topnotch. a place to learn how to write winning proposals and do big research as a scientists and/or manager. it is a place to grow a career.

Cons

the organization is broken down by division and then by org. opportunities for advancement in orgs is determined in part by distribution of junior and senior staff. when the org is top heavy with senior staff it limits the opportunities for junior staff to advance. further, this is a tough place to advance if you don't have a passion for the work

Advice to Senior Management

help those who are more junior map out a career path at SRI that goes beyond one year