US Census Bureau Reviews

Pros

The pay was good and you got reimbursed for your mileage. Travel time was also paid.

Cons

Interviewing individuals who did not want to cooperate.

Pros

Generally flexible schedules, most of the work is straightforward, and you meet all sorts of interesting people. Crew Leaders and low-level Supervisors tend to be very reasonable, even though they are horribly overworked.

Cons

The rules you work under were designed in an unsuccessful attempt to make the job doable by morons. They therefore keep you from working any better than a moron might. Job targets can change from week to week -- sometimes from day to day -- and expect the second-level supervisors to yell at you if you haven't anticipated the latest change. (Fortunately this doesn't hurt very much, and they're not likely to fire you.)

Advice to Senior Management

Have the rules vetted by people who have done the job -- clerks, assistants, enumerators, & crew leaders. Make the goals reasonable, realistic, & consistent.

Pros

the pay is decent, it is not spectacular but it is more than other entry level type jobs that you would get with very little experience

Cons

absolutely no room for advancement, poor management, supervisors were very disorganized and didn't seem to have any idea what they were doing or what was going on

Advice to Senior Management

provide some sort of direction to employees, don't tell them you will contact them with work, and then never contact them

Pros

A well paying, temporary job.

Cons

A short-term job, no matter how good you are.

Advice to Senior Management

Reward or offer advancement to high performing workers who does the work of multiple employees.

Pros

If you have a couple months and need some cash it pays fairly well for the work.

Cons

I felt I knew more than my superiors

Advice to Senior Management

The nature of the job causes the cons noted above. Nothing you can really do.

Pros

Very flexible, with the ability to schedule your own hours and days to work. Paychecks were direct deposited every week, and included mileage reimbursement.

Cons

There was a lot of driving involved, and you had to use your own car. Although mileage was paid, it didn't cover any of the wear and tear, or possible mechanical difficulties you might encounter.

Advice to Senior Management

My only complaint would be the amount of training received. One of our group leaders seemed to be very informative and helpful for the first day of training, but after that, he seemed to be almost lost... in fact, we pretty much finished training ourselves, just reading by reading the booklets and helping each other to understand. I feel our trainer probably needed a bit more training himself before being sent out in the field to train others. Thank you

Pros

Do not work on Weekends
Alternative work schedule
Benefits
Departmental Rotation
Parking
Secured building
Friendly employees
Credit Union (on-site)
Bank of America on-site

Cons

Cafeteria food
No Internet usage
No Pandora
Removal of on-site Bank of America
Complicated floor plan
A lot of internal emails

Advice to Senior Management

More diverse in certain areas or divisions.
More student/entry-level opportunities
More entertaining insert activities
Better job rotation
Better food in cafeteria

Pros

The pay is decent considering that the work isn't too hard. I enjoyed the challenge of getting the info needed for each address.

Cons

The work is seasonal and the "seasons' are ten years apart! It's hard to advance because there's not a lot of time to work your way up, I guess a lot of the higher up positions area aquired laterally or people that have worked there before.

Pros

Worked remotely, allowed a certain level of autonomy as long as goals were met

Cons

Government communication skills need refinement

Pros

-Strong team-oriented atmosphere.
-Enough autonomy left to local office management to make decisions as needed to accomplish the division-standardized goals.
-Very enticing, localized pay rates

Cons

Very, very poor communication from the Regional offices. This, alone, was the starting point for the vast majority of issues we encountered. Everything from poor projection for resources (staffing, materials), to poor field preparation, to poor execution. All things that could have been avoided by using stronger internal communication from the Regional offices.

Advice to Senior Management

Considering that most of the Bureau's projects are time-limited, please consider stronger leadership from the executive levels (RCC/RO and above); especially when researching potentials decisions, making those decisions and sticking then with the result.