Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory Reviews

Pros

Flexibe work schedule, no micromanagement, great training

Cons

No one leaves because everyone loves working here so it harder to get promoted

Pros

Coming to APL right out of college, the pay is decent and there are many opportunities to gain experience across a wide variety of technologies, which can help narrow down interests within the field. For the most part, coworkers are very friendly and easy to get along with, although this may vary depending on the group. Also, employees can get a free Master's degree with no strings attached.

Cons

After working for some years at APL, your salary will no longer be competitive with other organizations (can easily get a 40-50% pay increase by switching jobs). Also, many projects feel pointless and lack any impact, especially IRADs. Lastly and most importantly, upper management is absolutely clueless when it comes to remote work. Many groups are being forced to show up 3+ days a week to the Lab, and any feedback that was gathered during the pandemic about preference to work remotely seems to be completely disregarded. Remote work was going great during the peak of the pandemic, and employees were incredibly productive. Now employees have to be in the office just to have Zoom meetings while trying not to be interrupted by other employees having Zoom meetings... The most infuriating part is that on-site presence is being tracked via badge swipes. Are we not professional adults that can be trusted? It's frankly insulting and immediately triggered my job search.

Pros

The place has a great connection to DoD funders and the projects can be rewarding to work on. The place speaks directly with DoD tech developers and the relationships are long-term. Contracting with a UARC like APL is very straightforward for DoD organizations, so the place gets funding for a lot of interesting work.

Cons

Run by lifers. Inward-looking. There is a very narrow idea funnel toward external opportunities. They encourage ideas but kill off nearly all of them because the limited number of people who can take in external work all have their own careers to think about. The place is extremely top-down. Its an 80 year old institution with most of the power in people who have been there 30 years, so the casual and internal networks have all the power and the org chart is irrevant. Most of the new staff comes from former interns who are mentored as a way to build personal fiefdoms. This creates a tribal and factional atmosphere.

Pros

Good place to start out your career right out of college. Take advantage of the tuition benefit, it’s pretty good. Right out of college it’s a good place to get breadth of experiences on different projects.

Cons

Upper levels of management are not transparent and they don’t listen to the people below them. There is almost a culture of fear instilled in people who wish to bring up issues they’re seeing. There has been high attrition in the past few years and the key issues causing people to leave have not been addressed. The company has poorly handled COVID and return to work - requiring people to be in the office 3 days a week regardless of their ability to work from home. There was an illusion of “togetherness” during the peak of the pandemic, but that has sense disappeared. Overall the company is very hesitant to take risks, whether that be on individuals seeking leadership opportunities or trying out new organizational ideas (remote work, etc.) This will keep APL from staying level with its peers. APL needs to do better regarding D&I. While this is getting better with new hires, upper management and decision makers are not diverse.

Pros

Meaningful work and projects, work life balance, competitive pay, great benefits, not for profit status enables ability to provide unbiased and objective results

Cons

Lack of transparency in salaries and promotion opportunities, decentralized information and processes, lack of diversity in leadership, lack of diversity in technical professional staff, need to prioritize recruiting at HBCUs, HSIs, and underrepresented institutions and professional societies/organizations

Pros

JHU/APL has great work life balance. There are also tons of cool things to work on. I constantly have to pick between several cool projects because there just aren't enough hours in the day.

Cons

It's a large organization and with the comes some bureaucracy.

Pros

Good benefits, history, and place to start your career (get experience and a security clearance then leave).

Cons

No career progression. You will remain an Operations Coordinator with minimal pay raises that do not keep up with inflation. Having to interact with an incompetent and lazy security department is mind numbing. The hiring process takes six months (on average). It would also help if management would stop changing job titles on a monthly basis.

Pros

The work is meaningful and the people are terrific.

Cons

Pay is not as high as some of the big tech companies.