NIH Employee Reviews about "cutting edge research"

Pros

Cutting edge biomedical research. High mission satisfaction.

Cons

Low pay compared to similar positions in the private sector. Poor leadership from the executive branch of government.

Pros

Motivated colleagues and cutting edge research environment.

Cons

A lot of bureaucracy and red tape, but that is to be expected in a government environment.

Pros

Cutting edge research, great career development opportunities both for academia and industry. Lot of collaborative projects can be pursued.

Cons

Being a postdoc at NIH is very demanding in terms to time and so you have to work hard to find the work-life balance. In addition, foreign students should pay attention to their visa requirements as transitioning from J1 to H1 is complicated at NIH.

Pros

the environment for research is excellent. This is a great place to do research. You can establish collaborations easily and have access to cutting edge technology for research. The OITE is a great resource for postdocs too.

Cons

Some institutes pay postdocs very poorly. The cost of living in this area is very high. Some PIs take a very long time to publish because they don't have any pressure of publishing.

Pros

engaged with wide range of cutting edge research; job security

Cons

As is generally true for federal government employment, at lower/medium levels, there are regular pay increases regardless of performance; at higher levels, the salary levels off and is stagnant regardless of performance.

Pros

Fantastic environment, good science, cutting edge research.

Cons

This is a great place to work and I dont see any cons.

Pros

Fantastic mission, If you really want to feel connected to something larger than yourself where biomedical research is on the cutting edge that could one day make breakthrough discovery, you buy into the mission.

Cons

I found the culture to be unhealthly. I worked in an administrative, operational environment. There was the formal hierarcy, but also the shadow culture where decisions are made about who gets promoted, groomed, etc. There was little opportunity to penetrate that structure. Needless to say, and an outflow of that, was a lack of diversity, i.e., there was little or no opportunity, no matter how talented you are, to get out of the operational environment.

Pros

Interesting patient cases, good benefits

Cons

Short staffing; authorship disputes - NIH guidelines regarding authorship are not observed; Clinical Center policy compensation limits career growth for clinical research staff, even for those with graduate degrees in a cutting edge field and long track records of major scientific contributions to high impact journals

Pros

Love working on amazing research that is at the cutting edge of health research.

Cons

Very little guidance, pay, and feedback. Feels very unstructured, but that is also PI-dependent. You need to love doing research.

Pros

Cutting edge research and wonderful lab resources. Great stability as a government employee. Surrounded by people excited and interested in making discoveries. Top notch researchers constantly giving talks.

Cons

Excessive government hoops to jump through- for travel, promotions to name a few. Not a great place for upward mobility, as there are few top-level jobs that are rarely available. Odd budget crises tied to Congress passing/ not passing a budget that can unnecessarily slow work down.