Smithsonian Reviews

Pros

great place to work. always fun

Cons

the pay can be higher.

Pros

Being a part of a well-known and well-respected institution provided many great opportunities

Cons

Such a large institution comes with many levels and layers of bureaucracy

Pros

Good Place to be employed,

Cons

personality conflicts, hard to do job

Pros

- The supervisors went out of their way to accommodate me due to my mental health issues and were very flexible with me. - During the onboarding paperwork phase, you receive year-long schedule of all payments you'll be receiving, so you know exactly when you're getting paid. In my experience, they always paid me on time, and they have a convenient website where you can access all things related to payment. - They didn't expect anything unrealistic of me in regard to my role - During the hiring and onboarding process, they were highly responsive - At this particular museum, you have access to one free simulator ride a day, which is pretty amazing. And of course, your usual 10% discount on store items. - They took out promotional memberships (their version of a store credit card), so you don't have to push anything except donations when at the register.

Cons

- Since it's still retail, you're going to get the same retail experience you would at any other store, despite it being in the Smithsonian. - Although they encourage taking your time during training, depending on who trains you, they're not all that thorough with it. They take more time to onboard you than train you.

Pros

Interesting work, decent challenges and good opportunities.

Cons

Underpays for the amount of work some staff do and is understaffed.

Pros

- Location - Content is interesting - Good insurance options - Decent retirement benefits if you stay long enough to get them

Cons

- Daily publishing quotas (3/day) - Monthly writing and reporting quotas (2-4 features) - VERY LOW rates for freelancers - Low salary for DC metropolitan area - Underpaid, overworked - Low to no paths to promotion - Raises issued in 5-10 year intervals—if that (Team is small but expected to do the work of a team 3x their size) - Expectations are outside of staff capacity and compensation - Very little meaningful mentorship opportunities in media with current staff issues - Daily morning meetings and 2-3 additional check in or team meetings weekly - Senior to CEO leadership out-of-touch with media landscape - Senior leadership is not open to competitive salary negotiation - Near constant staff turnover - Extremely slow hiring process - Very tangled bureaucratic culture overall

Pros

The Smithsonian is a great place to work. The compensation and benefits are competitive, and there is generally a positive and collaborative atmosphere among all the departments and museums.

Cons

There are bureaucratic hoops to jump through that can slow down routine work.

Pros

Get to work on interesting projects, federal employees have good retirement benefits

Cons

leadership is toxic and horrible and Smithsonian HR offices ignore valid issues like racism and retaliation. Consistently underfunded and the hiring process is so slow you're almost always overworked and doing multiple jobs. Lack of professional development budgets and opportunities, unlike other federal agencies.

Pros

Government employment is very flexible and beneficial

Cons

Keep the same policies amongst the buildings

Pros

The Secretary is incredibly inspirational and such a great person -- and helping to move the organization to be much more forward thinking Fantastic benefits Amazing community of colleagues Impactful and meaningful work

Cons

Quasi-governmental bureaucracy can be challenging Sometimes slow progress for aforementioned bureaucracy