senior program officer

program assistant

deputy director

program officer

senior program coordinator

Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

This review has no bearing on the Gates family, only org Management, who spend too much time and limited resources making their strategies perfect, and should focus more on taking risks, project execution and impact. Overall excellent benefits package, cannot be compared to any other organization. Inclusive and collaborative work culture. You can achieve work/life-balance if you have a manager that supports it and if you prioritize this for yourself. Otherwise, it won't happen.
The hardest part of the job is listening to people talk over each other as they explain what they're planning to do. There's this overwhelming cultural bent to "bring everyone along" literally every step of the way. The most enjoyable part of the job is seeing the goals of the Co-Chairs and their mission play out and making progress with spirited and talented people. Managers need to protect their talent from getting bogged down in too much strategy and let them execute. Let people fail if you have to and stop covering your own A*#. Also, while job security is strong, support staff  need clearer career paths within the organization. There are tons of unused resources just crammed in support roles. Let some of those highly capable people out of their little boxes! Management will be surprised at what they find. 

I had three managers over 10 years. Each one was different. Your experience depends completely on your manager and micro-culture. Without changing departments, I found myself in an unhealthy situation with two levels too many of middle management because there was no where for people to advance to. 
A typical complaint that I echo: They put people in management that have no business being there. Then these people learn by making mistakes effecting your career.
C-level management is caring and attentive as possible, but it grew so large (I started when it was about 200 employees and left when it was more than 2,000) that the people making the rules aren't able to tell if anything is actually good or bad in the ranks.
Additionally, while the idea is to go there and change the world, there has become a sickening culture of entitlement. For example, the outrage when the parental leave went from 52 wks paid time off to 26 wks PLUS $20k. People were up in arms. Or heaven forbid they put a free snack out that you're allergic to! I even had a woman complain to me that the free cupcakes celebrating valentines day were offensive because we humans consume too much sugar...and she was 100% straight-faced serious.
Add all of this to the general culture of taking credit for others' ideas and getting ahead by putting others down, just be careful going in. It's not as golden and glossy as it appears from the outside.

Disruptive change is difficult at best and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation can be best seen through that lens. Taking on the big problems and issues of the world requires much ideation, testing of those ideas, course corrections and then refocusing on the goal. Imagine then, the disruptive change occurs simultaneously inside and outside the Gates Foundation. That is the world of the Gates Foundation operates within; this is not a place for the faint of heart.

I have found that the pressure on making the right investments and creating the right programs causes us to lose sight of our real customer--the person in the 3rd world that needs the result of our work.

The Gates Foundation is a great place to impact the world and some of the greatest humanitarian challenges. The power of the brand and its influence on philanthropy and the non-profit sector is second to none. Because of the its visibility and transparency, it is a challenging place to work--and the rewards are enormous.

The foundation provides an amazing opportunity to work for an organization that is truly dedicated to improving the lives of others.  In general, my colleagues are exceptionally smart, talented and motivated. The compensation and benefits are very good and make it a hard place to leave, even when you find the job challenging.  The main issues with the foundation are the lack of work/life balance and the variability of job satisfaction depending on your specific team.

I spend 40% of my time creating a process, forms, template and document guide for the Town Square Dailogues(TSD) at the Foundation. The other 40% I coordinated the events with all the team players, lined up the TSD schedule, hold meetings with the event team. Contancted guest speakers' office to coordinate their visit at the foundation, contacted vendor to video record the events and trasncripst. I created the agenda for events step by steps.The other 20% i helped the director with the budget and the department needs. Management make you very accountable for every week of work and your progress and there was excellent communication. For the most part co-workers were helpful. The hardest part of the job was doing the TSD for the Executive because there were many changes until the last minute and the level of perfection was like working for the White House. I learned to be very flexible and open for change. The most enjoyable part of the job was the management and knowing that the reason of your work was for a very good cause.

The mission you're a part of is excellent as are the benefits. The compensation's a little lower than normally would be expected, but that's normal considering it's a non-profit albeit the world's largest private one.
The culture was once family-oriented, but as the organization's grown, its employees are the ones who feel the growing pains - not management. The worst part is that most don't see the negative effects coming until it's too late. 
Management doesn't really tend to support underlings much except for using lip service as a placebo despite a constant theme of asking for feedback - that gets nothing positive done. If the wrong buttons are pushed, the right ones are enacted to punish you for doing your job.

The Gates Foundation is the cream of the crop for those interested in changing the world. The overall benefits package is amazing, as is the salary for non-profit work. It is very challenging to get into the foundation, but once you're in be prepared for a highly competitive environment, often poor management, and increasing job insecurity. You have the humbling experience of working with some of the most brilliant people in the world - which is fantastic but also cause for feeling like an "imposter." The foundation prides itself on making "big bets" - investing in innovation that can change the world. Because of that, strategies change often and re-orgs happen almost on a yearly basis. Since joining the foundation two years ago, but team has undergone three re-orgs and has laid off 25 people. Morale is low.

No matter how stressful your day, you turn to loo at "the boss" and you know you're doing your job for the right reasons. The boss is a young African child bathing/sitting in a blue bucket and SHE is who we work for. She is the exact person we are working to provide a healthy and productive life to.
The foundation unfortunately is extremely political and difficult to get things with such a process oriented internal system. Some ideas and projects take weeks just to get approved because so many people have to touch the work before it's ok'ed. That can be very difficult when you just want to help the girl in the blue bucket.

A typical day at the foundation as IT Support would start with a nice cup of coffee followed up with a check of the ticket queue. Maintaining the queue and making sure tickets are resolved and closed is the main priority. Interacting with customers to ensure everything is working properly and also informing them on statuses of your work with their equipment is important. Mondays and Thursday a mandatory Video Teleconference Room sweep is conducted to  assure no interference or problems occur in the event of a meeting or audio/visual conference. Free snacks and drinks are provided to you daily and the best part is after there is a big meeting with food provided the leftovers are then brought to the kitchen for anyone to eat. I love the foundation and my time here will always be remembered.

1. If you love tech, this is a great place. No doubt you'll talk tech (mostly the MSFT stack) from enterprise to consumer - from PCs to phones to Xboxes - from datacenter to desktop.

2. What were GREAT benefits are now VERY GOOD (took a small step down) but still probably better than you'll find at 99% of large corporations. If you've got family - the value of the benefits is even higher. 401k match is nice.

3. Even with it's struggles MSFT is still a cash printing machine. This means if you can keep your nose clean and do reasonable work, you can have a stable job, pay your bills, feed your family, and not worry (too much) about layoffs. The stock you own likely won't tank, but probably won't go up much either. You'll get a bonus each year and some stock. It's a decent life if you aren't looking to light the world on fire.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Senior program officer 42 salaries reported	$258,864 per year
Program assistant 21 salaries reported	$35.85 per hour
Deputy director 19 salaries reported	$332,066 per year
Program officer 12 salaries reported	$189,992 per year
Senior program coordinator 7 salaries reported	$52.67 per hour

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