research associate

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Broad Institute

I've worked here since 2002, since before it was called the Broad Institute and have grown with it as it has evolved into the institute it is today.

Working here you will interact with some wonderful, intelligent, kind and supportive people. In general, the culture and benefits are two of the greatest draws. They do put a lot of effort to make minorities feel welcome and accepted which I appreciate.

I've been fortunate to work for an excellent manager who supported my career transition to a software engineer. I don't know if every manager here has a similar disposition, however, so your mileage may  vary.

You will get to work on some interesting projects with goals that anyone can get behind, whether it's related to cancer research or creating resources to help scientists deal with infectious disease. 

The main downside of working here is the salary. If you are lucky enough to not have to worry about that, I highly recommend working here. Benefits are great, you can get up to 5,250 in tuition reimbursed and their is ample time-off. Work-life balance is excellent. 

Additionally, it's very easy to get too comfortable in your position here, and before you know it, you've allowed five years to pass without focusing enough on your career growth.

The Broad Institute is a world-class scientific institution with an amazing culture. Incredible science, that is both mission-driven and cutting-edge, is done here on a daily basis. The employees (scientists/ engineers as well as administrators) at "The Broad" are of extremely high-quality. 

The only con in my opinion is that there is little opportunity for advancement in technical tracks for those individuals whom do not have doctoral degrees. It seems the only managers are those whom run their own labs, or at least have a PhD. But this should come as no surprise at an institution with such high standards of scientific quality. 

Another con, along with the above point, is that more often than not your manager is a scientist with a PhD, whom often does not have formal managerial experience/ training. In my experience, this results in either micromanagement (dictating/ tracking your every task) or non-management (declaring tasks and leaving you to prioritize as well as execute them).

The Broad institute has done an amazing job at creating a good atmosphere for scientists to discuss and communicate ideas. There are very nice chairs on every floor, as well as white boards in multiple locations. On many of my visits, I witnessed many scientists discussing cutting edge research in the common areas. The staff and management were very friendly and created a good sense of community. The hardest part of the job was commuting from Newton to Lowell for school during the day and commuting to Cambridge at the end of the day to conduct experiments, then commuting back to Lowell to drop off scientific supplies before going home. The most enjoyable part of the job was the sense of community and togetherness that the Institute prides itself on. The Institute is also home to some of the most advanced machinery and equipment known to mankind and it instills a sense of awe at the sheer magnitude of the intelligence that went into creating everything that is in there.

When I worked at the Broad, the lead scientist of the lab was very high in demand and he was extremely well-known in the industry. Coming from an entry-level role elsewhere, it was a lot to learn. I don't even think I ever got a complete handle of all my tasks. He wasn't great at giving you direct feedback, but more like throwing you under the bus. However, the other scientists in the lab(postdocs, grad students, etc.) were friendly and the lab manager was such an amazing person.
Pre-pandemic, Broad hosted numerous amounts of social events(depending on your floor/lab), fitness classes, and in-person workshops in the building.
During the pandemic, you can register for these workshops online and they're really helpful! (I never had time/would feel guilty if I went to these before this 'lockdown'). 

The people at the Broad are absolutely the best. Management cares not only about the product, but the people themselves. Pay is a little low because it's a non-profit, but they recognize this and make up for it by being flexible on work hours and offering generous time off (I got a good number of vacation days, plus the whole place shuts down between Christmas and New Year's so you get a week for free)

I ended up leaving for two reasons: First, it felt a little dead-end, and I was also worried that my experiences wouldn't be very applicable to my next job. Second, being a non-profit meant we were completely beholden to the source of the money, and that kept changing, so our goals kept changing. I had my work yanked away from me once, and saw it about to happen again.

Ultimately though, the value of the work you're doing is undeniable and I doubt I'll find that again.

Great place for your first job, everyone is nice and try to help when they can. Lot's of paid time off, sick days, and benefits such as tuition reimbursements. There is a lot to learn and very knowledge people to train you. Great talks to attend to learn about new science. Some of the greatest minds work here, so there is always something to learn. 

However, the structure for getting a raise is pretty much non-existent. Managers often feel like they were handed the job instead of being fully qualified for it. Lot's of reacting to change instead of predicting and trying to adjust things for the change. 

It is a non-profit so salary isn't competitive. Often feels like the company needs to decide to be run like a business or stay more academic.

A typical day of work is 12 hours shift. I learned a lot during this period and how to supervise clinical samples processing. Management is poor since the direct manager of me is not experienced and rely on few person for supervisions. Generally, the culture is okay, but I struggled and was not feeling acceptable since I am an international, also the competition is high. The competition is good thing, but it turns to the opposite site when people play with gossip. The hardest part of the job to work with one supervisor colleague that was not fun, made my work very difficult, and was the cause of " randomly" being fired, without explaining to me the reason. The most enjoyable part of the work, you will come to learn a lot and help with pandemic.

Broad was probably the worst place I have ever worked for. Every PI is out for their own skin, not even their employees' skin, there's no collaboration or teamwork and everyone in there is super-pleased with themselves without really being all that.  Moreover there are 0 chances of career advancement as one can be there for 5-7 years and have 0 publications or help from the PI to advance in academia. The one pro while being there: due to the insane amount of money flowing into the Institute there was always happy hours and free food lying around. Finally the relaxed work ethic of the place was quite laughable too, people would show up after 9.30am and leave well before 4.30pm, always for some weather or personal reason.

Broad Institute is a cool place - lots of scientists, lots of interesting experiments and data analysis going on, many opportunities to
attend interesting lectures about science and statistics.

But ... the software developments are maybe 5-10 years behind the state of the art in industry.  And what might be worse is that the people managing the software developments don't seem to be aware of that fact.

And they're looking to get work done by inexperienced postdocs on $45K/yr, which leaves a software veteran feeling like a square peg in a round hole trying to explain what would be obvious in a more normal environment.

If you're planning on working in COVID testing I would re-consider your decision. The shifts are 12 hours long and the pay is lower than what you could get with other companies. It's good to have on the resume but if you're planning on moving up in the company it's not a good place to start in Covid testing. They hire all contract/temp employees and promise full time employment after 6 months. Most people that ended up working 6 or more months were then not offered full-time and everyones contracts are being terminated on the same date. Upper management only cares about numbers and sees technicians & PDAs as machines.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Research associate 7 salaries reported	$51,571 per year
Research scientist 23 salaries reported	$107,913 per year
Senior research associate 26 salaries reported	$72,757 per year
Postdoctoral associate 42 salaries reported	$81,032 per year
Development associate 10 salaries reported	$66,400 per year

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