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Institute for Defense Analyses

This company is a government contractor think tank.  Out customers are the DOD, Army, Navy, Air Force, Coast Guard, and other government agencies who want to know the answers to a "What-if" senerio.  How does the war in Somalia effect the drug cartels in South America is an example of what these PHD's have to research and think about.  However, that is not in my scope of work.  My primary function is make sure the employees submit a timesheet so they can get paid for the hours worked on these task and the capture that data and submit that to the billing accountant to create labor invoices to the customers for hours worked on their projects.

IDA is an entirely research based company. If you don't have a PhD, you don't matter. Support staff are treated like second class citizens. The pay is mediocre at best. There is little room for advancement, and the people that do get promoted move up due to race or favoritism and not job performance. The Management staff are ignorant of how to fix issues and generally don't care about their employees. Departments are forced to work understaffed, while managers demand more with less. The only perk of working for this company is that the benefits package is above average. The clearance process is a pain, and until you have it, you are completely expendable.

The Company has not had other than an interim president since 2018.  As a result, the company's vision has become uncertain and it has lost its mission focus and purpose as more and more the functional managers (HR, General Counsel, Finance) set the tone and direction of the company.  The research analysts that are the backbone of the company's operation lack leadership and direction from the top.  

A draining toxic atmosphere in the physical security department, generally clueless about most things and this is only in reference to the security management team! There is no loyalty to hard working colleagues and the payscale is needing a serious review.  The place is so bad to work that staff members keeps on leaving every week.  You are  working on overdrive for the whole shift without a break which isn't healthy. They consider anyone as "RESOURCE" that can be switched out. Disgraceful, disrespectful and completely unprofessional.

I really enjoyed working at IDA. The only caveat I have is that it is, for certain legitimate reasons (they are a research and analysis firm), biased towards PhDs and retired high-ranking military. Pay and the opportunity for advancement is somewhat limited for people outside of these areas. However, if you understand that going in, you will enjoy your time there. The work is relevant and there is an excellent corporate culture.

A typical day in the life of a person that works in finance includes using accounting software and spreadsheets to enter, record and update financial records. Entering and recording checks and cash; checking documents and posts for accuracy and assigning debits and credits to the correct accounts. The responsibilities of someone working in the finance arena varies by level of experience and education. A person in finance must pay attention to detail in order to avoid making errors and recognize errors that others have made.

When I first came to IDA it was a very friendly enjoyable place to work. The staff was nice and people genuinely seemed to enjoy the family like atmosphere. With the changes in upper management in the last year or so, the culture has completely changed to one of secretive exclusion. You are a number, not a person. Despite the poor job market, the complete lack of empathy from management during COVID has many long term employees either retiring, moving on to friendlier environs, or being terminated. 

A typical day at work there was like being in or not being in the click like high school.  The work in not hard unless you are a scientist there working on contracts or writing papers.  

I don't consider the management to be family oriented or passionate about their underlings.  The hardest part of working their was the feeling of being alone and feeling job security was not secure by  management.

This company has great opportunity and compensation for Research staff members and Research Associates with very generous benefits for all full time employees as well an opportunity to move up with salary and responsibility within your expertise. Other employees (Admin services, Admin. specialists, tech support, etc) do not seem to have the high ranging salary research staff are given with a low salary cap that makes it hard to progress.

My time with IDA was enjoyable and rewarding due to the people and overall culture.  It was at the beginning of my career in Industrial Security and I have learned the complete basis of my duties as a security professional.  My former supervisor was one of the best in my career and mentor.  I had to move on after 12 years due to hitting the salary ceiling.  There was basically no room to advance.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Researcher 20 salaries reported	$180,316 per year
Research analyst 38 salaries reported	$192,124 per year
Research associate 22 salaries reported	$115,834 per year
Security guard 16 salaries reported	$54,428 per year
Network engineer 14 salaries reported	$136,239 per year

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