principal

senior associate engineer

research associate

senior chemical engineer

senior project associate

Pew Charitable Trusts

Are you passionate about your work? Motivated to produce good research? If so, avoid Pew at all costs. 

Pew has earned a reputation in DC as a poor place to work for a lot of good reasons. For one, they've developed an incredibly insular culture. People aren't interested in hearing about how processes could be improved or learning best practices from other organizations. Much of Pew's top leaders and managers have little to no work experience outside of Pew. Experienced hires from outside the organization typically don’t stay for more than a few years. It's one of the main reasons why, despite having a ton of resources, Pew is more than a decade behind other DC think tanks in how they go about producing and publishing research.

Pew's risk-averse culture also makes it extremely challenging to produce any original research. And if you do succeed in getting a proposal approved, it will take so long to move through the internal bureaucracy that it will be outdated by the time it's published.

The primary root cause of Pew’s problems, though, can be traced back to management. All throughout the organization, there are managers who lack management skills or even adequate knowledge of their issue areas. Many are extremely difficult to deal with. I’ve spent much of my time working for a manager who, despite being here for decades, struggled to name a single impressive project they had ever led. I’ve encountered multiple managers who would’ve likely been fired from any other organization (even the government) years ago. But here, there’s no accountability. I suspect part of that has to do with Pew’s large endowment; other nonprofits and private employers couldn’t afford to tolerate them.

If you’re not passionate about your work and don’t mind all the office politics, then you might be able to tolerate working here. We have fantastic benefits and good work-life balance.

But for everyone else, it’s not worth it. My experience at Pew has, quite frankly, taken a major toll on my mental health, and I know that I’m not alone in feeling that way. I felt more valued and respected during multiple college internships (which for me, was a long time ago) than I have working here.

Pew has attempted to make improvements in some areas, such as promoting telework. But until many of the underlying issues with managers are addressed, it will continue to be a terrible place to build a career.

-	Perform project management tasks like project plans, progress reports, time line of project, project impact on organization and project scheduling. 
-	Involved in Business Process Analysis and reengineering for PEW Charitable Trusts.
-	Responsible for analysis and design and Business Process Improvement of company’s web based applications( Automation of business process and Contact management systems)
-	Creating process flow diagram for the new system
-	Requirements gathering from stake holders and users, using interviews, JAD, user walkthrough sessions and formal/ informal meetings in Agile Scrum environment.
-	Successfully delivered high quality Requirements documentation to the satisfaction of all stakeholders and development teams.
-	Regularly groom the product backlog by adding, prioritizing, and/or removing user stories to maintain alignment to the product/project vision, roadmap.
-	Work on Release management and change management taks. 
-	Participate in daily scrum meetings and take the initiative to prepare for and organize other necessary meetings and agile ceremonies such as Sprint Planning.

What is the best part of working at the company?
THE WORK ATMOSPHERE IS VERY WARM AND WELCOMING. THE STAFF THERE SEEM TO REALLY GO OUT OF THEIR WAY TO MAKE YOU FEEL THAT YOU ARE PART OF THE FAMILY.

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
COORDINATING WITH DIFFERENT TEAMS OR GROUPS ON LARGE PROJECTS, THAT INVOLVE MULTIPLE DEPARTMENTS CAN BE STRESSFUL FROM TIME TO TIME; WHEN THINGS ARE NOT PLANNED OUT AHEAD OF TIME. SOMEHOW THE PROJECT GETS DONE ON TIME.

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
THE WORK ENVIRONMENT AND CULTURE OVERALL IS POSITIVE AND INVITING.
THE PEW CHARITABLE TRUST IS UPBEAT, CHALLENGING, FAST PACE  PLACE TO WORK.

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
I CAN ONLY SPEAK FROM THE MAINTENANCE ENGINEERING PERSPECTIVE.
SERVED AS THE CHIEF ENGINEER/ MANAGER AND MY TYPICAL DAYS RAN RATHER SMOOTHLY. THAT WAS MAINLY DUE TO PLANNING AHEAD, COORDINATING WITH OTHER DEPARTMENTS IN ADVANCE, AND FOLLOWING THROUGH ON SCHEDULED ASSIGNMENTS ON SCHEDULE.

I'll start with my advice: Reach out to someone who is currently or recently on the team you want to join to find out about their experience. The experience varies greatly by team, so you should know what you're getting into. I wouldn't recommend working in communications. Also, negotiate for every cent you can get upfront because you will not get any significant raises without a promotion, and promotions are not easy to come by and take a lot of time and political navigation to obtain.

The office is beautiful but sterile, the people are brilliant, the work is important, and the benefits are amazing. Unfortunately, this doesn't make up for the fact that management is terrible, it's impossible to get promoted, there's a lot of cliques and silliness, you will often do work that others get credit for, and you will be asked to do things far outside of the realm of your job description but when it it's time for reviews and promotions, those accomplishments will not be considered. The turnover is incredibly high. According to our HR Business Partner, the average tenure is 18 months and the turnover rate is 40%. This is not a place where you can grow or advance. It is, however, a company that will look very good on your resume and open a lot of doors in DC.

Managers manage by intimidation and bullying. I know of multiple people who have left with full blown depression and anxiety because of Pew's lack of ethical standards when it comes to employees. You don't get recognized for your work, and a very few "yes men" and women get promoted because they don't dare challenge the CEO's rabid hold on everything the organization produces. It's inefficient, you can't even personalize your space (for some minimal amount of daily happiness), and unless you're a top manager, your only job is to act as a scapegoat. I'm surprised they haven't been investigated yet, given their low employee retention and the horrible experiences I've heard about (and had on my own). Not worth your time. Try a different nonprofit with integrity.

Some of the work is good (with reservations for most), some of the work is terrible, and it's impossible to get a raise or promotion. Turnover is high. The CEO makes millions while most non-management makes $70k or (a lot) less, despite the massive endowment and long hours for many. Managers get bumped up with zero training to be a manager. Also, everything is pristine and either white, glass, or steel. Dozens of people from a cleaning contractor clean literal scuffs on the white floor. 

Pew Charitable Trust is one of the most miserable places I have ever had the misfortune of working at. Discriminatory practices and favoritism make working for Pew an absolute nightmare. Management staff makes decisions without the approval of upper management. Male supervisors constantly second guess female staff and will often reassign work to male staff. 

There is a lack of communication between management and the rest of the staff in certain departments to the point that it affects day to day productivity. There is no teamwork among employees, with many purposefully sabotaging coworkers in order to get ahead. There is a lot of red tape when it comes to funding projects.

The people at Pew are some of the smartest, most accountable people I have ever met. It's such a great culture of collaboration and team work towards common goals of improving life for people across the world. There is now new leadership since I left, and I have heard that it's a positive improvement for the culture. Every place has things to complain about, but I loved waking up every morning and going to work at Pew.

The organization as a whole has a very progressive and enlightened stance. However it is growing very fast and its parochial management structures are not keeping pace with the demands of a large modern organization. There is an earnest and committed effort to change this but the process is leaving lots of casualties among the rank and file. Particularly because the only way to move up is to be noticed by a fickle board made up of the founder's family, making the task against entrenched interests, and a very 'clicky' culture very difficult.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Principal 10 salaries reported	$118,055 per year
Senior associate engineer 2 salaries reported	$84,600 per year
Research associate 5 salaries reported	$67,550 per year
Senior chemical engineer 6 salaries reported	$151,200 per year
Senior project associate 5 salaries reported	$84,600 per year

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