senior financial analyst

project manager

financial analyst

intern

program manager

Port of Seattle

The Port offers a wide variety of training,  professional development opportunities and good pay. However, trying to move work forward or launch initiatives can be frustrating. The departments are highly siloed and try to operate as their own organization. The politics at the Port are more than anywhere I have ever worked. If a Sr. Manager or Director likes you, then they will support your work to some degree, if they don’t agree with you innovation will die at the ground level. Directors are often highly political and will make decisions based on feelings rather than facts. I wouldn’t recommend the Port if you are wanting to innovate. Status quo is alive and well. They claim to use CPI but only on easy fixes, and many directors and ELT members only want good news coming out of their groups. They don’t want to fix the systemic issues. The Port looks great on a resume and many just use it as a way to quickly advance up the ranks while never really improving anything as they move. God help you if you have to purchase anything as it can months or years to get through the convoluted purchasing process, unless you work at the airport which is seen as the crown jewel. Maritime departments are asked to do more and more with substantially less resources. Executives treat Aviation and Maritime as one single Port but that is far from the truth. 

What is the best part of working at the company?
Working for an iconic, high visibility, high impact Seattle organization, with a culture of custody and care for its mission and the environment.

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
Convoluted opaque processes and decision making, aggravated by managers that meddle in the day to day work of their staff.

 

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
The work is mostly about managing administrative and support processes associated with operating the airport and waterfront missions of the port.   

These processes are well intentioned, but result in more personal effort to move things forward than is needed.  

For most of the Port's workers, little of their effort is focused on front line duties or on planning and innovation.   This often makes the day to day work experience tedious and sometimes very frustrating.

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
Most of a typical day is taken up with managing process flow and expediting issues that are hung-up by delay by others in getting issues resolved.   

Meetings take up an inordinate amount of productive time and do not yield much value.

Good workplace with opportunity for career advancement and educational opportunities within the Port as well as college tuition reimbursement.
Administrative and Organizational support to Chief, Deputy Chief and Manager of police department.  Confidentiality, organization, respect, and communication skills very important.  
Enjoyed working with others in a responsible position while still having time to attend college in the evenings.  
Position for me was to support myself while attending college as well as working in a public organization with career advancement available.  
Enjoyed diverse work environment with fellow employees as well as airport customers and other Port departments.
Hardest part of job was being the only non-union administrative staff member and watching that my duties did not overstep those of union support staff.  At beginning I was an oddity as the Chief never had an administrative assistant and some staff members were interested in the position but were not eligible due to their union affiliation.

Working in Finance & Budget at the airport COULD be a really interesting and rewarding job.  Positions are also generally paid competitively, even on the generous side given the work life balance.  The problem is that leadership is incompetent, entitled, condescending, autocratic and toxic.  People who try to make process improvements and suggest new and better ways of doing things are retaliated against and given low performance ratings.  Many people have tried to change the culture, but leadership has doubled down and things have only gotten worse.  Turnover in the Finance & Budget department is terrible as a result of the leadership.  Employees have tried to bring issues to the attention to HR, CFO and managing director of the airport, but there is no interest in intervening .  I can not in good conscience recommend this workplace to any Finance professional who wants to feel productive and valued in their job.

The Port does a tremendous job of pumping you up during the interview process and onboarding. The excitement to join the work is short lived until you realize toxic team are abundant, routing for your failure or creating intentional barriers to see if you’ll self sabotage and look incompetent. People gatekeep information, practices and procedures are inconsistent and communication is terrible. Good luck accomplishing anything. They hold you hostage during the 6mo probation period so don’t think about opening your mouth with ideas, opinions or questions. Vacation or sick leave is impossible during this time as well. The toxicity or this environment will either make you want to fight the battle to change it or you’ll be exhausted from the emotional battle and leave. Either way, it’s an emotional roller coaster. Be sure you have a way to ground yourself or you’ll lose your mind before the end of probation.

What is the best part of working at the company?
Work life balance, fair payment, investment on employees. 

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
It’s a 24/7 organization, although it does not affect my work hours. 

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
It’s great. The Port is working hard to put in practice its values, diversity, inclusion, fair pay. Constant town halls to explain and communicate the future of the Port and hear feedback and implement changes that benefits its employees. 

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
In my organization we do work hard and are proud of our efforts in supporting our internal clients. However, we do have enough support from leadership and a great work life balance.

It was Five buses down town every day 12 houres from door step to door step.I serviced and maintianed five copiers. I loged in all incoming packages.and unloaded skides of computers and paper using a fork lift.I cleaned and kept up a warehouse. i deliverd and had every package singhed for by reciepeant for internal tracking {my system} i canceld mail on a postage matchen.I inserted billing into envelopes. i use bindrey equipment i.e.paper cutters. folders. drills. spiral binding.I did mouthly fire bottle checkes and punched and sighed the tages. i sorted the incoming usps.mail for over 200 people.It was alot of walking the buiding was 1/4 mile and had three flores. it was a lot of work but i did love it.

A typical day at work with the Port of Seattle was exciting and new everyday.   I learned how to use to radio with all it's codes to assist with all request of and duties using this system.  I also learned the functions of all trades used to maintain the Port and Pier (Properties they maintenance).  The management here were the most caring and helpful I've come across.  It's really a team while working with this company.  The co-workers have a serious job to perform and do this while maintaining a smile on their faces.  Very polite and a joy to be around.  The hardest part of this job was fighting traffic to get there.  I absolutely loved working here and giving my helping hand to assist with the process of Marine Maintenance!

Overall the Port is a great employer that offers room for growth.  It really is about who you work for and there are some bad managers that shouldn't be in leadership positions but because they are, the Port backs them and doesn't back the employee.   Many people are given promotions and that often means that they are responsible for managing others, but unfortunately don't have the skills to be a good manager.  In some respects its not their fault, but it would be nice if managers were required to learn the skills to help motivate and help their employees instead of just documenting everything they do wrong so they can have an employee terminated.

It's a productive environment, and the management team is a standout. They understand that employees have lives outside of work and are very reasonable when things come up. What I appreciated most was that management treats everyone like adults—they don't coddle, but they're supportive and always willing to advocate for their employees. The job itself is pretty straightforward, which I appreciated. However, it's worth noting that the summer months are extremely busy. If you prefer a slower-paced work environment, this might not be the best fit for you during that time. Management does a great job of hiring people who work well together, which creates a positive and supportive atmosphere.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Senior financial analyst 2 salaries reported	$132,184 per year
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Intern 4 salaries reported	$24.92 per hour
Program manager 3 salaries reported	$116,296 per year

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