The company brands itself as progressive, leaning on its political history. It pays like a political analytics firm. However, one will find that most of the time and money is spent on corporate clients. This conflicts with the mission-driven branding of the company and the compensation that is low for the clients that are being served.
The company also brands itself as a leading analytics firm—yet, table stakes, introductory, 101-level best practices in machine learning are completely ignored. Attempts to revamp this culture are met with leadership indifference at best and pushback due to institutional inertia at worst.
Management completely lacks transparency. Performance reviews are a sham, and weekly 1:1 meetings with managers are useless. One should not be surprised to find that one day you have been blindsided by HR telling you that you have been doing your job poorly for a long time—all without the manager you report to giving you this feedback.
There are also a lack of growth opportunities in one's career, as the promotions are not actually based on the rubric that is given to one for advancement. Unfortunately, like most places, growing one's career seems to be largely based on vibes and not merit.
