Pros
* Excellent clients working toward worthy causes. The best part of this job is the clients you get to work with. * Team-oriented staffing (multiple people per client) allows you to work with many people from different walks of life. You can develop your "team-work" skills by managing professional relationships with many different types of personalities and people. * You will learn to cope with an unmanageable workload, which will make almost any succeeding job seem relatively simple. * Senior staff are very accessible. While their options for easing your concerns are limited, they are genuinely great people who care on a personal level about other employees.
Cons
* The workload balloons to an unmanageable level quickly. Expect to work well over 40 hours per week - much closer to 60 - and weekend work will be frequent. * "100% Remote Office" is code-word for "you are always on-the-clock." There is never a chance to unplug from the job. Taking a single sick day will result in you being VERY far behind on your assignments. * The firm is more focused on client acquisition and retention than staff. Each client has a set workload that is in the contract, and this is almost never enforced; resulting in overworked staff and diminished work quality. * High rate of staff turnover, so once you have learned the ropes you will always be teaching someone else the ropes. Limited stability within your writing teams. * Some of the mid-tier management (i.e. writing team leaders) are not good at managing people. They have been promoted because they write very well, but are lousy managers of people. For instance, if you send a draft back to a writer for a fourth revision, the manager should just do the edits themselves and address the disconnect in a follow-up meeting. The writer has four other clients to write drafts for, and can't do four attempts at a single draft. Some in mid-management seem to take joy in lording over the grant writers. * Very aggressive non-compete which will limit your opportunities to work elsewhere in the non-profit sector in DC.