Pros
- Staff tend to be kind, friendly, and occasionally open to hanging out outside of work. At the office, there is a relaxed and congenial office atmosphere. - Managers tend to also be kind, and usually are conscious of work life balance. Outside of a few rare situations, I have been able to log off at 5pm or earlier every day without worry. - Work projects frequently have direct impact on APSA's members or political science as a discipline, and it does feel like our work has importance. - Brilliant and interesting community. Staff and APSA members are all incredibly smart and work on fascinating subjects and projects. Easy to be intellectually stimulated at work. - Benefits are solid for a higher education focused non-profit. - Really great workplace for folks interesting in pursuing a career in higher education, academia, or DC non-profits and lots of opportunities to network with other folks in those spaces.\ - New executive director started, meaning some of the negatives below may be fixed in near future.
Cons
- Mediocre pay for junior staff, especially for a high-cost of living area like DC. - Seemingly high turnover. Possibly due to mediocre pay, many early career folks view APSA as a stepping stone to another more lucrative career and only stay for a year or two. - Lack of established best practices. There is a lack of institutional knowledge on how programs should be run and what best practices should be for office collaboration. For example, there are no centralized procedures for how to request assistance from finance, from communications, or any other frequent office needs. - Overabundance of small initiatives. APSA is responsible for hundreds if not thousands of small programs, committees, sections, and other projects, leaving work responsibilities spread very thinly.