Pros
The ODI has a really open and honest working culture, which means that there are plenty of opportunities to talk to leadership about your concerns, regardless of your role. It's quite radical in that way, the "flattest" organisation I've ever worked for. The team are a really warm bunch and people are generally friendly and get along. Flexible working hours and a lot of annual leave days... very relaxed office environment. The support team organise fun social activities for everyone. If you're passionate about tech and data then this is the place for you... there are lots of bright thinkers who genuinely want to help make a difference to how people think of and use data.
Cons
Even though there's much room to learn new skills and do new things, there isn't much of an opportunity to climb up the ladder, earn more money and get more recognition. There's no KPIs and organisational structure is a bit of a mess, so if you want to be able to get a pay raise or your role reviewed you have to be friendly with someone in the leadership team to make it happen... which doesn't cater to introverts who find that difficult, or staff that don't interact often with leadership. Professional development is undervalued and consistently it is flagged by staff as something important but not taken seriously by leadership. Many people feel they have little guidance when it comes to growing professionally at the ODI. Team morale has also been very up and down, I think in some part as a reaction to this. The leadership team are well meaning and good people who are trying their hardest but I felt they often didn't listen to the team or wouldn't communicate their decisions very well. There has never been a definition about what things are or aren't open meaning that staff get frustrated when they're used to things being transparent and then something will happen behind closed doors with little explanation, inevitably leading to speculation which can turn into office gossip.