3.0
Jan 3, 2019
Former employee, more than 1 year
Washington, DC
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook
Pros
Urban is a great place to get a start in policy research and to learn hard research skills really quickly. It churns out grad school entrants to some of the best institutions when you enter at the RA level.
Cons
Because it operates like an old school academic institute, it's very hard to gain responsibility or trust of project leads without getting a Master's degree or PhD. Innovation is not valued and hard work isn't really rewarded since everyone is promoted and given raises on the exact same schedule. Also, the Institute has huge gaps in hiring diverse senior staff, which is a big problem for an org whose mission is to write policy that alleviates poverty and solves big social issues.