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      Allen Institute for AI

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      Allen Institute for AI Reviews

      4.7

      94% would recommend to a friend

      (59 total reviews)
      avatar

      Ali Farhadi

      51% approve of CEO

      88% positive business outlook

      Ratings by category

      4.9

      Work/Life balance

      4.8

      Culture and values

      4.8

      Compensation and benefits

      4.7

      Career opportunities

      4.6

      Senior management

      4.3

      Diversity and inclusion

      Allen Institute for AI has an employee rating of 4.7 out of 5 stars, based on 59 company reviews on Glassdoor which indicates that most employees have an excellent working experience there. The Allen Institute for AI employee rating is 22% above average for employers within the Information Technology industry (3.9 stars).

      Reviews by job title

      59 reviews
      3.0
      15 May 2017

      Unequal Opportunity

      Anonymous employee
      Recommend
      CEO approval
      Business outlook

      Pros

      AI2 can be a very rewarding place to work if you find the right team and have a good manager, or if you are a researcher with a strong track record. The problems are interesting, the people are awesome, work life balance is encouraged and supported, and the location on Lake Union is stunning. When issues come up, people are very passionate about solving them - this level of engagement is what keeps me here when things get tough (as they do most anywhere from time to time).

      Cons

      You can tell a lot about a company by how they treat their junior and support staff. At AI2, junior and nontechnical staff aren't always treated well: - Training and career advancement not provided on a consistent basis. - Admin staff are discouraged from advocating for themselves and are frequently mistreated by technical employees. - Pay is lower than industry average if you're not coming from a big-name company. Expect to negotiate aggressively. - Accommodations for personal or medical needs will be ignored or treated as an inconvenience if brought to the attention of HR and leadership. Most of these problems are at the management level, not the team level. The CEO is a major source of cultural issues. Many people are afraid to push back on him and HR is not empowered to protect employees against his whims. He likes to be "hands on," which means that he will involve himself in and question decisions made by people on every team at all levels of the organization. You should expect to have to earn his trust and fight for your autonomy on a regular basis.

      avatar
      Allen Institute for AI Response
      8y
      As a small, non-profit research institute we are passionate not only about our mission (‘AI for the Common Good’) and technical challenges, but also about how we treat each and every member of our team. We are proud to have just been recognized, based on employee surveys, as the sixth-best company to work for in the state of Washington (mid-size category) by Seattle Business Magazine: http://seattlebusinessmag.com/workplace/100-best-companies-snapshot-allen-institute-artificial-intelligence It’s hurtful to read this review from an employee because it isn’t consistent with our values, our practices, or the facts: - We have gone above and beyond in making ADA accommodations without exception. They are not a burden to us and we strive to do best for all of our employees and treat everyone equally and fairly. - We provide all team members with training and career advancement regardless of level or type of employee.
      5.0
      1 Aug 2014

      Working at AI2 has been the best work experience of my life.

      Senior software engineer
      Recommend
      CEO approval
      Business outlook

      Pros

      I chose to apply for a position at AI2 because I wanted to work on something "important" that could potentially be my "life's work". After six months on the job, I feel that I made a great life changing decision. I have never felt so humbled and fulfilled at work as I do at AI2. The caliber of my co-workers motivates me to continuously produce my best work. Aside from the work being great, the culture is also great. People are encouraged to take leadership opportunities via our "take personal initiative" policy. The company director (Oren Etzioni) is committed to being transparent and enabling employees to manage their own work while holding us to very high standards. I think this works very well because of the caliber of researchers and engineers we have hired. It just feels like the right way to run a company of world class knowledge workers. Also, the company is committed to work/life balance. Vacations are encouraged and workaholic hours are not.

      Cons

      If you are used to being the "superstar" performer (as I was), then AI2 will be humbling. I actually consider that a pro, but I imagine some may not.

      5.0
      30 Jun 2016

      Great compromise between academia and industry

      Research scientist
      Recommend
      CEO approval
      Business outlook

      Pros

      As a research scientist, this is a great place to work. We have a strong research agenda, attend conferences, work on teams with great engineering support and have access to as much computation as we need. Our research is not constrained by a profit motive, and we are totally open. We are also fully funded, so we have no need to write grant proposals. We attract top-notch interns, so there is opportunity for mentoring. The title of my review says "compromise", but actually, I don't think there's any compromising here. We have the best of both industry and academia, without the drawbacks of either. A large percentage of the office works ~9-5, so the work/life balance is sane. I don't feel any kind of social pressure to work more than a 40 hour week, or to work in the evenings when I want to be spending time with my kids.

      Cons

      The problems we work on are challenging; too challenging, it feels like sometimes. While there's a lot of opportunity for people to work together, it's also too easy for individual researchers to get siloed off doing their own thing, ending up duplicating work.

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      Glassdoor has 79 Allen Institute for AI reviews submitted anonymously by Allen Institute for AI employees. Read employee reviews and ratings on Glassdoor to decide if Allen Institute for AI is right for you.