Work Life - Program Coordinator Carnegie Foundation Employee Review

Carnegie is great for people who enjoy challenges. If you like to be pushed, working for Carnegie is the place to be. You have to put the time in, get to know the culture, colleagues and everyone’s work style. Once you figure that out, the experience is fun and challenging. Not day is ever the same.

There is definitely room for improvement especially with the way projects are brought on and how staff and the budget is allocated. The structure of the organization needs to be improved, too much oversight by the president that tends to delay the process.

I loved the vast majority of my colleagues here - hard-working folks who are in it for the mission of improving schools for historically underserved students. There was a spirit of innovation and creativity that was exciting to be part of.

Leadership back then brought a lot of hierarchy from academic institutions into this non-profit. Ultimately, practitioners were not as respected as the scholars. These days, there is new leadership and I am not there anymore. I hear it's a much more corporate culture, more interest in securing large grants than doing innovative work. But don't take my word for it - this is just second-hand.