Howard Hughes Medical Institute Employee Job Reviews in the United States

"I've been working at HHMI for 2 years. Everything was good. Good team, friendly managers. Overall, positive atmosphere within the team"

"Very helpful program for allowing students and prospective scientific workers to work without limitations and feel welcomed and involved in the scientific community."

What do you like about working at Howard Hughes Medical Institute?

"The software and hardware resources to get the job done. And the caliber of client we worked with."

Do you have any tips for others interviewing with this company?

"Be prepared for non-traditional approaches to production of graph projects, and frequent revision."

What don't you like about working at Howard Hughes Medical Institute?

"Working for 2 layers of hierarchy that were post doctoral scientists who had no understanding or respect for the field of graphic design."

What suggestions do you have for management?

"Shed more light on everyone's work. Share more of the process with everyone involved. be inclusive rather than exclusive."

"Low pay, great benefits, big egos, relative autonomy."

"Howard Hughes Medical Institute is a great place for postdoc training."

"This is a very honest review."

What do you like about working at Howard Hughes Medical Institute?

"It's an old time environment so many people there had worked there for many many years. It is a wealthy establishment with excellent benefits and many perks."

Do you have any tips for others interviewing with this company?

"If you are a person of color and money, perks or benefits are not your main drive in life, don't bother interviewing. If you are Caucasian and are the type that just does as you are told without questioning anything, loves rigid environments and enjoy kissing up and schmoozing, its the best place for you especially if you are close to retirement. If you are young and restless with your life ahead of you, don't bother."

What don't you like about working at Howard Hughes Medical Institute?

"My former boss is a very bossy boss. She is a very rude person without anger management skills and if you work for her she has free reign over you. She is the kind of person who would yell at you one minute because she can, say nasty things to you and expect you to like her and have a good relationship with her the next minute. There's no employee confidentiality with her. She gossips about people's personal issues which in turn makes people treat you differently. She did this to several people. If you don't agree with her, you are her enemy. She is very immature and vengeful. She did so many things to me including one time telling me there was no money in the budget to pay for classes I wanted to take even though there was and I'm eligible for tuition reimbursement. She would constantly remind me she hired me by starting every sentence with when I hired you. I complained to her about something once and she told me don't get your panties in a bunch. She is an uncultured low class person in a high level position they gave her because she almost killed herself to get it, so she believes she can do anything and get away with it. HHMI operates almost like a cult. Anything you do, know you are being watched. There was a time I walked past a hallway where a conference was being held in the conference center on my way to get lunch. Someone contacted my manager that I shouldn't be walking past there. Mind you, from the entrance I came in through it was on the way to the cafeteria and I had walked past many times with no problem and many employees do too. Hey, I guess they thought what is this young black girl walking past here for. Get rid of her. Never question anything. They believe they own you and you can't question anything. For example, they have a travel dept. to arrange job required travel but they want you to give them your personal credit card information to keep on their files to arrange the travel for you. When I first started and they asked me for my personal credit card info for their travel files, I was taken back and asked why to understand the reason. They had a fit, contacted my manager and I got in big trouble. However, I ended up arranging most of my own travel anyway because they are so behind the times in the dept. The people of color there are very aware of the racism that goes on so they are very cautious. I watched a lot of good people come and go because the company's perspective is that the manager is right. There are many bad managers there and have been there for a long time and they can get away with it because employees don't want to lose the excellent pay, benefits and perks."

What suggestions do you have for management?

"I think the old time mentality of question nothing; they own you and the subtle racism should be checked. There are many people who still have the mindset that people of color should be seen and not heard. I'm glad I no longer work there because I had never been so miserable making so much money in my entire life."

"Its great being at the top. I only wish there was money in this field"

What do you like about working at Howard Hughes Medical Institute?

"Fantastic people, great facilities, true academic freedom, perpetual challenge"

What don't you like about working at Howard Hughes Medical Institute?

"Academia just doesn't pay well enough"

What suggestions do you have for management?

"Need BIGGER grants!!!"