Important job to support an important mission - Administrative Specialist IV Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory Employee Review

Great place, interesting work, good benefits

Need to be aligned with funding programs

After working at the lab for several years, it's clear why people stick around long-term. There's a strong emphasis on work-life balance, along with on-going professional development. The work is interesting at times, and you can see how your small role plays a larger part in the picture of national security. Work is very stable. Layoffs are essentially non-existent. Even with the recent government shutdown, there was no impact to our work or salaries while our government counterparts had been furloughed. In our uncertain times, the lab does well to maintain stability and ensure a paycheck is essentially guaranteed. Lab offers opportunities to rise into management if you choose to do so, or to continue along your desired technical path. Private office space is generally available. Most people are on flexible schedules too, and able to telecommute.

While the lab is generous in having admin support staff available, the admin support staff are not always as helpful as they could be. Their roles cause frustration at times and it seems like they ask more clarifying questions than needed, and by the time it's sorted out you could have done it yourself several times over. Base pay is good, but is very difficult to compete against large tech companies next door as there aren't huge RSU packages. Also they used to have a discretionary bonus but they took that away during COVID and never brought it back. Overall pay is steady, no large swings upwards, but no chance of layoffs either. Would be nice to have more defined job classifications to get more frequent promotions.