I worked at Brookhaven National Laboratory back in 2010. There we very nice perks that I noticed immediately,
* access to large interesting tools and projects
* Big big budgets that often take good long looks at their decision long term making
* Generally very smart people around and interesting community events unlike working at a corporation.
* Perks and benefits well above and beyond working at corporations (often in lieu of higher pay that corps would offer)
I worked on the LHC and RHIC projects on the data processing side and it was pretty great. The laboratory itself was very run-down and not maintained well in many areas. Conversely because you're often shortstaffed you get enormous opportunities to play with various aspects of technology and head up interesting projects.
Day to day it was a lot of coffee breaks and discussions about where to go for lunch that day. There's a 'hurried' aspect that probably exists at one of the FAANG's.
Last bit of advice, most labs are either DOD or DOE managed facilities that are often managed by a large consortium, in BNL's case it was Battelle. They are often run this way to keep workers from being Federal workers with more rights and perks. Different labs are run by different consortium's, something to be aware of.
* access to large interesting tools and projects
* Big big budgets that often take good long looks at their decision long term making
* Generally very smart people around and interesting community events unlike working at a corporation.
* Perks and benefits well above and beyond working at corporations (often in lieu of higher pay that corps would offer)
I worked on the LHC and RHIC projects on the data processing side and it was pretty great. The laboratory itself was very run-down and not maintained well in many areas. Conversely because you're often shortstaffed you get enormous opportunities to play with various aspects of technology and head up interesting projects.
Day to day it was a lot of coffee breaks and discussions about where to go for lunch that day. There's a 'hurried' aspect that probably exists at one of the FAANG's.
Last bit of advice, most labs are either DOD or DOE managed facilities that are often managed by a large consortium, in BNL's case it was Battelle. They are often run this way to keep workers from being Federal workers with more rights and perks. Different labs are run by different consortium's, something to be aware of.