Falling apart at the seams. - Anonymous employee DAI Employee Review

2.0
Apr 28, 2014
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

The people - the employees (not management) in the London office are an outstanding group. Motivated, passionate and friendly. Benefits - these are generally good with private healthcare, subsidised gym membership etc. Culture - dress down Fridays and cake Fridays are a favourite. People are genuinely friends with each other and pub trips are regular.

Cons

Career progression - was mind-numbingly slow before and now after the recent re-structure is non-existent. Career progression 2 - under the new structure specialising in an area is very difficult. You will be expected to work on different bids in different areas - creating jack of all trades master of none workforce. Pay - DAI are notorious for expecting you to work very hard for next to no money. You can expect to be paid 15-20% more at a competitor for the same job. The management - completely out of touch with employees. They are very stuck in their ways, do not listen to advice/input (even when they ask for it), communicate terribly with the teams and are unwilling to change.

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Pros

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Cons

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4.0
Feb 6, 2026
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Pros

Strong culture of integrity. Absolutely spectacular colleagues. Super interesting work.

Cons

Basically denuded of staff due to USAID cuts. Upper management had become obsessed with performance against metrics that were poorly fit to the business, and were focused entirely on how they might meet those metrics this week, without looking ahead to how to make structural improvements over the longer term.

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