Pros
Excellent Benefits, On-Site Fitness Center
Kontras
I was at CTA for several years, and loved it for the first few. However, in recent years, CTA has hemorrhaged staff, and for good reason. There is a huge disconnect between senior staff and the rest of the organization. If you're good at your job, you'll slowly be given more and more projects with zero additional resources, until you reach your breaking point and go somewhere else. You'll beg for headcount, or program funding, and you'll be disregarded. When your colleague leaves because they've had enough, you'll be given all of their work and none of their pay, as you slowly become more frustrated. There's also a reason that CTA makes negative headlines each year for their behavior around women and diversity. The CEO is extremely out of touch with the experiences of women and people of color, and this precipitates down through CTA's policies, positions, programs, and language. They hire a crisis communications team to dig them out of the messes they make, and make a donation to a charity or foundation with promises that they'll do better. Then, in private, you'll hear the CEO make very disparaging and inappropriate comments that show, despite the platitudes in their public statements, the problem persists and it starts at the top. If you're going to join CTA, use it as a stepping stone. Find an employer that honors your humanity, and gives you what you need to thrive.