I had the pleasure of working at SRI International, in the ,lab created by the late Douglas Engelbart, on the CALO project. I'll offer a few comparisons to othe

I had the pleasure of working at SRI International, in the ,lab created by the late Douglas Engelbart, on the CALO project. I'll offer a few comparisons to other tech companies for whom I worked. Firstly, SRI was collegial; an example, at a prior tech company, the DBA was insanely concerned with what I might be doing; at SRI, DBAs and others would ask "how can I help you?". As to compensation: certainly SRI, being a non-profit, did not offer stock options; I did well on those at a previous employer. Salary scales might be lower, but not that much lower. Unlike Google and other employers, we did not have a free catered meal option, but that was not something about which I cared. What I cared about was the opportunity to grow personally; SRI was that opportunity.