[seanlane]

It's been a minute since I was an intern there, but haven't seen this one mentioned yet. I spent a summer at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL, https://pnnl.gov) and really enjoyed my time. It seemed like compensation was pretty good, especially considering the cost of living in the area. There were a number of times when we needed some help from a subject matter expert, and we could go down the hall or to another building and speak with someone who recently published on the topic. There was a lot of interesting work going on, from national security issues to storing nuclear waste, etc.

The campus there was also different than many other national lab campuses in that it's an open campus and doesn't have the military entrances that others have. It felt like the culture was much more laid back than the FAANG and other corporate cultures that OP mentioned, but perhaps more bureaucratic as well. Again, I was an intern, so didn't have much visibility into that aspect. Overall, definitely a positive experience and I could see myself there if things lined up right.