Imperial College Reviews in London, England

Current Employee – been working at Imperial College

Pros – Good location
Modern facilities
great teaching opportunities exist

Cons – Very difficult to advance
There is a lot of competition

Advice to Senior Management – Feedback

Current Employee – been working at Imperial College

Pros – Imperial is a prestigious institution for academics - arguably the most prestigious one in London. Having the name on your CV is very helpful in terms of opening doors. Facilities are generally good to very good and a lot of money is being spent on upgrading the not so good ones. Generally speaking people here are at the top of their field.

Cons – Your experience strongly depends on the lab you are in - unfortunately academics are promoted based on research prowess rather than management skill so there are some truly awful managers here. Awful means failure to acknowledge achievements / extra effort and sometimes pressure to work ridiculous hours. Time off is some times an issue as some PIs do not respect it.

Advice to Senior Management – It would be worthwhile to require that professors and lecturers attend some management courses to improve the problems mentioned above. I don't think people are (for the most part) inherently bad people - it's more a matter of learning some management skills.