Carnegie Mellon University Reviews

Current Employee – been working at Carnegie Mellon University part-time for more than 3 years

Pros – Work responsibilities are fair and clearly outlined. CCon work is a pretty easy way to earn some money while earning your degree.

Cons – The management tries to make the CCons socialize with our coworkers. I appreciate the sentiment and the goal of forming a community, but it is really just an extra responsibility.

Current Employee – been working at Carnegie Mellon University full-time

Pros – nice university, big brand name

Cons – work life balance and the concept of weekends goes down the drain

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at Carnegie Mellon University full-time for more than 7 years

Pros – Get to work with lots of smart, dedicated faculty, staff, and students. Cutting edge research solving real-world problems. There are a lot of opportunities to do a lot of different things around the university.

Cons – Can be lots of bureaucracy and politics like any higher ed. Pay could be better. Intense work environment, not a lot of focus on work life balance. Some facilities, like the gym and other athletic venues, are almost impossible to get into.

Advice to Senior Management – Keep giving people challenging work, cut down on the politics.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend – I'm optimistic about the outlook for this company

Former Employee – worked at Carnegie Mellon University part-time for less than a year

Pros – Able to review the materials that I have learned.

Cons – Needed to spend a lot of time during the busiest time of the year

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at Carnegie Mellon University full-time for more than 3 years

Pros – Every day at work is a blast. Very exciting work, lots of smart people. Interesting challenges and a quality of work that can't be found anywhere else in the world. Don't underestimate this because it vastly outweighs the cons below.

Cons – Because it is in the education field pay is lower than a comparable industry job. There are also no bonuses, and it is difficult to advance without an advanced degree.

Very few windows to the outside. It is possible to go a whole day without knowing what the weather was like.

Advice to Senior Management – With no bonuses, raises that typically only match inflation (aka being paid the same amount) and no possibility of bonuses (which may be possible for a nonprofit) or profit sharing (impossible for a nonprofit) it will be harder to retain staff over the long term with the continuous temptation of higher salary elsewhere.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend – I'm optimistic about the outlook for this company

Current Employee – been working at Carnegie Mellon University full-time for more than 3 years

Pros – Depends on your department. Flexibility, interesting co-workers, and a great location for a young family. For engineers and computer science practitioners this is one of the world's top universities, and they are used to interdisciplinary collaboration, since they've been doing it longer than most other places that are just getting into the game.

Cons – Many specific research areas lack real cooperative teamwork like that at most corporate positions, although this is common to most of academia. What's really annoying is that most people think they are great at it, when it is only true in relation to other highly competitive academic environments.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend – I'm optimistic about the outlook for this company

Current Employee – been working at Carnegie Mellon University

Pros – Living cost in pittsburgh is pretty cheap. The graduate student salary is competitive with anywhere else in the country. So the quality of life is not bad

Cons – Public transportation in Pittsburgh is not that great. Buses are almost never on time..

Current Employee – been working at Carnegie Mellon University full-time for more than 7 years

Pros – You get to work with some really smart kids and if you're lucky on some cool projects. Academic setting can be enriching and rewarding.

Cons – No regular hours. No weekends. No holidays. You are working all the time, hoping that all this would end soon and retrospectively make sense.

Current Employee – been working at Carnegie Mellon University full-time for more than 3 years

Pros – Get to work with great students and have a 9-5 schedule.

Cons – Lots of time sitting at a desk

Advice to Senior Management – Lunch on Fridays is awesome!

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend – I'm optimistic about the outlook for this company

Former Employee – worked at Carnegie Mellon University part-time for less than a year

Pros – Although it really depends on which course you TA under, TA's are treated and generally paid well. Workload is not too heavy, and you can always let your professor know if you need a week off.

Cons – TA-ing as a freshman results in really poor pay, considering that we do the same amount of work as the upperclassmen do.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend – I'm optimistic about the outlook for this company