Columbia University Reviews

Pros

Columbia has great benefits, including tuition for yourself and dependants.

Cons

Restructuring of positions and internal transfers only approves a 10 percent increase.

Advice to Senior Management

Position reclassifications should be considered and reviewed according to the employee's experience. Guidelines should be followed no matter what the nature of the position transition is.

Pros

work/life balanced. Not much pressure.

Cons

salary is so so. It is non-profit organization.

Advice to Senior Management

Columbia University is too big. Nobody can change it.

Pros

great faculty, extremely experienced and knowledgeable

Cons

core curriculum boring, need to adjust more

Advice to Senior Management

split students into backgrounds, test more students out of core, exempt more courses. offer more management and advanced markets classes

Pros

As a part-time student, my employer was very accommodating. They also did their best to make us comfortable.

Cons

It was very difficult as a full-time student to balance class with work, but I guess that's not the school's fault.

Advice to Senior Management

Overall, I was pretty satisfied with working there and have no major advice for the leaders.

Pros

knowledge, recommendation letter, talented peers

Cons

low pay, large pressure, long work hours

Advice to Senior Management

we need a new campus

Pros

Diversity. A great learning experience.

Cons

Long hours but overall rewarding

Advice to Senior Management

Employee morale can be boosted by simple thank you's and good job every now and then.

Pros

Big name school is nice for finding employers

Cons

Bad service communication, very difficult to talk to administration without waiting a month for a response

Advice to Senior Management

Spend some money on the students instead of yourselves

Pros

Dynamic institution, diverse workers, leading academic institution with intelligent motivated staff and students, numerous growth opportunities with planned campus expansions.

Cons

Competitive entry, limited work space

Pros

If you are any sort of employee for Columbia, the benefits are excellent, with good medical insurance, dental coverage, vision riders, a relatively large amount of vacation time, nice 401(k) matching, and excellent educational opportunities.

Cons

Columbia has one of the ugliest bureaucracies I have ever dealt with. As an RA, I was generally isolated from that, but if you had to work in HR in the Interchurch building, I can imagine wanting to tear your hair out after a month.

The IT support could improve. They've been getting better, but it still has a ways to go.

Advice to Senior Management

Streamline the bureaucracy, modernize the way the CUIT operates and handles billing (charging people for Ethernet ports is counter-productive), make opt-in the default for 401(k)'s, and improve library access from off-campus.

Pros

Excellent potential for advancement and great facilities and resources. Top of the line network to help you reach your goals after some time there.

Cons

If you end up in a research group with a tough advisor, this can be unpleasant. Lots of red tape.

Advice to Senior Management

Thin the red tape. Hold Principal investigators accountable for poor treatment of team members