Duke University Reviews in Raleigh-Durham, NC Area

Pros

Challenging but really a conducive environment. Supportive colleagues.

Cons

Huge working environment. Plenty of bureaucracy.

Pros

*Educational Benefit, both for employees and children of employees is great, but you sacrifice annual bonuses for this benefit
*Retirement Plan is one of the better benefits
*Health Insurance Benefit Package is good

Cons

**Lack of advancement opportunities
**Low salary levels compared to comparable corporate entities
**No annual bonus
**Having to pay for the right to park your car

Advice to Senior Management

Promote based on capability--not on the number of initials following your name;
Stop making employees pay to park;
Make salary levels comparable to private industry

Pros

Very good research environment in Biomedical field.

Cons

Nothing. Only the thing I could feel of is relatively lower chances of growth for PhDs compared to MDs.

Pros

Full of lots of opportunities to access to different culture and industries.
Daily interacted with smart people and built network with colleagues and alumni.
Beautiful campus with nice weather.
Also it provides "saferide van" between campus and places near campus after hours.

Cons

Duke University stays at Durham where is not so safe for downtown area.
But if you can take "saferide van" between campus and places near campus after hours.

Pros

Lovely campus, generally humanitarian employee policies. And how nice to have access to good libraries, music, performances, and people creating new knowledge--even if they have nothing directly to do with your job!

Cons

Parking's a bear, and either expensive or a bit of a hike. Faculty are treated better than staff, as you'd expect--12 weeks of parental leave vs 2 weeks, etc. A university is a pretty risk-averse place, which may bug you if you're creative.

Advice to Senior Management

Leadership need not come down on the side of command-and-control nor laissez-faire policies; rank-and-file employees may respond better than you think to collaborative problem-solving, and even bench scientists may do okay with a few rules.

Pros

The work atmosphere is great, they don't burn out their graduate students. The stipend is probably the best in the country with regards to cost of living in Durham.

Cons

Some departments may be small and thus not have a lot of colleagues who are working on the same material as you.

Pros

The work study. It has a good opportunity for students to work while in school.

Cons

Administration is horrendous. Opportunities are few and far in between. There is much control and little distribution of funds to where they should be.

Pros

Working for an academic institution can be a remarkably rewarding experience. The projects, at least outside of the central IT group, are largely people and research driven, and can be worthwhile.

Cons

Different areas are radically different. The central IT group is a wretched place to work, largely due to poor management and an inability to connect to the larger university purpose. Departmental/school groups are hit and miss.

Advice to Senior Management

I wonder if a lot of the problems have to do with poor communication. The senior management needs a tougher group in middle management, and senior management needs to be clearer and more honest, rather than playing word games to manipulate middle management into what they want.

Pros

If you network properly, Duke provide various working environment with flexible working time. A few Professors can be resourceful. Just need to be careful with the others.

Cons

If you are working with non responsible PI, or with someone (PI or staff) has complicated political relationships, the situation can be really bad.

Pros

-Pay is good and raises given usually after a semester or two.
-So much interesting research! It's exciting going to work.
-Extremely flexible with part-time schedules.
-Diverse and (usually) intelligent co-workers.
-Beautiful campus and weather, especially from mid-Sept to mid-May.

Cons

-Moving within from student part-time to anything else is nearly impossible, I got lucky. Duke hates it when recent grads stay. They want us flying all over the world saving humanity, since obviously we all can afford it. I only have a few months left and contacting other labs in this department for work is a joke. They don't give you the time of day. At least I get a nice automated email from industry or USAJobs. Here, silence from almost everyone.
-As usual for universities, greed is rampant. Parking is awful (though not monitored on weekends), housing and food are grossly overpriced, and there are charges for everything in between.
-My co-workers and employers are pleasant, but the University as a whole has a slightly arrogant vibe. Until maybe a decade or two ago this was justified, but in this economy, the only difference between a Duke degree and a public school one is that you're an extra ~150k in the hole.
-Durham is better than in past years, but is still in many ways a crime-ridden pustule of Raleigh.

Advice to Senior Management

Hire more recent grads. It's not like we're not qualified, we'd save you lots of money!