Harvard University Reviews

Pros

Colleagues are brilliant, motivated, extremely creative and dedicated. It is a very stimulating environment. There are always interesting things going on.

Cons

The expectations are very high. The hours can be long. Parking is not easily available. Advancement often requires advanced degrees.

Pros

time off and benefits
lots of autonomy and responsibility
interesting work and wonderful people

Cons

culture of working many hours
disorganized
not always clear how to advance

Pros

All students, staff, and faculty are heavily invested in improving education in US and globally. This creates a great sense of community and satisfaction. Many "cutting-edge" ideas on how to improve student access and learning.

Cons

Harvard is very decentralized and HGSE is one of the "poorer" schools, which holds HGSE "back" somewhat. Hopefully the resources will come to enable the school to move forward. The staff size is relatively small given the workload.

Advice to Senior Management

Keep communicating successes both internally and externally, it really keeps folks motivated.
Replace the EdD with a PhD.
Offer distant learning courses.

Pros

GREAT benefits including $40 classes at Harvard Extension school, taught by Harvard and MIT professors. Top pay for administration plus generous contributions to IRAs. Classes offered for professional advancement.

Cons

The higher up the ladder you go the more difficult the people are to work with (this experience only applies to the SEAS division).

Advice to Senior Management

More recognition for a job well done, would be nice.

Pros

Great networks to build a sense of opportunity overtime. It can be a bit disjointed but huge resources

Cons

It can be complex to make decisions and have the various pieces agree.

Advice to Senior Management

Great a level of transparency to build a stronger community

Pros

prestige of the university opens doors, access to resources

Cons

A lot of people are obsessed with work. No work/life balance

Pros

Lots of really smart people to interact with on a daily basis. Obtaining experience at Harvard is excellent for career prospects almost anywhere.

Cons

There is no hope of getting a permanent job at Harvard and one has to look outside for further career advancement.

Advice to Senior Management

The faculty are overly worshipped, when it is the researchers underneath that do all of the hard work and are not accorded the appropriate respect.

Pros

Really reduced rate for school. good benifits

Cons

No real advancement. No value of your education

Pros

It's a pretty stable place to work, good opportunities to move within the organization, and it's got a great reputation.

Cons

It's simultaneously very decentralized and very bureaucratic - can be complicated to learn to navigate its systems, with a steep learning curve.

Advice to Senior Management

Better initial employee orientation that lets people know what all the different parts of the university are and how they fit together.

Pros

Salary and benefits are among the highest in the area for the non-profit sector. The University puts emphasis on hiring internally in some cases, and knowledge of how the place works is considered an asset.

Cons

You run into faculty members who are completely ineffective managers, and there's almost no solution to a project like that. Senior leadership in general can be very reluctant to take the advice of a long-serving employee and risk a relationship with a faculty member.

Advice to Senior Management

Simply put, Harvard needs more leadership. It's probably accurate to say that most employees don't know what their Dean or President stands for.