Harvard University Reviews

Pros

Prestige, great benefits, awesome intellectual environment

Cons

competitive and demanding with lower pay than comparable universities

Pros

abundant resources and support fully

Cons

low payment for post-doc researcher but expect a lot

Advice to Senior Management

You should be motivated and actively work

Pros

inexpensive to take classes, especially at extension school; relaxed atmosphere; abilities valued more than how you dress; generous vacation time

Cons

easy to get too comfortable and not try to go for promotions because you like your job and location too much

Pros

Its Harvard! But seriously, an amazing collection of people

Cons

Not much of a community, need to be self motivated.

Pros

many chance to connect with specialists.

Cons

the downsides of working at gsd is no time flexibilty

Pros

Great benefits and perks such as discounts, tuition reimbursement and ability to take classes at Harvard Extension School

A culture in which people are polite towards each other regardless of any negative feelings they may harbor towards a person

Working for a prestigious institution - which looks great on a resume

Ability to leave a little early when it's very slow in an office yet still be paid

Cons

There are a few in management positions who are incompetent therefore they become micro managers.

The culture of Harvard is polite towards all but faculty members & those in top positions are treated with more respect than others.

Being hired in an office in which most of coworkers are older ladies who have been working together for several years means being left out within their circle - this includes not being told very important work related information

In my personal experience with my direct supervisor - but not certain whether this is typical - there's favoritism. The favorites' request are granted many times, yet when I make the same request once, I'm given a hard time.

Advice to Senior Management

Before promoting a person to a management position, make sure they are competent with emotional & cognitive intelligence, or else the people they supervise will be miserable and it'll be a poor reflection on Harvard, that is allegedly a good place to work.

Pros

Excellent benefits, big name on resume, wide-ranging work experience. One benefit to take advantage of is the offering of discount classes for employees. I took several graduate level classes at Harvard - quite stimulating and a great resume builder. The campus is a lovely place to work and near shops, restaurants etc.

Cons

Faculty are self-absorbed and egoistic, poorly managed with little HR support especially in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences. The students are quite privileged and can be a bit rude to staff at times. The salaries are too low, and there is little room for growth. I got bored with the job after not too long.

Advice to Senior Management

Staff feel degraded by the faculty and students at time. They are definitely under-appreciated and salaries are low. Ultimately this leads to talented people leaving, and lazy, incompetent staff staying.

Pros

benefits, training opportunities, competent and nice coworkers, cutting edge technology, great resources and interesting projects, ability to move laterally within the university.

Cons

not a lot of opportunity to move up into management since there is not a lot of turnover, and there is a pretty solid hierarchy in place
some red tape. salaries might not be as competitive as in the outside world- but the benefits are good.

Advice to Senior Management

Sometimes I wish they would stop focusing so much on making new layers of management and levels of bureaucracy. there is certainly a sense that managers think they are a bit more clever than the rest.

Pros

As a grad student, my working time is very flexible which I like. My adviser also allows me to develop my own research interested, which is cooler than most places. Finally my adviser is willing to spend personal time with me to talk about research, and is extremely smart and well as technically competent, which to my knowledge, is not always true everywhere.

Cons

The flexibility that comes with working as a grad students also means that you need to be very self-motivated. You need to choose your own classes to attend, and papers to read. This sometimes might make you feel aimless. Also, sometimes being a Teaching Fellow takes a lot of time, depending on which professor is teaching the class.

Pros

A harvard degree is worthy

Cons

This is an incredibly competitive environment

Advice to Senior Management

treat junior faculties better