MIT Reviews in Boston, MA Area

I have been working at MIT full-time for more than 3 years

Pros – The faculty and financial resources are better than at any other academic research institute I know of (from conversations with peers). There is (for better or worse) quite a large value associated with the name, and with this comes an expectation to publish in high-impact journals.

Cons – The expectation to publish in high-impact journals creates a high-stress situation, since for the most part the research is conducted in very fast-moving fields.

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

I have been working at MIT full-time for more than 3 years

Pros – there is a lot to learn, the experience is overall nice, amazing people from all over the world

Cons – the salary is low, high level of commitment, most weekends in the lab

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

I have been working at MIT full-time for more than a year

Pros – Close relationship with industry
Many other postdocs to share experience
Postdoctoral Association

Cons – Many Postdocs in the area to compete with
Low salary common to all postdocs
Long hours expected

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

I worked at MIT full-time for more than a year

Pros – Great colleagues and environment. Relaxed atmosphere was conducive to allow flexibility.

Cons – Salary was not always in line with industry standards.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

I have been working at MIT full-time for more than a year

Pros – - Fantastic health/retirement benefits. 5% employer match for 401k, plus a pension after 3 years of service
- Competitive pay
- Interesting, creative, often brilliant colleagues
- Diverse range of growth opportunities
- Commitment by administration to create the best work environment possible
- Great time off benefits

Cons – - Very competitive, prestigious environment means that managers in some departments (especially those with a history at MIT) make excessive demands on time
- Workloads in some departments can be unrealistic

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

I have been working at MIT full-time for more than a year

Pros – Very good benefits, and a lot of freedom to pursue your work and build professional connections. There is a lot going on at different parts of the institute and MIT can provide a good launching pad for a research career.

Cons – MIT is large and there is a lot going on. It is easy to feel lost or isolated, especially if your work is independent and you don't have much supervision. Human Resources can be very bureaucratic and any adminstrative problems with salary, benefits, etc. can be tricky to fix.

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

I have been working at MIT full-time for more than 7 years

Pros – It's good to work with students (faculty, colleagues) who are smart and focused and energetic. Engineers are often pleasantly odd people.

Cons – At the far end of odd, people can be inflexible and misfocused. Tolerance for strange behavior can shade into a failure to enforce any kind of norms.

Advice to Senior Management – Like all institutions of higher education, MIT is well down the path toward fewer and fewer tenured faculty members, more and more, part time and temporary people. That model saves money short term but costs in quality and stability medium-term: it amounts to eating your seed corn.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

I worked at MIT full-time for more than 7 years

Pros – brilliant colleagues
stimulating interactions with other MIT people
great resources and facilities

Cons – Very competitive - everyone is brilliant, difficult to get good grades
Very high expectations
the unofficial motto is an acronym "I hate this f$#king place"

Advice to Senior Management – Time management and work-life balance management should be taught along with regular coursework, there's a culture of taking things to extremes (work level-wise) that isn't always healthy.

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

I worked at MIT full-time for less than a year

Pros – It was fun, I learned a lot the faculty were great. Everyone had a lot of fun and its cheap to work there and what not

Cons – It is research which isn't that cool I'd rather have worked in industry. Also I stayed on campus all summer which is kind of boring.

Advice to Senior Management – Work hard play hard

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

I have been working at MIT full-time for more than a year

Pros – You get to work with the best of the best.
Several opportunities to work on difficult problems and make a significant impact on science and technology.
MIT on your resume will guarantee you interview calls, and companies even by-pass some interview rounds to hire you.

Cons – You will be one among the many geniuses in the organization. Unless you are better than a genius, you will have a hard time neing recognized within the organization (receiving recognition outside the organization is much easier and almost guaranteed). If you are not a permanent researcher/faculty, expect poor pay.

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