MIT Reviews in Boston, MA Area

Pros

Good stepping stone for academic or industrial careers.

Cons

Does not let you be PI on grants. Does not allow you to formally advice even BS students. Pay is too low. (Even if your PI wants to pay you more, he's not allowed to)

Advice to Senior Management

Provide proposal writing experience and student advising experience.

Pros

Get to meet some interesting people from all over the world, work with some of the smartest faculty, attend some fun Boston outings (sports, receptions), decent pay, free education

Cons

Absolutely no room for growth, incompetent people can't be fired (so you work with a lot of them -- non-faculty), no raises (1-2% a year),

Advice to Senior Management

Communicate more and try to create incentives and room for growth for your employees

Pros

Fantastic benefits, name recognition, access to faculty and student knowledge

Cons

As a staff employee, we're constantly forgotten, unrecognized, and mistreated. In my department many employees have been there for 30+ years and are set in how things run and don't want any changes. As a new employee, I needed to settle into their ways or my life would be made hard. Directors are not willing to make changes for the better because it will make waves and cause political issues. In the 2 years I was there, I received 2.5% cost of living raises each year. I was told that my department is not able to issue any merit based raises.

Pros

Intelligent co-workers
access to top minds and funding

Cons

lots of work, egotistical people, stressful, somewhat antisocial

Advice to Senior Management

keep it up

Pros

Great and resourceful community. Helpful colleagues.

Cons

Benefits are not very good. Some level of bureaucracy.

Advice to Senior Management

Treat postdocs better

Pros

Working on a research project (and in a graduate program in general) I was surrounded by briliiant, inspiring people. I felt that I was continually learning and contributing to something larger than myself.

Cons

Difficult to maintain momentum in research while balancing coursework (particularly when working with a team and semi-absentee professor). It is easy to head into a project bright eyed and bushy-tailed, and to loose steam when team members don't hold up their end of the bargain.

Advice to Senior Management

Don't bite off more research than you can chew! There are a few professors (no all!) that instigate one big idea after another without doing the follow through. It sucks to be the grad student that put sweat and tears into a project only to see it get swept to the side because a professor has a short attention span or lacks the management skills to pull it off.

Pros

Great connections to other very bright people. International and national exposure to other well connected people.

Cons

Lack of professional development support by managers and the university doesn't make it possible to obtain higher levels of education as an employee.

Advice to Senior Management

Investing in training and education for Dean appointed employees. Provide career paths within MIT.

Pros

Great benefits package, relatively good people to work with, looks great on the resume.

Cons

-No room for advancement. You'll be pigeonholed into the role of an administrative assistant forever.
-The (some) students here have terrible egos and lack basic common sense.
-The pay is what it is. Grateful to be working but for what is being paid and the work that's being done, it's depressing.

Pros

The culture is very diverse and the benefits are exceptional. The intelligence and skills of the professors, etc. are immense. As one of the leading universities in the world, there is so much to learn as an employee. Great opportunity to experience a learning machine at its best.

Cons

The gap between hourly and salary employees is immense and difficult to change. The 'professionals' have many great perks, and the hourly employees have little.

Advice to Senior Management

Better communication. Better HR practices for all employees

Pros

World class institution of higher learning; very reasonable work/life balance; rewards initiative

Cons

People work very independently and, though it's changing, there is a "no praise" culture

Advice to Senior Management

Could make it even more explicit to new administrative staff how universities work; especially the relationship between an independent faculty and the quality of research produced by American universities.