Stanford University Reviews in Palo Alto, CA

Current Employee – been working at Stanford University full-time for more than 7 years

Pros – -Employee benefits
-Commute Incentives
-Educational Funds
-Beautiful campus
-Great Events

Cons – -Hiring relatives or friends for open positions is very common. No selection process in place. In turn, depts end up with inexperienced employees.
-HR and ELR should do internal audits in departments that do not have an HR Manager present in their building. You would be surprised how many managers and supervisors are unaware of HR policies and procedures.
-Employees that have been their 10yrs or more - extremely comfortable individuals, not open to change, sense of self entitlement, seniority.
-Stanford does not like to fire people. Even though it is clear that the employee is not fit for the position or is not performing to dept's expectations.
-Administrative Associates are not paid well at Stanford. Managers like to give bonuses or the minimum allowable % for the year.

Advice to Senior Management – Stop hiring inexperienced family members and friends! Let's hire qualified applicants. HR needs to enforce the selection process. How will Stanford continue to succeed when we keep hiring inexperienced employees? A mandatory HR training for Supervisors should be required.
More educational funds should be available to lower salary grade employees. Employees that do not use their educational funds should be able to transfer to a co-worker.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

Former Employee – worked at Stanford University full-time for more than 3 years

Pros – Very friendly and inspiring environment, numerous resources, great place to work

Cons – expensive living cost, especially housing

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at Stanford University full-time for more than 7 years

Pros – One of the best Uniersities in the world, with an incredible faculty

Cons – Often heedless of employee concerns. Located in the most expensive place to live in the United State

Advice to Senior Management – Understand that each employee has unique concerns and needs

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

Current Employee – been working at Stanford University full-time for more than a year

Pros – Brilliant faculty, beautiful surroundings, name recognition. Great benefits for transportation and health. Great fitness and education programs, if you have time to use them. Gorgeous campus.
Excellent networking opportunities.

Cons – Little advancement opportunity for non-physicians. Salaries far below market for comparable positions. Poor work-life balance. Vanilla environment. Many programs are more hype than substance. Satisfaction totally depends on department and supervisor- some are great, some are less than great.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at Stanford University full-time for less than a year

Pros – Opportunity to lead innovation; Freedom and support to develop own projects; Excellent training for furthering research skills and ideas; Didactic components useful for scientific development

Cons – The high impact nature of the Stanford environment is at times stressful and requires long hours to complete targeted projects

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

Current Employee – been working at Stanford University full-time for less than a year

Pros – The work is challenging, there are plenty of collaboration opportunities, benefits are great, it's a super nice physical environment, you have smart and diverse colleagues, and plenty of extra activities to engage in outside of work.

Cons – Not that many! Parking and driving on campus is a pain, but there are plenty of other commuting options. It's not a startup, so no stock options or other bonus Silicon Valley perks, but the reduction in a stress level is the tradeoff.

Advice to Senior Management – How about a parking lot and shuttle service from I280 alpine road exit to the main campus?

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

Current Employee – been working at Stanford University

Pros – Access to many great benefits and resources. Great location. Respectful and professionally encouraging environment. Excellent concern for work-personal-family life balance.

Cons – It can be difficult to move upward. The peninsula is an incredibly expensive place to live. Compensation runs low compared to local companies.

Current Employee – been working at Stanford University

Pros – Lots of variety, work around smart people, beautiful campus, great benefits. Stanford cares about its employees, offering wellness opportunities, lots of transportation alternatives, expects that you have a life outside of work.

Cons – Non-profit employer, so lower pay and bonus opportunities. Consensus style management makes decision making a bit slower, although not impossible to get things done.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at Stanford University

Pros – Stanford name recognition carries more weight outside the university.
Great employee transit and wellness programs.
Opportunities to work with brilliant scholars and physicians.
Some faculty are leaders in their fields or specialties.
Plenty of funding for equipment.
Beautiful campus, if you can ever get outside to see it.

Cons – Position demands no-mistakes expertise and skills, but no actual training is provided.
Work weeks average 50-60 hours with no overtime pay or extra comp time.
Lunch breaks are usually not possible in this position. Some days are 11 hours with no breaks.
Salary is totally inadequate for the hours, workload, and degree of technical specialization required.
High-pressure environment with no slow periods leads to stress, burnout, and disengagement.
My program wastes a minimum of 10-15 hours a week in meetings, delaying actual work.
Aggressive, territorial employees seize any opportunity to attack coworkers via email.
Excess management in some departments; managers often do not work as many hours.
Worship of administrative process results in wasted time, frustration, and endless email chains.
No control over workflow, schedule, pace, or assignment of additional duties.
No room for advancement or meaningful salary increases without changing departments.
Poor-quality support from IT and HR departments.
Employee grievances are given lip-service at best, HR enforcement is a joke for non-union workers.
Cost of living in the surrounding areas is among the highest in the US, no housing assistance.
'Stanford Effect' leads to needless complications in almost every project.
Much of what's promoted as original and innovative at Stanford is actually neither of those things.

Advice to Senior Management – Do a better job of policing supervisors. Don't assume the Stanford name justifies low pay. Ban overtime-exempt classification for non-management positions. Give employees with abusive supervisors some meaningful way of addressing working conditions- normal HR channels are ineffective.

Current Employee – been working at Stanford University

Pros – Recognition instrumentation expertises connections facilities

Cons – Boss attitude low salary bad labs

Advice to Senior Management – Improve the salary and the quality of the labs

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend