UC Berkeley Reviews

Pros

The best reason to work at UC Berkeley is that you are surrounded by the best and the brightest individuals in a variety of fields. There are countless resources all around you.

Cons

The downsides are the budget cuts which inhibit some department's abilities to conduct research as they no longer have the funding they need.

Advice to Senior Management

My advice to the leadership of UC Berkeley is please do not cut funding towards research programs or student programs.

Pros

Great benefits and work-life balance.

Cons

Very tight budgets due to big California budget deficit.

Pros

Connections, fast paced, you get to be involved in many projects, the opportunities are endless, and you get to work with national team coaches.

Cons

It could be more organized. It seems some people have much more work than others and not enough time or resources.

Advice to Senior Management

There needs to be more organization and more communication between different departments. Seems like things tend to get lost often.

Pros

It's a prestigious school with lots of smart people. If you are stuck in a problem and need help, you will most likely get it.

Cons

Unless you want to pursue an academic career, UC Berkeley is not the best place to work. You expect either teaching or grading papers.

Advice to Senior Management

The billing and payment office should take more care to respond to changes in a student's job. I had to write a check to the office to give back the money that I should not have received.

Pros

The PI for the lab is incredibly knowledgeable and can provide excellent contacts within the field of toxicology. He is also great for career advising. There is also as much mobility as you desire in the lab.

Cons

You get out of the experience what you put into it. You can easily slack off and not learn anything.

Pros

The students are delightful and the faculty are world-class. Alumni love this place for a reason, or 100 reasons. Teaching, discoveries, summits, research, enhancement are all normal events.

Cons

Difficult to earn a promotion, individuals with a strong interest in career progression must be very determined or find a great mentor and seek the next job on his/her own. Can be discouraging to see some coworkers focused on the retirement end-game rather than the opportunity to support our students. This seems trivial until you have to deal with it: commuting to campus is not easy, particularly if you drive and park here.

Pros

Great talented people. Very good environment.

Cons

Lots of old systems that need to be upgraded.

Pros

- you get prestige
- working while studying
- connections and letter of reg important later

Cons

- no compensation
- 20 hours doing dumb stuff

Advice to Senior Management

stop the budget cut...

Pros

Smart people, good funding, OK city, good pay and benefits

Cons

Quite a few snobby people, administrative personnel are painfully slow.

Advice to Senior Management

Hire better secretaries.

Pros

The management team is very friendly and would help out lab assistants in any may possible. Scheduling is also flexible and suitable for college students.

Cons

Often times senior consultants might be micro-managing without knowing what they are doing themselves. The everyday duties can be too boring.

Advice to Senior Management

I would probably say that the management needs to understand that some junior consultants have more experience than the senior consultants.