UCLA Reviews

Pros

Great environment for ideas development

Cons

Ferocious competition. You are as good as your last grant

Pros

good work environment
treated fairly
good benefits
worker protection is pretty good and no one is asked to do something they are uncomfortable with doing

Cons

pay is kind of low for the position

Advice to Senior Management

pay a fair market rate to reduce turnover

Pros

large school with a lot of resources, diversity, great faculties, student life and sport/gym/entertainment facilities are great, and of course the weather

Cons

bureaucratic; salary isn't high enough due to the living cost in LA; it's easy to get lost since it's such a big school

Pros

UCLA has good location, the professors are willing to interact and help out the students. The California Nanosystems institute is there as well

Cons

Sometimes you feel like your not important, also sometimes your costudents/coworkers can make you angry. Professors usually go for research that gives the most money, not what is the most interesting especially the MAE department

Pros

Flexible environment, lots of smart people, lot of dumb people. Very big place so YMMV in different departments - very decent benefits although things are changing.

Cons

Very difficult to advance without transferring around to different departments. A lot of deadwood employees just hanging around to collect retirement. Having to deal with faculty can be a headache sometimes.

Advice to Senior Management

Not really - it is such a distributed environment it depends on where you are in the university, some places are great others not so much.

Pros

Fantastic institution with a number of resources to do research and lead discoveries in science.
UCLA has a proven track record as one the leading research institutions in the nation.

Cons

As a postdoc you work long hours with little pay, if there was an hourly wage for the work that we do, it would be quite low.

Advice to Senior Management

Create positions that allow postdocs to stay and provide salary support that reflects the work being done.

Pros

good health insurance, great location, flexible hours. Salary pretty decent, especially if you are a graduate student and get free or discounted tuition.

Cons

Unclear expectations, very bureaucratic structure out of sync with the needs of the job. Need more rewards for a job well done.

Pros

It is a very motivational environment.

Cons

A lot of LA traffic. Expensive area to live.

Pros

Great place to develop as a scientist and publish

Cons

Low pay and if you don’t publish you can really hurt your chances of getting a job after.

Advice to Senior Management

No advice. The job is what it is. You take low pay and publish till you land your real job.

Pros

UCLA has some of the leading professionals in the world in almost any field you choose to pursue a career in.

Cons

Things at UCLA may take longer to process due to the system that is in place. Public schools adhere to more scrutiny.