University of California Reviews

Current Employee – been working at University of California as an intern for more than a year

Pros – Work study has truly benefited me

Cons – There are no cons about working for UC Berkeley.

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

Former Employee – worked at University of California

Pros – Creative, smart, big problems to solve.

Cons – Political, hard to make change happen.

Advice to Senior Management – Look for efficiencies but also creative solutions.

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

Former Employee – worked at University of California as an intern for less than a year

Pros – The press is fantastic, with interesting publications and a history of publishing important titles. I gained a lot of experience and I benefited from seeing how the field of publishing works.

Cons – At the time, they were struggling to transition through a layoff period. They continued to let laid off people work for over 2 months and this cause the workplace to become tense.

Advice to Senior Management – Know how your staff is managing their time.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at University of California full-time for more than 3 years

Pros – Cozy atmosphere from the smallness of the sizes of different campuses, world class scientists and facilities and perks of being in San Francisco

Cons – Very few departments and not enough emphasis on the physical sciences. A sense of life outside the building hardly exists from a consequence of cold winds and a mostly 9-5 culture

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

Former Employee – worked at University of California part-time for more than a year

Pros – They work around your schedule.
The projects that they work on benefit real California High School students.

Cons – No downsides that I can think of.

Advice to Senior Management – No advice that I can think of.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

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

Pros – -Flexibility in work arrangements, especially for those with families
-Great benefits
-3 weeks of vacation to start, with at least 10 sick days and all national holidays per year

Cons – -Lots and lots and lots of red tape
-Too much power given to academia at UC locations (bending over backwards to unreasonable levels to accommodate professors, further cultivating their counterproductive sense of entitlement)
-Many incompetent middle managers and employees, who are "promoted to their level of incompetence" instead of being let go. (It's almost impossible to be fired at UC, and people take advantage of this.)
-Departments here are huge fans of pointless (and expensive) meetings that waste time and force some employees to stay late to make up for missed work time
-Not much room for career growth. Many have been in the same position for decades.
-Low pay, relative to market levels.

Advice to Senior Management – Hold yourselves and your employees accountable for work performance (or lack thereof).

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at University of California full-time for more than 10 years

Pros – Good benefits. Managers come and go as they please. 2-hour lunches, shopping, etc. Excellent technical staff - very knowledgeable.

Cons – Wasteful - spending too much of tax payers money on travel/conferences - boondoggle - why send multiple managers to same conference except to party!!! Multiple layers of management, too many incompetent managers, inefficient, bureaucracy at its best. Have to brown nose around here to get raises. No pay raise for several years.

Advice to Senior Management – Managers need better ethics training. Why should staff work hard when managers come in late everyday, leave early, and are not very productive. Need to be consistent when enforcing policy.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend – I'm not optimistic about the outlook for this company

Former Employee – worked at University of California

Pros – great benefits, pleasant environment and good location
Most people are nice, but some mid management need training...no management/people skills

Cons – not much advancement opp. and no reward for hard work

Current Employee – been working at University of California

Pros – Reputation, first and foremost. The UC President's Postdoctoral Fellowship is one of the most prestigious postdoctoral fellowships in the United States. Your CV may go to a "better pile" when being considered for an academic position in the future. Theoretically, it also facilitates transition to tenured academic positions within the UC system, but lack of actual positions available for application ultimately make no difference for the fellow, who will likely and more easily get a job somewhere else outside the system. A great perk of this postdoctoral fellowship is that teaching is not allowed, leaving an unusual amount of time to advance research and publications. There are not many postdocs of this kind anywhere else. Program support for the fellows is very good (annual workshops, networking, etc.)

Cons – LOW salary. $41,200 in 2011, plus 4,000 in research funds (travel to conferences, translation services, educational materials, workshops, etc.). Considering the cost of life in California (especially rent), and the monthly financial weight of student loans (for those who have outstanding debt), the salary is more than tight. In fact, it is <very> tight.

Advice to Senior Management – The leadership of the Postdoctoral Fellowship Program is excellent. They are really on top of fellows' needs, a well-oiled machine. However, UC in general, as an institution, is another story: day-to-day bureaucracy (for example, to get your expenses reimbursed) is a circuitous process that can really turn your nerves on.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

Former Employee – worked at University of California

Pros – Some people on the frontline doing actual work. Less and less of these numbers as new hires are pretty disappointing more often than not.

Cons – Terrible communication in that misleading (at the minimum and outright lies in some cases) communication is constantly spewed. Way too top heavy. While underlings are told to make due with less, top management is over-compensated with the famliiar refrain that we need to pay more to get and retain the best.

Advice to Senior Management – Nothing really because nothing will change unless a President is hired that is truly commited to higher education, rather than personal compensation. Look no further than that while student tuition has doubled in the tenure of the current administration, the President makes far more in total compensation than any previous leader.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend