University of Minnesota Reviews

Pros

Great benefits and time off. Great and smart people. Fun environment with lots of activity going on. Plenty of opportunity for professional development.

Cons

Pay is low. Difficult to move up the chain of command.

Pros

Freedom to research a number of topics with the available resources and shared equipment

Cons

The pay is somewhat low

Pros

Great health/medical benefits, generous time off policy, numerous professional development opportunities including training courses and employer contribution for continuing education classes and programs.

Cons

Situated right in the middle of a large city so traffic in and around the Minneapolis campus can be pretty bad. Parking is fairly expensive and often you need to park a few blocks from your office building, so during the winter months that walk from car to office can be pretty cold! The amount of work is often overwhelming, and we could really use another two or three full-time staff members, but with budget cuts that is unlikely to happen anytime soon.

Advice to Senior Management

Find a way to work with Minnesota's congressional leaders to increase financial support to the University of Minnesota. It seems like most, if not all, School's/College's are experiencing the need to hire more people because of the enormous workload that staff/faculty members experience. However, with little to no financial support from Minnesota I feel that the level of service we provide will decline drastically because of how over-worked most staff/faculty are. Working 10-12 hour days, and feeling the need to come in on weekends as well just to get the basic aspects of your job done, is not a healthy work/life balance and will quickly burn out the most devoted staff members.

Eric Kaler is fairly new to his position and while I think he has been doing a great job so far, only time will tell if he is able to strike that balance with Minnesota's congressional leaders regarding the need to adequately support the University of Minnesota.

Pros

Less pressure abd Less overtime.

Cons

Less challenging and less grow oppurtunities

Advice to Senior Management

More vacation time.

Pros

Its a great place to get first time experience to add to your resume. Its a small organization that lets you experience numerous aspects of a non-profit.

Cons

There was no formal aclamation process, so it made knowing what is expected of ones self very difficult. Also there was no review process in order to understand the direction you were heading and the company.

Advice to Senior Management

Create a formal process for new hires that allows them to feel welcome. Also countinously check up to make sure employees are getting the most out of the experience that they would like.

Pros

Campus atmosphere and decent location.

Cons

Choose your PI carefully. Some are very poor managers.

Pros

The university has a friendly student body, flexible work and the bosses are good and fair in their assessment of the employees.

Cons

The climate is harsh and the work can get quite lonely. The job can be demanding depending on the deliverable's expected of you.

Advice to Senior Management

Organize more company events to make the place more interesting. The work environment is good but definite improvements can be made.

Pros

The insurance and leave benefits

Cons

Supervisor's poor management skills, blind to severe problems in long time employees performances and bullying, no perspective.

Advice to Senior Management

Change of management - new blood, new objective perspective

Pros

Independence/ autonomy is offered in return for delivering professionally sound analytics. Health and time off benefits are a positive addition to my quality of life.

Cons

There has been no financial ability to recognize excellent performance. Advancement only comes through attrition. Institution has not been effective in taking up flexible work schedule (perceived as a lesser commitment from full time employees).

Pros

Great opportunities to take in seminars and conferences and to interact with researchers. Able to work very independently.

Cons

Organizational structure can be very dysfunctional. Not centrally managed - seems like many small units functioning on their own, sometimes interacting with each other but at other times colliding. It takes a long time to learn the various technological systems necessary to get work done, and it takes quite a while to build a support network because of the huge size of the University. I had very little training after I was hired, so I had to learn by the "sink or swim" method. I have worked here for over 5 years and have never had a performance review!

Advice to Senior Management

More attention needs to be paid to supporting the staff working on research projects if the University wants to be continue to be a leader in the latest medical developments. Investigators and management underestimate the time and effort required "behind the scenes" to carry out a successful research study. Studies are often inadequately staffed and civil service employees have to take on responsibilities that physicians should have more involvement with.