University of Pennsylvania Reviews in Philadelphia, PA Area

Current Employee – been working at University of Pennsylvania part-time for less than a year

Pros – Large faculty to help, great resources, prestige of an Ivy.

Cons – Dirty, old buildings, state-school confusion.

Advice to Senior Management – Can be improved much.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

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

Pros – Great place to work, good benefits, and friendly co-workers are the best reasons to work here. They also allow you to take 2 free classes per semester if you are working full-time.

Cons – Lots of paperwork and long processing times for every interaction with HR or the business office makes things that should be simple a lot more complicated and time consuming.

Advice to Senior Management – In certain areas of Penn, especially the animal facilities, there is a lot of nepotism within the management. It engenders bad will with the rest of the staff.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

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

Pros – Great tuition benefits. Staff can take classes for free as soon as they start work.
Easy hours -- Could just be my department, but hours are generally very flexible and allow for you to take care of other things that go on in life.

Cons – Low pay is my only con. I also feel like there are not many opportunities for staff to get together, but this may just be a function of the fact that there are numerous departments here.

Advice to Senior Management – More competitive salaries for entry level workers would boost morale, and help take care of loans that recent college graduates have amassed.

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

Former Employee – worked at University of Pennsylvania full-time for more than 7 years

Pros – To best describe the research scenario in University of Pennsylvania is like tasting a drop of the ocean. With its ancient history of education rooted by William Penn and dreamers like Benjamin Franklin to inventing computers in 1800's ..Penn is all set to be awarded gold in red and blue for its academic excellence and vitality in bringing the innate desire or passion of every young scientist aspiring to become Einsteins

Cons – Well the security is always beefed up and no visitor is allowed any premises..even it happens to an Alumni (of course to who doesn't own a Rolls Royce or Mercedes). Second thing is some professors have grown so tough (thanks to the environment) that they don't even talk to people at some instances. Fees are way up high and only very few eligible candidates can afford that much..

Advice to Senior Management – Bring in more young faculties and establish research careers in Bioengineering fields and support innovative discoveries with start up grants and accommodate young faculties who could do something useful to the humanity rather than just bringing in grants to feed the institution, as the institution grows not only by money but also by the depth of scientific understanding and intellectuals

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

Current Employee – been working at University of Pennsylvania full-time

Pros – honest, friendly, dependable, smart, computer literate

Cons – none everything about him is great

Advice to Senior Management – none- nothing to add here

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

Former Employee – worked at University of Pennsylvania full-time for more than 7 years

Pros – GREAT benefits, in fact this is probably what keeps most people at Penn; tuition benefits for yourself and your children, as well as generous leave and 401(k) options.
If you can take the good with the bad, you can meet some great people, get a free degree, and there are always cool events going on around campus.

Cons – It is a large system and there are a lot of people there that clearly don't care about their jobs; in many ways it is similar to working for a large bureaucracy, tons of red tape, lots of waste and bitter people there who aren't doing their job properly.
Most of the admin staff lives in NJ or is very young and perusing a degree at Penn.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at University of Pennsylvania part-time for more than 3 years

Pros – I was very well supported by my advisor and all of my research experience was highly relevant to my areas of study. It was a great opportunity to be engaged in research while also doing coursework.

Cons – The only cons that come to mind involve differences between compensation packages at different schools. My particular school did not offer much conference funding and offered one year less than most others.

Advice to Senior Management – Conference funding

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

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

Pros – Easy to find collaboration; Good postdoctoral program for job training

Cons – Not so good benefits; Mediocre core facility

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

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

Pros – Good place to learn.
Great benefits, including tuition benefits.
REALLY flexible work schedule for most people.

Cons – MUCH lower pay than you'll see elsewhere.
Little to no room for upward advancement.

Advice to Senior Management – Senior management take generous yearly pay raises while most employees see none; try fairer payscales across the board.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

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

Pros – money, resources, and support to put ideas into action

Cons – people are political and play favorites. meaning often times the best projects don't get green-lighted in favor of superiors' pet projects. but then superiors never get blamed for their pet projects the blame ends up with someone who probably had a better idea.

Advice to Senior Management – bring in some outside opinion if you want real change.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend