University of Southern California Reviews

Pros

Good Salary and benefits,
Looks good on the resume,
Unlimited tea/ coffee/ hot chocolate and soda available
Amazing Location to Work (10th Floor of Citibank Plaza with a great view).

Cons

Travel time was a lot,
no interaction between employees,
Very basic tasks given where there was no employee input involved at all.

Advice to Senior Management

make the workplace more interactive,
promote a learning environment,
give a chance to employees to show their skills and talents.

Pros

There are lots of diversity. This enable you can learn from different sources. The campus is very beautiful to work at.

Cons

No clear career development or careers planning to help employee see what's other career path.
The neighborhood is not safe.

Advice to Senior Management

I do not have some advice to the manager or leaders. I don't know how to run their jobs. I have no comments.

Pros

Great management support and direction for career advancement.

Cons

It's sometimes a slow work environment with not a lot of work to do.

Pros

Smart people, new ideas presented

Cons

Politics and bureaucracy at universities are always a bit of a slow down in trying to get things done on time. This university is no acception.

Advice to Senior Management

Network, network, network

Pros

Wonderful place to work, with an incredible benefits package when compared to other universities.

Cons

Campus location is not the greatest.

Pros

Opportunity to work with effective leaders. Access to facilities. Pretty good benefits. Staff have the opportunity to take classes, which is a nice perk.

Cons

At times it can be difficult working for such a large institution. Communication is sometimes lacking between administration and employees.

Advice to Senior Management

Take increased steps to hire diverse faculty. This is important for the student body as a whole. Many wonderful employees have been let go due to the restructuring that occurs with new leadership in departments. This is unfortunate.

Pros

Access to top quality research professors and education, large university population allows for cross-disciplinary interactions and collaborations , well regarded program.

Cons

Research assistants are not paid well. Lot of bureaucratic red tape is required for graduation. Minimal support for finding a job.

Pros

University of Southern California located in a very nice location and it is a very good school with excellent students and colleges.

Cons

I need to work very very hard to keep the speed with the university and my colleges, things are challenge here.

Advice to Senior Management

No question, their very good. I am working here very happy every day and I love my job, my friends here.

Pros

Very smart and talented people who are also very nice in most groups.
In most group your Project leader or Division director will shield you from top level politics.
A variety of projects.
Good collaboration between groups.
Flexible work hours, co-operative supervisors.

Cons

Lots of overhead for tech support, facilities and university's cut.
Top level management seems to be wasting money in trying to find new sources of funding. Hired many expensive people who have done little to justify their salaries.
Top level management bureaucratic, erratic, money-minded while almost all the people who do the actual work are there to do research.
Top level management recently attempted to change the culture of the place through an iron fist. It backfired spectacularly, made lots of very talented people unhappy and now they seem to be in damage control mode.
Complaints reached the School of Engineering (parent of ISI), they seem to be interested in soothing the researchers but not really interested in making the top level management change their policies.
It will be interesting to see how ISI emerges out of this identity crisis.

Advice to Senior Management

Acknowledge that your researchers priorities are about doing good research. Don't try to control everything, don't try to micro-manage. Put your egos aside. If you want to change the culture of the place then do it through a collaborative process. Don't forget that people are here to be a part of a University. Work on reducing the overhead.

Pros

The staff is really nice and easy to get alon with.

Cons

Working in admissions always deals with difficult applicants and parents.

Advice to Senior Management

not applicable