University of Texas System Reviews in Austin, TX Area

Pros

Good environment... great benefits.... great people.... Lots of time off when you really need it.... College students are fun and energetic. Jobs are usually stable.

Cons

Pay is low... raises even in good times are minuscule. Promotions always come from the outside... Sometimes VERY political. Upper management is sometimes out of touch with reality and spending money recklessly...

Advice to Senior Management

stop spending so much on appearances (buildings, furniture, food) and put more money into salaries

Pros

My co-workers are very bright and very nice, and I am very fortunate in my department and management (but some departments are not so nice). People are not expected to work long hours usually; but the work pace when you are there is pretty intense and there is always too much to do. Staff get free bus passes to commute to work and can take a free course after a year. Much of the work is interesting.

Some of the administrators and bosses are impressive in their capabilities and dedication and vision.

Also, it is such a large employer that the varied environments and contacts and people you get to work with can be rewarding and stimulating far beyond working for some small business or something. And of course such a large employer has both good areas to work in and bad ones.

Cons

I do like my job but I have MANY reservations about UT as an employer. Recently there is a push by top management to let go people to suck up money to put toward attracting rock-star faculty and to building a mega-expensive new building. Pay is already very low and this year there are no raises at all and in future years there are likely to be very limited wage hikes. They have used the recession as an excuse to shaft workers (while their budget actually rose a little). Promotions can be very delayed and in general there is an attitude of contempt of top management for staff and even for regular faculty and their value. The disloyalty involved in recent layoffs of some excellent people who've spent their lives devoted to the university is appalling; so there is NO REAL JOB SECURITY besides the lousy pay. Tuition for students keeps rising higher and at the same time they are cutting the value of what students get by increasing class sizes; I don't feel the administration truly cares about education but of course most faculty do. In many ways it is a crummy place to work, but at the same time if you can find a particular niche that suits you it might be OK; it is OK for me and I do like my job and co-workers and hope to continue working there for a long time; but all the same I don't feel good about a lot of things that are going on or good about UT as an employer in general. I feel that they count on so many people wanting to work at a university (not something I personally care about) that they are willing to not treat them well and count on their putting up with it.

Pay is very unequal -- most staff are poorly paid but some at the top are far overpaid and get giant raises. They ask for loyalty from employees and have pretty words but their behavior isn't pretty. A hiring freeze has resulted in much under-staffing.

Advice to Senior Management

Advice to the President: PLEASE LEAVE!!!! Your actions are atrocious!

Pros

Intellectual freedom, personal flexibility, laid back lifestyle. Austin is a fantastic place to live and has a reasonable cost of living.

Cons

University pay, limited opportunity for promotion

Advice to Senior Management

Make non-tenure track positions more professional in nature. (Eg: less bureaucratic, more performance driven, more opportunity for advancement.)

Pros

Receive many opportunities to do things you are interested in. Work with great people, both coworkers and management. Many resources here. A lot of flexibility in specific positions.

Cons

There have not been major downsides to the positions I've had here. There are many ways to resolve any challenges and issues.

Advice to Senior Management

Doing a great job, providing many opportunities for growth, development, and learning. Also helping a lot by recognizing employees and telling others about the good work we've done in referrals. Great to be understanding and flexible yet also get things done.

Pros

Job security, benefits, access to university resources, clearly defined work policies, organized human resources department and employee assistance programs, encouragement and support for continued education

Cons

Very low wages for staff, merit increases as well are incredibly low (below the inflation rate of Austin), no bonuses (ever), difficult to advance career in the creative field, deeply embedded university politics, reporting issues is a bureaucratic process

Advice to Senior Management

Evaluation process is very effective and helps motivate employees if criticism is given in a constructive manner. To make up for low state wages, there should be access to free educational opportunities (or more-so than are currently available).

Pros

benefits are great, but be sure to sign up for everything when you start work. if you need to change your coverage, you can be subjected to "eligible for benefit" paperwork and this might result in you not being approved. if you start with everything-you are grandfathered in.

Cons

upper management mostly incompetent and they lead with complete hands off approach-limiting feedback and information to managers, who are appointed due to acceptance of lower salary and very much a case of "teach to the test" do not have any original ideas-everything has already been documented for you to follow the rules-do not color outside the box.

Advice to Senior Management

trust the intelligence of your employee. why did you hire them if you don't believe they are competent?

Pros

There is great diversity in the community. A lot of different people work in IT across the campus and provide a flexible environment to find somewhere that you're comfortable. State regulation means that you cannot be forced to work overtime. Requirements are relatively low; there is a lot of patience for less than top notch work. The community is very supportive of self-education, although it is rarely acted on by most individuals. There is a strong network of public transportation and activities as a result of being at the University. The economy and local business is vibrant and eclectic because of the younger population and general Austinite culture.

Cons

Competence does not seem highly valued. Either it isn't seen as a primary prerequisite, management doesn't recognize it, or management doesn't want to act on it. Everyone seems happy to keep doing the same thing every day. There is a lot of focus on maintaining the status quo, and very little emphasis on making things better. There is no emphasis on metrics for measuring improvement (especially without things like profit/revenue streams to worry about). There is no clear mission or goal, most work is reactive to pressing problems or state mandates. Systemic inability to take responsibility for mistakes is common; much of the central IT community refuses to acknowledge problems growing under their noses. I personally am afraid that the entire operation is asking to be outsourced because everyone is so busy being petty; even the few of us who care and work to make it better might get tossed out with the rest.

Advice to Senior Management

Drastically increase communication, both between senior management and across all levels of authority. Let go of petty squabbles and grow up; work together to do our jobs better. Come up with metrics that actually matter. Even if we're not a business we can still measure profitability; although we might not sell anything we could measure operating efficiency of administrative personnel.

Pros

The are a good number of resources available for faculty members. The students are motivated and some of the top students in the country so the classroom setting is good. The intellectual environment is strong. There are top scholars in a variety of fields which allows for the possibility of successful collaboration. The teaching load is reasonable given the expectations for research and publishing. Further, there is a concentrated effort to protect junior faculty from the demands of administrative duties. Finally, Austin is a great city to live in and there is ample opportunities to pursue interests away from work.

Cons

The publishing hurdle is high but not unreasonable. Also there is a fair amount of pressure to be visible and to put in face time on campus. In addition, because there are such strong faculty, there is also the downside of egos that go along with that. Sometimes egos get in the way of making decisions that are in the best interests of departments, colleges, and the university as a whole. In addition, although there are resources, the is an impetus on new faculty to prove themselves worthy of deserving those resources which can complicate the process of tenure and promotion.

Advice to Senior Management

I think that senior management needs to be more sensitive to the changing face of academia. I think that the requirements for tenure and promotion are continually increasing at a time when resources are beginning to shrink. In addition, the university suggests that they promote a balance between teaching and research, but in reality that does not exist.

Pros

The atmosphere on campus is quite varied. The restaurants on and around campus include many ethnic varieties. The arts and music the campus attracts is eclectic and the surrounding areas provide amazing scenic drives and day trips. Support help are extremely helpful and perform a wonderful job. Although the campus is somewhat spread out among certain offices, the people in the offices are extremely courteous and provide excellent service. Being in the state capital, the university provides close proximity to government offices and funding sources not readily available at other schools. If you are a sports fan, it is a great university with top notch teams.

Cons

During the school year the campus is overrun with students making it hard to park or get anywhere. The summers in Texas are brutally hot and can be humid. Being in a downtown location makes the traffic getting to and from the University of Texas a mess. The school is geared towards athletics especially during football season with many academic sources pushed aside such as research labs in Belmont Hall to appease the sports teams and fans. Construction has become common place further disrupting the campus. The campus is not as picturesque as other well known schools as the architecture is rather repetitive and drab.

Advice to Senior Management

Invest heavily in improving labs and research.

Pros

there's no best reasons to work for UT, as a work-study i would say you got a lot of training and help on your position. but then the same time they just wanted you to do a good job so i guess it evens out. also for my job i didn't have a lot responsibility so i had time to work on my homework or read text books when not busy. any i guess you can also get free coffee, free printing, and get to drive the campus car around and park anywhere you want. enough said, choose a good department or you are screwed.

Cons

for cons, i really don't know where to begin. first of all, my boss, or supervisor always had a bad mood. i would say it had a lot to do with how old this person is or just his/her job in general. this person is really appreciative sometimes but that's only because you do things for her/him and she/he 's happy because she/he didn't have to work on those projects. also if you miss work even though you let them know ahead of time, they would still not like it very much. i would say UT is very liberal so much of the office people there don't quite care about you that much. when I was leaving they didn't even care.

Advice to Senior Management

i would say just take more care of other people and make them feel important. don't talk bad of your co-workers in front of others.