University of Washington Reviews

Pros

it's challenging and rewarding working in this environment

Cons

payment is not ideal compared to the high work volume

Pros

You get to work on research projects, things that no sensible profit-driven industries want to risk investing and investigating such as developing flight control software for newly designed autonomous underwater vehicles. You get to work with very liberal, open-minded and bright people. Benefits are unbeatable. Compensations are not too bad for academic entity, generally 10-15% lower than equivalent positions in the private sector; much higher than usual departmental units. Usually very flexible in schedule, vacation needs, etc.

Cons

Hardly anyone cares about QA. There's a saying "don't let PhDs code", and it's so true. You'll be forever "programmer" unless you can come up with a noble idea and fetch grants from federal agencies yourself. If you are like me who's passionate about engineering aspect of software development, you will find a dead end in career development. As for compensations, though I said it's generally only 10-15% less, the gap has grown wider since the state wide salary freeze since 2007.

Advice to Senior Management

N/A

Pros

It's a big university, lots of smart people. In the department where I worked, the management team is great, the employees work hard and motivated.

Cons

Some of the buildings are a little bit old, need some renovations. Certain degree of work place hierarchy in some places.

Advice to Senior Management

Overall, it's really satisfying to work in University of Washington. Management team can work better on keep employees motivated and promote the hard workers.

Pros

The campus is beautiful and there are great public transportation options to get to work. People were friendly and accommodating with work/life balance.

Cons

With state budget cuts affecting resources and salaries, the atmosphere was at many times tense and stressful as we all worried about our jobs.

Advice to Senior Management

Stressing out about little details such as how much paper and ink people were using to help cut costs was frustrating. I would recommend focusing on the bigger picture of how to bring in more funding rather than cuts.

Pros

Great benefits, generous vacation, good health plans, 12 sick days a year, some educational benefits, subsidized transit pass, educational discounts

Cons

Little career advancement unless you're faculty, pay is woeful even for public sector work, for technical positions you often work under faculty and staff with little domain knowledge leading to a total lack of understanding of what your job entails. And working with faculty can be a total pain.

Pros

Nice position (in city of Seattle)
Lots of chances of collaboration
Lots of resources around

Cons

Low salary
Sometimes have to work in old buildings

Pros

For a college student, CSS offers the following advantages:
- It is relatively easy to rise in the ranks if you can follow instructions.
- Very flexible scheduling.
- There are always different clients with different needs, which keeps the job exciting.

Cons

Some cons:
- Work hours are inconsistent per week.
- Sometimes the shifts end 1 or 2 am.
- The shifts are short and not worthwhile initially. You receive longer shifts as you gain experience.

Advice to Senior Management

Overall, it is a good place to work at if you are interested in technical support and media technology. The pay is pretty good and it will never conflict with class schedule!

Pros

The campus. Husky pass. UW Temp Staffing.

Cons

Disrespect to older employees. I would recommend against working at Harborview or in the School of Medicine. Supervisors who don't know how to supervise and managers who don't know how to manage. Non-supervisors and non-managers suffer as a result.

Advice to Senior Management

Show leadership. Don't play favorites. Be inclusive. Delegate. Show creativity. Promote fun, caring and thoughtfulness in your department. Set an example by showing respect to temporary employees.

Pros

The location of UW is very good, it's in Seattle area which has well diverse cultures. The work place is very nice and you gain benefit of being close to the research activities at UW.

Cons

UW doesn't sponsor H1B so it is hard for international students to continue working at UW. Otherwise it's a great place to work for.

Advice to Senior Management

Please continue building the university of Washington to be a great place to study and to work for.

Pros

Great enviroment room for growth a great place to work.

Cons

Long term employees grandfathered in have lots of personnel issues.