Arizona State University Reviews

Pros

Benefits, including employee tuition benefit at all three state universities, are wonderful. This is a place to learn and grow, and not just if you are a student. ASU is like a medium-sized city in and of itself, and there is a culture of growth, innovation, and continuous improvement in how we work and serve students and the community. Not every department is the same - that's a given at such a large institution. But there are ample opportunities to connect with great people and to be involved in meaningful and impactful work.

Cons

Pay rates may be lower than in some other places, but as I mentioned, benefits make up a large part of the compensation. It can be easy for some to feel lost in such a huge workplace. Make a friend; volunteer; find a place where you can connect in order to feel less lost.

Pros

ASU has everything. There's someone studying any imaginable topic. There are great labs, facilities and student activities. ASU generally looks out for both students and employees. Michael Crowe is a visionary showing one path toward the future of higher education.

Cons

Absolute grind for graduate students. Some departments and faculty (ab)use graduate student's time, using all of it for teaching or pet projects that set students up for failure in their own research.

Pros

I met some incredible people and made some of my closest friends. I got to chaperone fun trips like Disneyland and Sedona. I also got to work on some really cool projects that ultimately set me up to be successful in my next job. I left before COVID hit, but we had really large budgets. You are able to do a lot of cool and creative programs.

Cons

Working this job completely wrecked my mental health. I was regularly working 50-60 hours a week. Offering critical feedback is not welcomed. You’ll be criticized for having a negative attitude and your opportunities will quickly start vanishing. If you’re gonna work at ASU, I hope you love sports! You will be forced to get students to football and basketball games by any means necessary. They don’t want to go, but leadership doesn’t care. If they’re not at games, you’re not doing your job. At ASU, the only constant is change. Your coworkers will leave. Your boss will leave. The director will leave. The turnover rate is so high that you’re constantly losing coworkers and retraining new ones with less work experience than the person that came before them. People are burnt out and miserable and no one cares. You’re expected to shut up and do your job with a smile even if it’s killing you. If a coworker leaves, you’re expected to do their work on top of yours. If you can’t get it all done between 9-5, you’re expected to stay until midnight if you have to. It’s just plain toxic.

Pros

*Lots of opportunity to grow and develop as university changes. *Have the potential to work at other ASU campuses and experience it's one campus, many places philosophy and the unique needs those campus dynamics and campus culture communities have. *ASU is great at offering professional development opportunities for it's staff and faculty and the one unique opportunity offered is Council on the Status of Women conference open to all staff in the fall semester.

Cons

*That parking is not built into are benefits package and we end up paying sometimes such a large amount to pay for parking or even a light rail pass, which doesn't get discounted for faculty or staff either. *For years we were asked to take surveys about transportation to and from work, whether we were willing to work a flex schedule, but before COVID nothing like this was ever seriously looked at. With space so limited at the ASU main campus, it seemed like working from home or working a flex schedule would have been something figured out sooner?

Pros

Really friendly people, supportive research community. Great grants admins!

Cons

Annoying travel approval process that seems to get more annoying with justifications (e.g. need to justify why we can't book an Airbnb through their preferred travel vendor). At least some buildings don't have their own generator, so my data analysis has been interrupted before by power outages. Don't give 403b matching benefits to postdocs, and vacation accrual expires every year (10 days only).

Pros

Love the camaraderie, and the cookies every year for Christmas!!

Cons

My job was contracted, so I don't work there anymore.

Pros

This place is full of big thinkers who have come here because ASU says it is committed to big ideas. It's wonderful and exciting. President Crow is inspiring.

Cons

Where we invest our resources is a demonstration of cultural integrity... and we have perpetually understaffed the big ideas, which need support to reach their full potential. I've seen President Crow brag to ABOR about how low our staff-to-student ratio is compared to other universities; I think we've passed a threshold, with negative consequences.