Columbia University Reviews
Updated May 25, 2023
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Top Review Highlights by Sentiment
- "Columbia and the Business School are great to work for because of the benefits and the people." (in 360 reviews)
- "Salaries in the teaching and research tracks are low compared to private industry; many positions depend on grant funding." (in 223 reviews)
- "I have seen on more than one occasion, staff members completely stop doing their jobs with no serious repercussions (b/c the managers don't want to deal with the strenuous process of terminating someone)." (in 31 reviews)
- "If you end up in a bad department with bad leadership not much you can do except apply for another position in a differ department." (in 24 reviews)
Ratings by Demographics
This rating reflects the overall rating of Columbia University and is not affected by filters.
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- Former Employee★★★★★
Pros
Excellent experience in all ways
Cons
No cons to report back
- Former Employee, more than 1 year★★★★★
Pay attention to the red flags
Mar 20, 2023 - Systems Administrator in New York, NYRecommendCEO ApprovalBusiness OutlookPros
Great people in general, an amazing University, and some of the most state of the art research being done in academia.
Cons
Co-workers who are uninformed, don't listen, or take informed advice about getting tasks accomplished. A strong desire for the heads of Dept. to "get ahead" versus working with their Department cohorts. Absent leadership that "check in" just for the sake of checking a box with zero follow through. An extremely slow on boarding process A network of individuals who don't communicate their expectations or desires inline with what professional tools are made available to work with. An IT department who continually fail to work with other departments. In essence if it doesn't feel right, abort mission, stay away, and avoid at all costs...even if it looks like a "good fit" at first.
Continue reading - Current Employee, less than 1 year★★★★★
Overall strong workplace, but abysmal hiring/payroll processes
Apr 22, 2023 - Graduate Research Assistant in New York, NYRecommendCEO ApprovalBusiness OutlookPros
Opporrunity to work with amazing faculty/staff (essential for building your network professionally/academically) Chance to work on research, including data collection, analysis, and report writing (maybe even publish a thing or two!) Work on public health topics that are interesting to you/related to your studies bosses are flexible with your work hours/schedule b/c they know you're a student (esp around exams/holidays)
Cons
hiring process is abysmal, i knew i had the job on June 2022, submitted my documents on August 2022, wasn't officially on payroll until October or novemeber due to delays. Timesheets are still submitted IN WORD FORMAT, so you manually calculate everything, and you have to estimate what you'll work on week2 of your timesheet, because you have to submit before you finish working for that week, so can get annoying if you go under or over what you estimate.
- Current Employee, less than 1 year★★★★★
Pros
Competitive salary and benefits compared to other places in NYC.
Cons
Administration is rigid and unwilling to be open to new ideas. Expect every new hire to be a unicorn and rather burn out staff than to adequately train them. Guidance is rarely consistently applied and you have to tolerate a fair amount of emotional abuse.
Continue reading - Current Employee★★★★★
Ivy League image, decentralized realilty
Apr 23, 2023 - Senior ManagerRecommendCEO ApprovalBusiness OutlookPros
Treats employees with respect for the most part
Cons
Salaries are on the low side. Benefits are not competitive. Academics are treated like the only visible human resources whereas administrators bear heavy work loads and make things work. The university and medical center are decentralized in the extreme and you rise and fall by the quality of the network you are able to build. If you are good at finding work colleagues who will help you get your answers and the resources to complete your work, you will do well in this environment.
Continue reading - Current Employee★★★★★
Great staff and very interesting projects
May 24, 2023 - Research AssistantRecommendCEO ApprovalBusiness OutlookPros
CGEP (Columbia University) is an excellent place to work. The staff is fantastic and the projects are very engaging and timely.
Cons
HR is very approachable but sometimes limited in the ways it can help you.
- Current Employee★★★★★
Adjunctification is killing higher education
May 12, 2023 - University LecturerRecommendCEO ApprovalBusiness OutlookPros
Amazing students, world-class institution, decent benefits, pay for lecturers is more or less livable. Good research budget.
Cons
University is an administrative nightmare, no paths to advancement, the job is framed as like a *favor* done to you by the administration to buy you more time in higher education before you inevitably do a hard career reset. Little to no oversight because the university does not care about teaching. No guaranteed office space so you end up doing student meetings in a cafe like you're a TA.
Continue reading - Current Employee★★★★★
Education fundraising leader
May 14, 2023 - Senior Associate DirectorRecommendCEO ApprovalBusiness OutlookPros
Colleagues believe in mission of institution. Fairly secure job and industry. Surrounded by some of most cutting edge research, smartest individuals, and inspiring stories. Fairly good work/life balance. Fantastic vacation policy with unlimited sick time and tuition benefits.
Cons
Siloed work environment even between departments within a division - can come out as lack of collaboration. Too many competing priorities. Many managers focused on own success and not growth of direct reports so you'll need to be a big advocate for yourself.
- Current Employee, more than 3 years★★★★★
Great place to work
May 25, 2023 - Assistant Manager CUIT in New York, NYRecommendCEO ApprovalBusiness OutlookPros
Plenty of learning experiences plenty of time off free education after a couple of years fair salary and retirement benefits
Cons
some management decisions are confusing
- Current Employee★★★★★
Great place to work
May 22, 2023 - Postdoctoral Research Associate in New York, NYRecommendCEO ApprovalBusiness OutlookPros
Good health coverage, lots of green space in the neighborhood
Cons
Low salary making it hard to find an apartment in NYC without roommates (annual salary must be 40x monthly rent)
Columbia University Reviews FAQs
Columbia University has an overall rating of 4.1 out of 5, based on over 4,642 reviews left anonymously by employees. 77% of employees would recommend working at Columbia University to a friend and 63% have a positive outlook for the business. This rating has decreased by -1% over the last 12 months.
77% of Columbia University employees would recommend working there to a friend based on Glassdoor reviews. Employees also rated Columbia University 3.8 out of 5 for work life balance, 3.9 for culture and values and 3.8 for career opportunities.
According to reviews on Glassdoor, employees commonly mention the pros of working at Columbia University to be career development, coworkers, benefits and the cons to be culture, management, compensation.
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