MIT: for staff, a bit between academia and industry - Member Of Technical Staff MIT Employee Review

3.0
Mar 3, 2009
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

The benefits are very good. Employees usually have more paid time off than their peers at competing employers. The retirement plan seems to be better than most companies, but comparable to competing academic institutions. Shifting hours to be a bit off from 9-5 seems to be easy and common. Employees have access to great equipment to complete their projects. Opportunities for training or taking a class are good. Internal seminars and invited speakers are good. Employees tend to be some of the brightest people around.

Cons

Managers come from purely technical backgrounds and do not appear to receive much management or leadership training. They may be good at winning grants, but they can be quite bad at handling necessary administrative or personnel issues. Ironically, the tuition reimbursement for continuing education is worse than at competing employers and academic institutions. Salary does not seem to be competitive with industry. Women and minorities are very underrepresented in management.

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5.0
Jul 1, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Amazing work environment, supportive colleagues, good benefits.

Cons

Current federal funding hurts MIT staffing

4.0
Jun 26, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

High quality core facilities and well resourced labs. Countless brilliant colleagues who can serve as mentors and collaborators

Cons

Students and Postdocs are expensive due to high overhead, so unreasonably high productivity is often expected compared to other institutions. PIs are typically stretched very thin. Most departments/labs are very space limited which makes it harder to do safe and productive research.

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