Great - Research Assistant UCLA Employee Review

4.0
Mar 3, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Flexible and creative work, typically with world class researchers.

Cons

Must secure your own funding. Post covid set-up (even in 2026) can be isolating. Salary not as high as private industry. Unclear if makes sense long-term given gap in prestige between researchers and professors (e.g. assistant researchers can't be Principle Investigator on a project).

Explore other reviews about UCLA

5.0
Jun 5, 2026
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Good benefit, good pay, good location

Cons

bad work life balance, no promotion

2.0
May 5, 2026
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Decent benefits, but not really as great as everyone assumes. Some colleagues who really care and do great work. Impressive students.

Cons

Relatively poor pay and pay inequities. Extremely poor fiscal management - that CFO who was fired for outing it was spot on. Senior administrators and faculty are incentivized to spend a lot of money on things that serve few students and hoard resources to make themselves look good for performance reviews and tenure committees, but it means a lot of extra work gets dumped on a growing a number of mid-level administrators and support staff - who now face layoffs or added workloads. It's all strangling the university's ability to serve its students, but I know several faculty members simply don't care about students or teaching.

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