From School to Work to Working at School? 73
torgosan asks: "After years of school and many years of toiling in the corporate world and being laid-off in one of the seemingly perpetual down-sizings [my former company was employee-owned until a corporate buyout a few years back, after which point it all went downhill - a mini-Enron, as it were, including crooked execs, cooked books, SEC investigations, the whole mess], it appears my days of joblessness may possibly be coming to an end. A small university near my hometown has an opening that has my name written all over it. This is all still early in the process and the offer hasn't come yet but that's not stopping me from researching the target city, moving expenses, cost-of-living comparisons, living arrangements, etc. Taking the position would mean a sizable pay-cut but I need to get back to doing what I love to do and this seems to be 'it'. What I haven't been able to find, though, are the insights into university employment and how it compares to working in the 'real world'.
This would be a staff position working with other staff and professionals and with some interaction with the student body. So my question for you uni workers out there is: What sort of adjustment should be expected? Is the uni workplace as structured as the corporate world? Pet peeves? What are the politics like? I ask as I attended a commuter-school with little campus life and have little to draw on for perspective."
fewer rules... (Score:5, Informative)
Rules to live by (Score:5, Informative)
2. Staff positions may be subject to the whimsy of grant-givers: Your position may be tied to long-term research grants or funding that can dry up.
3. Lots of smart people: Profs and grad students will, by and large, be smart and interesting. If you like thinking/talking about new ideas, you will have fun.
4. Slower pace: Universities don't operate on the same timescale as entrepeneural companies. "I need it soon" might mean "I need it next month."
5. YMMV: as with corporate life, specific situations or bosses might suck egregiously or be ludicrously enjoyable.
Good luck!
Laid back, Quieter, Loyalty (Score:4, Informative)
All in all, compared to the corporate world, things are quite a bit quieter, more laid back, and you tend to have more loyalty (you get more of a chance to look at the big picture).
With that being said, this coprorate world mentality of nepotism scams, idiot re-orgs, mass exoduses (exodi?) etc., is beginning to permeate the world of education, which has traditionally been in it's own little world, so I don't know how long things will stay quiet and laid back.
Good luck. It can be the greatest job in the world. It can also really suck at times, as well.
Taking the position would mean a sizable pay-cut
HA! I would love to make what I could in coprorate. But, you don't enter the field of education, even as support staff, to make money. It's just that simple.
Some of my observations (Score:5, Informative)
I worked in IT for a small company, then switched over to working for a University for a few years, essentially doing the same thing (sysadmin, netadmin, etc). I left that job to come back to the corporate atmosphere about four years ago, and I'm very happy where I am now, politics and all.
At least where I was working, things were very laid back vs. a corporate atmosphere. The pay was less, but it was pretty cushy -- had my own huge office, could pretty much buy whatever I needed, etc. All employees got full tuition reinbursement before having to pay yourself (with no grade requirement), and the courses did not have to do with my job function (I could take piano if I wanted to). Another nice benefit was spouse and children (I didn't have any at the time) get 1/2 tuition at the University.
As for politics, there were some run-ins with the tenured profs, who may have felt a little kingly in their status in the department. Other than that, there really were no politics to speak of.
Why did I leave? Well, I needed to get out and learn more. One frustrating thing I had to deal with was the University's lack of desire to branch out to technology that could possibly do things better for us, or at least test the new tech out to see if it met our needs. Many suppliers would gladly give out free trial gear to a University -- that's BIG bucks for them if they get a sale out of it. Also, since I worked for a smaller department and not the "head" IT department of the University, I felt a bit pushed away from what I really wanted to do. It took me months to convince them I could do a simple copper wiring job in the network closet (which they previously charged our department $200 for each drop we wanted moved or added -- a two-minute job at most!). I wasn't learning anything, and I had too much time available to me to play games in my cushy office (I think I logged more time playing UO in those days than I care to admit). I needed to get my head out of the clouds and get back to a place where I could learn more, branch out more and step back into reality.
Most people I tell this to say I was crazy for leaving such a sweet deal, but they just don't get it. It was a great job to spend one's pre-retirement days doing meaningless, mediocre sysadmin work that never changed, but not for a 20-something trying to make something of himself. If I stayed in that job too much longer, I'd be hard pressed to find a company out there to hire me. As far as I'm concerned, I got out in the nick of time.
Anyway, that's just my experience.
My experience (Score:3, Informative)
Your exact work environment can vary greatly, not only from university to unversity but from department to department. Universities are good about keeping their employees. If you are unhappy or need more money, see about getting transfered to another department.
It greatly depends on your department for a number of things. You asked about how structured it is.. My department is very flexible and casual. We've got a small group, and things flow well. Other departments (Engineering IT support or User Services, things like that) can be fairly strict. If things you are doing involve the University as a whole, you may have to go through a great deal of hierarchy as policies need to be implemented correctly.
Politics seems to be high, from my experience. This is especially true when funding from Grants are involved. There are a lot of people at universities that have been there a long time. These people don't like others impeding with the things that they view themselves as controlling. When it comes to funding you could be competing with a professor next door, or a department down the hall.
You've probably gotten accustomed to good travel perks. If your university sends you to conferences, don't expect these as much. It depends on the department/university, but you likely won't have a company credit card to charge things on, and you likely could be sharing a hotel room with others from your department. Expect to pay all of the bills yourself, in advance, and get a refund later.
Because of the Low Stress and relatively High Politics, you'll likely find that things move slowly. It's hard to get new ideas and solutions implemented. If you are going to a Windows only department, don't think you'll be able to switch them to linux quickly. A lot of people will (a) not want to do more work than they have to (b) not want to learn or do anything new and/or (c) will require any change but pushed through high viscosity red-tape.
You'll need to understand how you get paid and how your department gets paid. It may be simple for you and your department. Or your department may get portions of funding from grants and portions from the unversity or other departments to carry out certain obligations. This is important to your success -- you need to know who the customer is (could be students, researchers, staff, the vicepresident of IT, the NSF or DOD, or some other unversity as part of a collaboration...).
Re:fewer rules... (Score:3, Informative)
And self-motivated work -- you got that right. I guiltily admit that I spent far too many hours dinking around playing Ultima Online in my office when things were slow. If the department (or University for that matter) would've allowed me to explore new technology, at least I'd have something more to do. They made it near impossible for me to use my downtime to think up better ways to do things for the department. In essence I was just sitting around waiting for things to break.
One thing that was a bummer was seeing grad students come and go so frequently. Post-Grad students had their own offices. You'd make friends with someone for a year or more, only for them to move away when their doctorate was over.
The perks make it worth it... (Score:3, Informative)
22 days of paid vacation annually is very nice. I take a 3 day weekend every month and still have plenty of vacation time stacked up that I could take a whole week off when I move to a new apartment this summer.
ATTENTION NERD TOY COLLECTORS: A nice perk that offsets the lower salary: Educational employees are eligible for educational personal purchase discounts. This amounts to 10% off Apple hardware and software, and a comparable amount with Dell, etc.
Because my university has negotiated various discounts, I save money on rental cars and hotels when I travel, and get a break on my cell phone monthly charges, too. I saved about $100 on car rentals last time I traveled.
Use your employee ID badge to collect student discounts at the movies!
I believe the retirement plans are pretty generous, too. I know for mine, I was eligible for the university's contribution after a year and I was vested immediately.
Leaving my university position (Score:2, Informative)
1. The polotics are HORRIBLE. Every single things has to go through 10 committees and finance groups and can still be killed on the whims of the CFO. You have to be 100% politically correct all the time or you are frowned upon. My experiences with corporate politics have been MUCH easier to deal with.
2. Hours suck. You basically can not take a system down anytime there MIGHT be a class or students in the labs. For us that means that during the week reboots/service packs/anything minor has to been done remotely at 3:00AM. That's the only time we have gotten approved to boot everyone off the systems. Scheduling major upgrades always turns into a Saturday/Sunday/come in at 10:00PM ordeal.
3. Pay is below the industry average in the area. Whatever this position is making in the corporate arena in your area, subtract 20% to get what the university will pay.
4. Benefits - most universities have great benefits. Mine is an EXTREME exception. Most have good health, vision, dental, and education reibursement. A lot of schools let your children go there for free after you have worked there X number of years.
5. Autonomy - most schools let you do your work at your own pace. Unless your boss is a militant ex-marine who's boss is a militant ex-army officer. Not that I'm bitter about that or anything.
Those are just a few of my major findings. It has not been an enjoyable experience for me and I am looking forward to getting back to the corporate world. Oh, and to the guy that mentioned no dress code
GOOD LUCK!
Yeah, what they said (Score:2, Informative)
1. Most tenured professors have inflated egos. This inflation varies from mild to delusional, and usually varies positively with seniority.
2. Non-tenured new hires usually haven't yet forgotten that they're not grad students, and are much humbler and easier to work with.
3. Most professors have no idea how much work goes into your job, and no idea how to plan anything ahead of time. I have had people ask me, in all innocence, to reserve rooms in, say, the faculty center on four hours' notice on a Friday (when no one teaches and everyone does lunch at the faculty center). I have had people ask me, in all innocence, to proofread and LaTeX typeset a 45-page mechanical engineering treatise "by next week, because it was due last month."
4. Long-term staff (id est, "lifers", people who are not just "working here while getting an advanced degree in something else" like I am) can be the most political, gossipy, backstabbing people I have ever encountered.
5. Union rules are so strict that most people can't just change jobs or start doing new duties without six reams of filled-out forms being vetted by the union. You also usually can't be slotted into a new job that has opened up in your department, rather, an entire hiring process, however illusory (i.e., they interview ten people and hire you anyway) must be undertaken.
6. Similarly, accountng rules are a bitch. Never mind that some people find ways to embezzle tens of thousands of dollars once in a while. You had better be able to explain to Accounts Payable why you're reimbursing a visitor from fucking Washington DC fifty cents for a can of Coke---food and drink are not authorized on that grant account, buster!
That said
7. It is God damned impossible to be fired. You basically have to rape a small child in front of the Dean in order to get fired around here. Simple bone laziness, egregious stupidity or generally being a complete jerk won't do it.
8. In the engineering departments, at least, you can dress any way you please. No dress code. Jeans day every day, baby. In other depts., it may not be so.