Who has worked in a college/university? (non faculty) (job offers, employee, degree)

[Seduflow]

what was/is your position? How is the atmosphere like? Did you work in public or private? What did you think of the benefits and salary?

[NJBest]

Research Assistant, $6500/month, part time, no benefits. Atmosphere was extremely fun and a great learning experience thanks to the faculty I worked with. It was quite stressing at times, however. I still do it in addition to my full-time job.

It's private and is the school that I had attended for my undergrad.

[joe from dayton]

Most people like working for universities. Just like anywhere else, there are butt heads working at universities and one of them may be your co-worker or supervisor. Pay runs the entire spectrum; some pay very well while others pay fairly poorly for support positions. In my experience, state universities pay better than private universities. Atmosphere is pretty subjective and is influenced by such things as what dept. you work for, staffing levels, student population, etc.

[Chzanne]

I work for a Mississippi State University. There are many pros and cons and I am constantly weighting them out. I am a Research Assistant.

Pros:

• Very stable (no lay off's, very difficult to get fired).
• Work on my master's for free (only pay for books and materials).
• My job offers awesome vacation time (15 paid days for holidays a year, and I started with 1.25 days vacation each month that roll over each year. My boss has over 3 years of personal vaca time saved up that will go towards retirement).
• Good insurance and decent retirement for the employee
• Very relaxed work environment.
• None of the corporate world stress. Brown Nosing doesn't get a person much further in the state university world (where I am), the only way a person is being promoted is by earning the next degree until you reach the top (At the top...brown nosing can get your further...but not at staff level).

Cons:

• Pay isn't that great (but ok considering it is Mississippi)
• Research can sometimes be unmotivating especially when your researcher has reached tenure.
• Not very good insurace for spouse (my husband has independent insurance because MSSTATE has stupidly high rates for a spouse).
• No bonuses.
• Very few raises unless given state wide.
• Very structured pay grades. Move ups only happen with earned degree (this is a pro also).

If you start at a young age, in my opinion, the ideal situation is to work your 25 years in the stable predicable environment, then retire and work in a higher paying but risker environment (Like corporate america...which will stab a loyal employee in the back no prob right before you reach full retirement). Because lets face it...I am going to be working into my 60s anyways . So I might as well save the risk for later, knowing that I will alway have my state retirement to fall back on.