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Northwestern University

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Alumni Relations and Development - Bureaucratic, Reactionary and Archaic - Program Assistant Northwestern University Employee Review

3.0
Feb 12, 2016
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Pride in working in an environment where great things are achieved and interesting people are involved. Access to decent benefits.

Cons

Archaic management styles and working arrangements. No ability to rate, grade or review your supervisor(s) or offer them any kind of feedback in a formal way. Divisive, reactive culture with ongoing issues between different functional areas of the department and constant last-minute planning/execution. Non-traditional work arrangements are rare and frowned upon even though this is touted as a major benefit of working at NU. Very uneven organizational structure with little opportunity for advancement. No focus on hiring from within and developing internal talent. Interview process is too long, drawn out and does not allow for candidates to do more than answer the same outdated questions multiple times and to different groups of people. Distant, unapproachable HR and recruiting team. Very little incentive to perform well aside from fear of poor performance evaluation ratings and reduction in annual pay-increase which is already laughably low. Long-term planning does not involve lower-level staff who are ultimately affected most by departmental change. This is not a fun or rewarding job. I feel that I have to conform to outdated standards in order to fit in and receive no appreciation for my work.

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5.0
Jul 14, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
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Pros

Great work experience, and I got to work with a professor during the process.

Cons

Can be more difficult to get higher pay

4.0
Jul 6, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

It's steady and stable money. Coworkers can be great, and benefits can be good**

Cons

They recently changed all of the benefits due to the government administration pulling federal funding. They changed from Blue Cross Blue Shield to United so the insurance is pretty bad now, with higher premiums and higher copays. You get a 90% discount on tuition, yet also about 97% of the graduate programs are when you'd be working during a 9-5. So it's nearly impossible to actually utilize your tuition discount. There were a lot of budget cuts, and 3% bonuses were one of the first to go. Your base pay is usually underpaid because it's higher education/nonprofit, and the 3% raise is barely enough to cover the rise of cost of living. So now it's underpaid, bad or unusable benefits, and low morale because there were also so many layoffs with the rest of the employees having to do the work of multiple people. Systems in the university are antiquated and it takes forever for anything to get done and most of it is trial and error. They say there is mobility, but it's only lateral if you're lucky. I've been here for two years and there's been such high turnover in senior management including the President that everything feels up in the air.

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