Overall a disappointment, with some silver lining… you will really want to read the Cons section - Anonymous employee UC Santa Barbara Employee Review

The pay is terrible. I could have made more money working elsewhere. And plenty of academic workers are seriously underpaid for their qualifications. The management and leadership are terrible. I’m sure this explains itself with recent headlines. In addition, my observation is UCSB tends to invite situations where the kinds of people who seek management positions only do so to get a pay raise to afford to live in SB, not to actually lead or develop a team. And, like many other large-scale government universities, you are bound to hear of favoritism and nepotism, along with PIs not correctly managing grant funds. The culture is terrible. My observation is that elitism governs the mentality of UCSB’s leadership, and work-from-home was brought to an end. The vaccine mandate, and the prior mask and symptoms reporting survey mandates don’t help either. The resources are terrible. Insufficient training, poor WiFi, insufficient documentation, decrepit buildings, and incomplete or makeshift office equipment all weigh down on employees across the board. The opportunities are terrible. In many cases, you need to find another job in another department to get a raise and promotion, and the annual pay adjustments each June/July don’t keep up with inflation or the cost of Santa Barbara living.