Northwestern University reviews

Faculty can be downright rude and disrespectful; stay away from positions that deal with faculty if you can help it. I cannot emphasize this enough. They also have no idea how to be administrators or work with staff, and the learning curve is steep every time a faculty member takes on an administrative role. Somewhat rigid HR policies concerning raises and promotions, values years of experience over performance. Senior staff love them some bureaucracy. Getting any changes implemented takes forever. Very hierarchical management, I don't think they've ever heard of "moving towards a flatter organizational structure." No one ever loses their job, even people who EVERYONE knows would have been fired long ago in the private sector. This lowers morale. Staff are a weird mix of folks - some very professional, motivated and talented people, and then a lot of folks who are just like characters from "The Office" (think Dwight, Angela, and Creed types). There are some great individuals on the IT team, but the way the whole IT operation is run is insane. The individual school IT departments have WAY too much autonomy, creating huge disparities between schools when it comes to software upgrades, websites, etc.

The pay is terrible and there has been lots of downsizing and job reclassification in recent years. You will work the job of two people. Huge culture shift from years ago is tacking place in that it's taking on a more "corporate" feel in a lot of areas. I think there are many unhappy staff and this is not reflected in the overall rating because the reviews are affected by graduate students. Management does not have concern for workers well being and will run off even long time employees if you do not conform to their current paradigm. The turn over is way too high and it's hard to make meaningful connections with others. Career growth is based on who you know, not what you know. No accountability for upper management and how they treat others.