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      Northwestern University

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      Northwestern University reviews

      4.0

      75% would recommend to a friend

      (4,087 total reviews)
      avatar

      Michael Schill

      56% approve of CEO

      53% positive business outlook

      Ratings by category

      3.9

      Diversity & inclusion

      3.9

      Work/Life balance

      3.8

      Culture & values

      3.6

      Career opportunities

      3.4

      Compensation and benefits

      3.3

      Senior management

      Northwestern University has an employee rating of 4.0 out of 5 stars, based on 4,087 company reviews on Glassdoor which indicates that most employees have a good working experience there. The Northwestern University employee rating is in line with the average (within 1 standard deviation) for employers within the Education industry (3.7 stars).

      Ratings by demographic groups

      Reviews by job title

      4K reviews
      3.0
      Sep 15, 2009

      Cutting edge in a few places, ridiculously archaic in most others

      Current staff employee
      Recommend
      CEO approval
      Business Outlook

      Pros

      - GREAT benefits. The 401K match is crazy good. Vacation is ample. - Very flexible, if your boss is flexible. All depends on the position. - Cutting edge in some places (use of virtualization), ridiculous use of open source or nothing at all in other areas - Very good work/life balance - Stable, very few layoffs

      Cons

      - If you don't land in the few good positions that will offer career advancement and/or skills enhancement that you can actually use on the job (vs just taking a class to check a box), watch out. - Negotiate hard on the starting salary or you will never get anywhere. Raises are not up to industry standards and promotion almost requires you to go into management - Politics for the sake of politics, and over stuff that does not matter.

      3.0
      Aug 13, 2009

      Lack of Diversity

      Graduate research assistant
      Recommend
      CEO approval
      Business Outlook

      Pros

      Northwestern University ranks among the premier Universities in the Nation. It is located on a beautiful campus, and offers good stipends to graduate students.

      Cons

      One of the biggest drawbacks is lack of diversity in the student body and lack of support by faculty or faculty that is easily accessible.

      3.0
      Aug 2, 2009

      Ok place, depending *entirely* on your office

      Full time staff
      Recommend
      CEO approval
      Business Outlook

      Pros

      Beautiful campus and access to a wide range of extra benefits, like discounts at local business, access to the athletic center, the shuttle down town to Chicago, etc. The Performance Excellence program (annual review) is good, but not intuitive, and seems to take everyone hours and hours to complete. Overall, processes, well, work. I've worked at an institution where things often just went wrong because of a wide range of issues (poor planning, poor follow-through, no administrative communication, etc.). Lots of opportunity for advancement, hypothetically.

      Cons

      The problem with NU is that it is decentralized, so many offices are silos. This means that you don't get much of a chance to mingle or network with other offices. This is bad for personal professional development, and it's bad for the school overall as offices are not sharing information that is needed to improve. HR is kind of disorganized. I once called for one piece of information and was transferred 3 times by phone. This decentralization also leaves you at the mercy of your own office. If you work in an office that has some problems, like mine, then you are left without recourse.

      Viewing 4066 - 4068 of 4,087 Reviews
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      Glassdoor has 4,470 Northwestern University reviews submitted anonymously by Northwestern University employees. Read employee reviews and ratings on Glassdoor to decide if Northwestern University is right for you.