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Harvard University

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Great place to further your education, figure out the next step; not a great place to build a career - Coordinator Harvard University Employee Review

4.0
21 Oct 2009
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

- Great tuition assistance - Generous paid time off - Superior health insurance, especially for part-time employees - 35-hour workweek - In sum, great benefits and work/life balance

Cons

- Very few opportunities for career advancement - Tendency to "get stuck" in the same position and grade level for many years - University attracts odd, out-of-touch faculty and staff who are not "grounded" in reality - Salaries are average to below average for similar positions in other industries - Little or no centralization; duplication of effort occurs repeatedly across different offices and units - If you are young, the University has a very grey workforce; the majority of employees are 40+ and many are within 1-10 years of retirement. As a result, the place often lacks youthful energy and fun, despite the students - Way too many meetings. This place has a meeting over everything. 4-6 hours in the 8-hour day are often spent at pointless meetings.

Explore other reviews about Harvard University

5.0
25 Jun 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

A PhD is always very advisor/PI dependent, but I had a great experience with room to learn, grow, and explore interesting research questions. As with any PhD program you’ll work pretty hard for relatively lower pay and perhaps less directly applicable industry career trajectory at the end, but if you find good people to tackle the journey with and get to work on interesting problems I personally think the journey is worthwhile!

Cons

Less of a program wide cohort in my particular engineering field. Some funding challenges with the govt last year but seem mostly back now, apart from the recent administration issues funding wasn’t generally a challenge

5.0
23 Jun 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Friendly and helpful coworkers, easy systems

Cons

Honestly don’t have anything bad to say

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