Pace University Reviews

At one time Career Services was one of its signature departments and a shining example of how to develop the next generation of talent and programs that were geared to students. Today the department is plagued with mismanagement and poor leadership which fosters a culture of mediocrity, poor morale, elitism, and puts student career development second only to finding creative ways to inflate their placement numbers while making sure it is legal instead of ethical. As for salary, they are joke. They start their admin staff and career counselors close to 20-30% less than comparable schools. Want a raise? Enjoy the "generous" 2.0-2.7% merit raise based on a performance appraisal that is laborious and so subjective that HR orders managers to limit the number of folks they can give high marks to minimize costs. There are no bonuses or wage increases to reward efficiency, experience, certifications, or other milestones. Want job advancement? If you're an admin person or support staff you're out of luck. Counselors can strive to be senior career counselors or assistant directors, but recently Associate Director and above are left to the truly incompetent or those willing to let their souls die and never question the status quo or the executive director. Looking to be creative and want resources to support you? This isn't the place for you. Look elsewhere. Baruch, NYU, Manhattan College, NYIT are better alternatives. But what about professional development? Sure, you can attend conferences if you're upper management or love to kiss butt. Otherwise it is not happening unless it is free or if management decides to throw the occasional crumbs at the lower tier. Mentoring and leadership? Who has time? Counselor caseloads are insanely high because people keep leaving. So much so that students and alumni complain about long waits to see counselors or hear a response via email or phone. Their attempt at turning the office to a placement office underscores their desire for numbers vs helping students. They are heavily relying on temps because they are not willing to pay career counselors a marketable salary and finding qualified folks is harder than ever because their reputation is in the toilet. If management's plan was to make the department look foolish, unprofessional, push out experienced and talented employees, offer less career development, and appear impotent: mission accomplished. If you still decide to take the plunge and apply to a job at this department, -- have an exit strategy. Plan to use those unlimited sick days for interviews.

Are you an employee who loves to take initiative and go the extra mile? Then prepare to be used and abused here at Pace, where the better you are at your job, the more work you're given - just don't expect to be compensated for it. Or to be promoted. Ever. Over the past year in my current role, I have steadily been given more and more responsibilities outside the scope of my job description and pay grade, to the point that I now literally have triple the workload I signed on for. Any time I've asked about a raise, I've literally been laughed at by my supervisor. And my job description has never officially been changed. This holds true for the majority of the people in my department, and my friends in other departments across campus. So I, and most of my colleagues, have settled for the "do just enough to not get fired" approach to working as we desperately search for new jobs. And don't bother going to HR - they're either corrupt or completely incompetent. The jury's still out on which.