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Harvard University

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Keep your head down and mouth shut - Staff Assistant III Harvard University Employee Review

1.0
27 July 2014
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Great health insurance and benefits.

Cons

Minimal training and no mentorship provided. Extreme levels of compartmentalization where you are unable to pursue any work outside of your job description. You will be yelled at if you have any academic or work interests outside of your job description as well. Lots of behind-the-back talk among employees and no direct feedback is ever provided. Unless you are faculty or you have your doctorate, you are unable to provide feedback or have your own opinion about the way things are run. Remember that Harvard has outgrown its status as a university. It is a factory which prides itself on intellect and innovation, yet this could not be any further from the truth.

Explore other reviews about Harvard University

5.0
25 June 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 June 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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