Harvard University Reviews

Former Employee – worked at Harvard University as a contractor for less than a year

Pros – Energetic environment - Dedicated staff, motivated students - Excellent fabrication equipment - culture of pushing the envelope / seeking ways to improve and better provide

Cons – Understaffed for the amount of demand / expectation.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at Harvard University full-time for more than a year

Pros – Best research in the world

Cons – Low pay, but typical of post-doc position.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend – I'm optimistic about the outlook for this company

Current Employee – been working at Harvard University part-time for more than 7 years

Pros – A hub of architecture culture and discourse. Draws an international body of the best students. Vital ties to the rest of the university. Great peer group of faculty.

Cons – Vague hiring and promotion policies. Competitive atmosphere among both faculty and students. However these are all the challenges that one should expect at a university of this caliber.

Advice to Senior Management – Better and more organized mentoring of junior faculty.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend – I'm not optimistic about the outlook for this company

Former Employee – worked at Harvard University part-time for less than a year

Pros – Opportunity to meet great people, pay is generous, location is nice

Cons – Bureaucracy dominates, payroll is extremely disorganized and checks are always cut late, very difficult to communicate with upper-level employees, budget for research studies is not managed properly

Advice to Senior Management – You need to take the time to communicate with lower-tier employees who are actually out in the field doing research in schools. Most of you are completely out of touch with what really goes on and what needs to be changed.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Former Employee – worked at Harvard University full-time for more than a year

Pros – Fantastic colleagues and a research environment that is second to none worldwide. Boston is a great place to work and live.

Cons – Expected time commitment exceeds that at similar institutions.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend – I'm optimistic about the outlook for this company

Former Employee – worked at Harvard University as an intern for less than a year

Pros – It's a beautiful campus and you'll be surrounded by some of the smartest people in the world.

Cons – I was handling book and material inventory for one of the departments in Widener Library for a summer. It wasn't the most exciting job in the world, but I didn't really expect it to be. It was a decent, fair job.

Advice to Senior Management – Give access to university perks (like the gym) to temporary summer employees.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend – I'm optimistic about the outlook for this company

Current Employee – been working at Harvard University part-time for more than 3 years

Pros – You get to interact and work with great people doing great things. Benefits are great if you work more than half time.

Cons – No benefits for less than half time, and few openings to progress even if you've worked in your position from years. I hear this from other LHT workers a lot.

Advice to Senior Management – Give more hours to LHT workers who have been employees for a long time!

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend – I'm optimistic about the outlook for this company

Current Employee – been working at Harvard University full-time for more than 3 years

Pros – Excellent benefits, smart and hard-working colleagues, strong work-life balance

Cons – Pays about 80% of market-rate in other industries
Ceiling unless yo have a PHD

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend – I'm optimistic about the outlook for this company

Current Employee – been working at Harvard University full-time for more than 7 years

Pros – Some astonishingly great, high energy, motivated people who usually call it the way they see it; really good locations, interesting work. Benefits are very good.

Cons – Have worked for or with a couple of people who really shouldn't be here. Sometimes the place makes hiring mistakes and can take forever to rectify them.

Advice to Senior Management – Reward people who have good EQ and point out that this matters. You can be both kind and awesomely great at your work, at the same time.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at Harvard University full-time

Pros – Good salary for higher education, great benefits. Fairly easy to move around from one office to another, or one school to another.

Cons – Loads of bureaucracy, support staff end up with the brunt of the work, and you have to deal with irritating students and faculty.

Advice to Senior Management – value support staff more

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend