resident director

student worker

teaching assistant

tutor

project manager

Abilene Christian University

The typical day at worked included sitting in a small office for x amount of hours depending on your scheduled shift, and your workload varied on the amount of calls and chats received. I learned several skills about remotely providing services over the phones as well as being able to view screens if needed to better direct clients. Management rarely communicated with me unless absolutely necessary. There wasn't really any communication from them at all unless we messed something up or if something was going to be changed, but never any rewards or "keep up the good work" stuff. Hardest part of the job was just handling multiple calls at once and putting in their tickets, especially when the client is being difficult and no one is around to help you manage it all. All of the work wasn't really worth the minimum wage to be honest. For something that is a key function in the university's operation and success, you think the frontline call center would be compensated more. Plus being a job for college students, there's like no room for advancement in the university unless you're not planning on leaving or live in the area. Additionally, the university cannot finance it's recent stadium construction project, so budget cuts were made and staff across the board was reduced.

During my typical day at work I call approximately 30 prospective students per hour to inquire about various issues ranging from how their college search is going, to more important questions like how they can pay for college. I've learned how to communicate effectively on the phone and how to maintain focus in a heavily social environment. My management is great, but could be better. Whenever there are problems in the office, for instance, when Talisma freezes, he is not always available to resolve the problem. Due to his occasional inability to be punctual, my co-workers and I are at times left in the office being unproductive since we cannot work without Talisma. The hardest part of the job is definitely dealing with the boredom that goes along with calling many students per hour. The job is very repetitive in nature. However, my co-workers make the job fun as we are allowed to socialize so long as we keep our calls per hour average at the minimum required level.

A typical day at work involved tutoring math and physics students with varying levels of experience taking a variety of courses. Also, for a few months it involved planning and executing designs for upfit of donated scientific instruments using metal shop tools to build missing or additional parts for research.  I learned how to tutor a wide variety of students at all levels of math and physics in a university environment.   I learned how to set up lab experiments and assist students in successfully completing their lab work.  Also I learned new skills in the metal shop as well as computer programming for scientific research.  The workplace culture was very open and I was given a lot of autonomy with the tasks assigned to me.  The hardest part of the job was working with students of very different abilities in the subject matter.  The most enjoyable parts of the job were: 1) seeing struggling students move on to succeed in their courses; 2) building hardware and software to enable successful research and seeing the results.

The administration is disconnected from faculty and staff. University has a financial crisis every couple of years resulting in faculty and staff being dismissed.  University focus is on growing the online graduate program with little to no input from the faculty.
Departmental management is hit and miss.  If you get a good chair or manager, it can be a good experience.  There is no recourse if you get a bad chair or manager except to look elsewhere.
Annual raises do not keep up with the cost of living or compare to similarly sized universities.  Abilene is over 2 hours drive to a DFW; 4 hours to Austin.  The culture is very conservative with little to do besides go to church.
A large percentage of the faculty graduated from ACU leading to an in-breed culture.

I have learned through the years that ACU is all about using people up and having no appreciation for the hard work.  There is absolutely no balance between what is expected from you at work and your home life.  Expect to be available to work 24 hours a day, 7 days a week even if you are hired for a 8-5 job.  Plus you are guaranteed to be replaced once you have been there for an extended period of time regardless of your position.  Human Resources promotes the termination or option to resign for anyone who is disabled, close to retirement age or if they can find a cheaper replacement and this is an ongoing campus wide initiative.  The director of HR has made it clear that everyone there is replaceable. This is a very unhappy workplace for the majority of staff.

A typical day of work as a mathematics tutor involves much more than just reviewing homework problems. Many students that were in this class were non-mathematics majors, and many of them had a tremendous fear of anything mathematics related. Therefore the hardest part of my job was not the actual mathematics or problems; instead, it was getting the students to believe that they could face their fears of mathematics and that it was not that bad after all. The most enjoyable part of this job was watching student's confidence grow under my guidance. Also, this job introduced me to many people that are regularly in my life, for which I am thankful.

My college, Abilene Christian University, is a great school with many opportunities. They have real world experience that you can acquire from on campus jobs, and the professors care about the students. My job at ACU is a junior software developer. I work with other students developing IOS apps for 3rd party clients. We also work with web development tools such as html5 and CSS  The most enjoyable part of my job is the experience and my co-workers; I get to work with real world clients and learn skills that I wouldn't normally know about from my regular college curriculum. I learn new information about IOS development and web development every time I go to work.

We worked as a team supporting students, faculty and staff on several IT related issues. 
Being part of this team taught me how to work together with different people and also how to satisfy customers who didn't understand technology as much as we did.
The management had a great way of communicating with us and that helped keep the employee retention levels high.
The hardest part of this position was getting all the customers to accept technological changes such as upgrades to new software and hardware. Some customers wanted to use the same technology for as long as they were at Abilene Christian University.
The

What is the best part of working at the company?
Every manager I have worked under is very kind, understanding, and flexible. 

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
In HR, August and January (the beginning of the first and second semester) get pretty busy on the onboarding side. 

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
ACU is a very healthy work environment. Many employers are very positive and strive to make the office space inviting and comfortable.

This was simply a great place to work. ACU provides undergraduates with the opportunity to work at leading national labs and have the opportunity to get paid to learn experimental physics methods and techniques.

Summer work is fun and engaging. The oversight by the accompanying professors is very helpful, providing numerous opportunities for one-on-one learning and instruction. The problems are cutting edge and fun to work on.

The compensation is not a ton, but the environment is easy to enjoy on a budget, especially if you happen to enjoy working on particle-physics.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Resident director 4 salaries reported	$40,715 per year
Student worker 3 salaries reported	$9.33 per hour
Teaching assistant 3 salaries reported	$8.42 per hour
Tutor 3 salaries reported	$8.33 per hour
Project manager 1 salary reported	$77,661 per year

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