research assistant

postdoctoral research associate

teaching assistant

graduate researcher

postdoctoral fellow

Brown University

•	As Financial Coordinator I process all incoming travel expenses in Workday for the Regional Advancement team accurately in a timely manner.
•	Detail-oriented and have an ability to handle and complete multiple projects concurrently. 
•	Disciplined and well organized in work habit, with ability to function smoothly in pressure situations.
•	I always try to keep a positive attitude, a smile on my face, and demonstrate how much I enjoy my job.
•	I constantly search for new ideas and ways to improve efficiency.
•	I have the ability to multi-task and work under pressure to meet deadlines and I’m always willing to do whatever it takes to get the job done.
•	Manages and prioritizes time and resources in order to successfully complete projects on time.
•	Maintaining supervisor calendar, schedule meetings, and help maintaining prospect relationships. 
•	Accepts, and/or takes initiative for new responsibilities, assignments and/or projects and initiates and takes action for improvements.
•	Responds confidently to the demands of work when confronted with change, adversity or other challenges (adapts well to change in the work environment).
•	Demonstrates depth of knowledge in performing the job.
•	I take great pride in my work, demonstrate depth of knowledge in performing the job and as a result produce high quality results in work assignments.
•	Acts as back-up to other office personnel as required.

•	Coordinated orientation program for new associates, including scheduling training, introductory meetings, and providing ongoing training and support to new employees as needed.
•	Assist with small event planning, reach out, maintaining RSVP’s, EBN’s

•

In the Intermediate Chinese classes that I taught when I first arrived at Brown, I was just beginning to learn how to conduct a class and often referenced my colleagues’ teaching styles and materials. Now in my second year and teaching Advanced Chinese, I have been drafting handouts from scratch, including writing exam questions, exercises, reading materials, and discussion materials. I also came up with the design of new classroom activities and oral exams, such as the addition of movie commentary, news reports, and debates, which were all well received by students. Furthermore, by being proactive and working collaboratively with my colleagues, we can share great ideas and improve collectively as a group. 
 
I treasure the feedback and response from students very much. By observing my students’ feedback, I learned that while it is important to properly prepare for each and every single class, my actual presentation delivery and attitude are just as important, if not more. I learned that with more passionate vibe, genuineness and patience, students tend to concentrate better and be more willing to express their thoughts and participate in class.
   
Apart from teaching responsibility, I also have experience in organizing Chinese related activities and events, such as Chinese Tea Time, Chinese Table, Dumpling Party, and Talent Shows. I believe that interesting and meaningful extracurricular activities can raise their awareness in understanding Chinese language and culture. Meanwhile, these experiences also taught me how to organize and plan events, work with colleagues and how to interact with students under a productive, enjoyable and fun atmosphere.

Brown has a great reputation as a place to work for the benefits but the benefits are not enough to outweigh the day to day nonsense.  Some benefits, like tuition reimbursement, are at your manager's discretion.  They can deny the reimbursement, or never approve the application, for any (or no) reason.  And, there is no avenue to dispute.  

All of the departments are very siloed so the expereince from one office to the next can be very different.  A lot of people will work here for 30 or 40 years, until they retire, and never update how they do things.  "This is how we've always done it" is like a motto.  Procedures are very antiquated.  Some procedures, like filing reports or complaints for unfair/ sexist treatment or harassment, are for visual purposes only.  They are there so the Corporation can point to them and say "we totally have these procedures in place" but if you try to use them nothing ever comes of it. 

Refusal of meaningful work assignments and opportunities, public berating, gossiping, isolation, etc. are rampant.  And management will just try to spin it that it's an isolated incident as though staff don't talk to each other.  And if you continue to raise concerns the same people "don't recall that conversation". 

Save yourself a lot of aggrivation and stress and look elsewhere.  There's better pay and benefits out there.  If you do choose to work here, document everything.  

I believe my experience to be atypical, after reading the other reviews. The problem was the management of my particular department. Each one of them would throw you under the bus, if they felt it would benefit them. My particular supervisor would rearrange my office when I was on vacation. While attending my Grandmother's funeral, once again every file in my office was moved The supervisor even logged into my computer in order to place my emails into categories. As you can imagine, upon my return it always took me 2 full days to find anything. It should be noted I am not a disorganized person, and my office did not need to be organized. Due to the management and my co-workers, who walked on eggshells at all times, it was a horrific place to work. I eventually had to see a psychiatrist and be prescribed a relatively high dose of a benzodiazepine just to go to work. Why didn't I go to HR? I did and I found out so did many others before me. They were of no help whatsoever. I eventually found another position, and left Brown. Overall I believe Brown is a great place to work, then there are those offices that will literally send you to seek professional help.


> I worked as a custodian at Brown University and feel compelled to speak out about the unacceptable treatment of custodial staff. The management structure is in urgent need of reform and new leadership. Current leadership has repeatedly failed its workers. A few managers have created a toxic environment, and the ongoing lack of care and professionalism from management continues to harm staff.

After years of service, I made the difficult decision to step away—I could no longer tolerate the mistreatment. While I was there, I encouraged my coworkers to speak up and demand better. Silence only empowers those who exploit us.

Sadly, I also witnessed a disappointing lack of meaningful support from the union. In several serious situations, the union failed to intervene or advocate for workers. They seem more focused on collecting dues than on protecting the rights of those they represent.

What Brown University needs is leadership—both within management and the union—that truly values and respects its employees. Workers deserve to be heard, protected, and treated with dignity.

It’s time to end the ongoing mistreatment of custodians.

A typical day at work can be addressing a simple user concerning misbehaving software to testing a new product or service for release. It's important to know how software behaves in different environments (ethernet, VPN, wireless) and on different operating systems. Several environment variables can create unexpected results.

Management is on point and supportive. Expected outcomes are clearly defined with timetables that can sometimes be difficult to achieve (unless everything goes exactly as expected).

Workplace diversity is a strong component of employment at Brown, giving an employee a well-rounded experience - far more than any job description offers. 

The hardest part of the job is seeing a user upset about technology gone awry and not having control over the situation. The most enjoyable part of the job generally follows soon afterward - seeing the smile on a user's face because you've helped them to overcome a problem that could have impacted important research or a final grade.

A typical day at work consisted of arriving to the hospital and, depending on if I was beginning the day or ending the day, I would communicate with co-workers regarding ER patients who were screened.  I would utilize the ER software to update the screening instrument with the ER population and then check-in with nurses and doctors to screen patients.  If patients were eligible for the study, I would go through the recruitment procedure including informed consent and emergency contacts, administer the baseline, and utilize a computer program to determine intervention.  Then administer the intervention and offer free HIV testing, counseling, and community referrals.  The hardest part of the job was when the ER had a bad day and was busy with severe crises.  Often times the stress would be evident with some hospital staff.  It was difficulty seeing everyone in stress.  The most enjoyable part of the job were the interventions and seeing participants shift their thinking regarding their risk behaviors.  My co-workers were fun and enjoyable, dedicated to their job, and friendly.

The town campus is beautiful--and that's pretty much the only pro of holding a postdoctoral appointment at Brown University. As a postdoc, we are treated worse than doctoral students. We earn a little more than them, but the advantage vanishes once we have to pay for our so called 'benefits' (such as medical insurance, gym membership, concert tickets, etc) which are all provided for free to PhD students. 
We are treated as low-cost labourers, with teaching responsibilities, service, and time left is little to perform our own research, which is the reason why we came here in the first place. Faculty pretty much ignore us, no professionalisation nor training is offered, no one checks on your progress or well-being, even less contributes to them. 
Research fund is $2000, ridiculous for appointments which require speaking engagements and research travel. 
No relocation , no support with VISA expenses, nor with finding the first housing from abroad. 
And even the students, whose reputation is spread as if of geniuses, are in fact not such.
Altogether, go elsewhere, if you can.

Highly overrated.  Working parents, I recommend you search one of the  many other colleges or universities in RI for better hours and better tuition reimbursement (tuition exchange) for your children.  Brown talks a good game.  For a liberal university that likes to stroke its own ego about how inclusive it is, they have left the parent out of the equation.  HR is useless and has no idea what actually goes on in individual depts.  My own supervisor told me so on several occasions.  While HR touts benefits for working parents, such as the ability to work a flexible schedule, when an employee asks their supervisor for this, they will likely be told no. The only university in the state with office hours of 8:30-5 (others offer 8:30-4:30) and if you think you'll be done at 5pm, you are mistaken.  The overall culture is one of working/checking emails around the clock.

I've worked for Brown in a number of capacities - as a graduate student, as a writing consultant, and as faculty. I still teach for the school of professional studies on an ad hoc basis. It was a wonderful place to study - it offered a competitive fellowship, and I wouldn't be the scholar, writer, researcher, and human being I am today had I not been afforded this extraordinary opportunity. 
Outside of this wonderful opportunity, however, I wasn't as pleased. I feel that Brown underpays all of its employees, save its senate faculty members and top administrators. Brown is known among peer institutions for this. At one point, I calculated my pay as a consultant and it was something like five dollars an hour. I was happy to get the experience but it was tough - and no one was there to help me when I appealed to them. 
So if you are offered a full-time faculty position or are recruited to be the provost or dean, go for it! Otherwise, caveat lector!

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Research assistant 7 salaries reported	$20.14 per hour
Postdoctoral research associate 6 salaries reported	$74,083 per year
Teaching assistant 8 salaries reported	$19.00 per hour
Graduate researcher 10 salaries reported	$41,660 per year
Postdoctoral fellow 10 salaries reported	$64,438 per year

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