lecturer

assistant professor

senior administrative assistant

administrative assistant

director of student services

California State University Fullerton

CSUF has good medical, dental, and vision insurance. If you are a full time employee paid by state money, tuition at CSUF is free for you. If you are paid by non-state money, like from a grant or are paid by the CSUF Auxiliary Services Corporation (CSUF-ASC), your benefits are going to be a bit different (about a step down from what state employees get). For example, full time ASC employees get 50% of tuition covered at CSUF. 

The trade off of having good benefits is having low wages (unless you're a high level administrator, like a director). CSUF is notorious for paying their staff some of the lowest wages in the CSU system. If you're looking for better pay in an academic setting, your best bet is to work at a community college, since they pay almost 2x more for low level admins than CSUF.

Amount of work + work satisfaction/enjoyment will vary depending on which department you work for. Some departments/offices are either short staffed or their main supervisor/manager have unrealistic expectations of staff. If your supervisor/manager is also a professor, there is an increased chance of them having unrealistic expectations of their staff since they've likely never had to do the same type of work their staff does. Some departments hire student assistants to do jobs that should really be done by qualified staff members.

I've bounced around different offices on campus and have friends working in other departments. People seem to have lower job satisfaction in the Engineering department, University Extended Ed. and in the departments located in the College Park building, with the exception of the President/Provost office.

There's also a high turnover rate, even in upper level staff levels. The ones who generally stick around for years are either older employees (40s+) or professors. Younger staff members (20s and 30s) are likely to leave since there is no crosstraining and little room to advance.

Because space is limited, parking is not free. CSUF partially subsidize bus passes and train tickets.

TL;DR: 
- staff members (like admin assistants, coordinators, or anybody in charge of doing the day-to-day tasks) are generally knowledgeable  and pleasant to work with

- Some professors and managers are unpleasant to work with

- Notoriously known for low pay amongst CSUs (you're better off at other CSUs, UCs, or community colleges if you want higher pay)

- Good for entry level experience, but highly recommend to leave for a higher paying job ASAP (unless your life goal is to work at a university. In that case, promotion is a very slow process at CSUF. Again, look to other CSUs, UCs, and local community colleges for better salaries)

- the benefits were nice, but did not offset the low pay adequately 

Your environment is dependent on which department and/or college you work for. 

Generally, student assistants will have the best work experience at CSUF. 

Staff members, on the other hand, may sometimes have to deal with out-of-touch, rude professors and/or managers with unrealistic expectations (which,  to be fair, is what most jobs are like). In general, staff members were competent and helpful.

I worked in 2 different departments at various times and the difference was like night and day.

1 department had a competent professor as a director who was engaged with staff members and had general knowledge of all the relevant department processes. Therefore, they understood what type of work needed to be done in order to reach department goals. They also listened to their staff members' feedback.

1 department had an out-of-touch professor as a director who had absolutely no idea how things worked and was so "hands off" that they weren't available most of the time. The amount of times this director thought that something they asked for was allowable when it was against university policy was way too high. They also did not listen to staff feedback, so combined with the unrealistic expectations and low pay, turnover was high and morale was low. The other professors in the department weren't much better to the staff. At least they were nicer to the students.

Below-market pay, infrequent raises, inefficient bureaucracy, poor communication, and lack of accountability run rampant. Workloads can be unevenly distributed, causing burnout for some and underutilization for others. Toxic work culture and poor leadership hurt morale and student experiences. Benefits are solid but other state organizations pay better and offer similar or better compensation and benefits packages. This makes recruitment and retention difficult and staff departures often lead to increased workloads without support or compensation. Generally, people coast because there's either not enough time to get things done well or because there's no motivation to do well due to lack of pay, growth, or recognition opportunities. Some great people are here and working with students can be fulfilling but the environment can feel limiting for those seeking challenging work or long-term career growth.

My typical work day would begin with opening up the office, checking phone messages and emails. I would then respond back to potential clients and or refer them to our panel of lawyers dependent on the clients specific needs. Throughout my day in the office I would assist any walk-ins, as well as mantain desk operations. I would also make copies, schedule inters, and keep an organized work space. On Thursday's I would organize consolation nights with the lawyers and potential clients. From this position, I learned how to remain calm in a fast-paced environment, along with improving my communication skills, and working quickly and efficiently with my peers. The hardest part of this job was matching each lawyers busy work schedule with clients for our consolation nights. The most enjoyable part of this job was working with the attorneys by gathering information about the clients in order to help them as much as possible.

As a full time student I worked in the IT department helping to migrate online courses from one online platform to another. During this process I had to learn the in's and out's of each platform in order to migrate courses properly as well as effectively teach professors to use this new system. The hardest part of this job was coping with professors that were frustrated with the migration to this new platform and figuring out the best way to help them learn to do the things they desired in a way that was quick and easy for them to learn. The most enjoyable part of the job was sitting down with the professors and watching them leave happy after my help. Through this experience I learned to provide excellent customer service which in this case included customize teaching techniques and a positive, helpful and patient attitude.

Patience is key. You will get many people hanging up or being upset if they do not see the value in participating in said surveys. I learned that having a good voice over the phone can entice some people to stay in the line with you. The hardest part of the job is having to read every multiple choice option even when the caller confirms an answer after telling them the survey will only last about 5-10 minutes (realistically it’s about 20 minutes long.) 

The most enjoyable part of the job is knowing your work environment is dependable. They have a clean atmosphere, encouraging management team, and decent breaks. When someone actually completes the surveys with you, you’ll feel good. 

I was hired for temporary job, helping students enroll in classes, for the first half of the shift its easy, lots of downtime, but the second half its fast paced. the management however lacks the ability to communicate effectively. they are more concerned with their own duties than the workers, They left out huge details about the job, The pay is once a month, they made remarks that led new employees including me to believe it was every two weeks. They had us start prior to being in the system, then we were informed it was once a month.  They told us our end date 2 months ahead, but gave payroll a date 30 days later, then forgot to tell them, its been 3 weeks, still waiting for the final check.  The student employees are treated differently than non student employees. 

Your experience will depend largely on your supervising faculty member. I have a great faculty supervisor who allows me to track my own hours, work from home, and pick my own schedule. She allows me to keep my graduate studies as a priority and does not demand more than I can give. In terms of the CSU system, graduate assistants should be paid more. $18.15/hour is not a competitive rate, and I made $20/hour when I had a bachelor's degree. No benefits because you're part-time. 
I grade assignments, make instructional aids (like tutorial videos), track attendance, and help students with the class. It's really rewarding to help the students learn the material, and I get to learn about the material being taught too. If you like learning and teaching, this is a great experience.

What is the best part of working at the company?
CSUF is very unsupportive to it's employees. It is very hard to get promoted and there is a lot of nepotism making it more difficult for promotion. New people coming in make way more than loyal employees who have been there for many years, it's a disheartening environment. 

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
Having to work with new hires doing same or less  work than a long term employee and them making a lot more money than the long term employee.

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
A lot nepotism and no loyalty to it's staff.

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
It's hard to work at CSUF, so much unfairness.

The supervisor I worked with while at this position was generally hard to work with. Sometimes when it was quiet there would be time for the student assistants to study which was nice. Most of the time the supervisor  would give bad directions and have the student assistants do all the work. The department was aware of this however and attempted to make corrections to the supervisors behavior hoe we the closer the supervisor got to retirement the less work they did. This supervisor often complained about things and would even yell at students who came to the window to replace equipment, especially if they were unsure of what they needed.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Lecturer 533 salaries reported	$6,398 per month
Assistant professor 67 salaries reported	$9,378 per month
Senior administrative assistant 73 salaries reported	$4,630 per month
Administrative assistant 37 salaries reported	$4,572 per month
Director of student services 31 salaries reported	$8,468 per month

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