administrative assistant

tutor

associate professor

academic advisor

student worker

Columbia College Chicago

From all-time enrollment high in 2009, the college has dipped in student count, employee count and reputation in the past three years.

Good management and vision is sorely lacking here. More than two years after new CEO's arrival in July 2013, Columbia's enrollment is nearing a 10-year low. Strong experienced leadership is lacking at all the C-suite levels. Student recruitment is continuing a downward spiral. And paranoia has filled the staff and faculty ranks. Co-workers care about the institution but often spend the day discussing where the next program or employee cuts will be made after severe cuts the past year and early retirement packages extended in spring 2015 to help shore up financial blood loss with no fund raising efforts to back fill budgets.

Benefits are exceptional and low cost; however, salaries are well below national averages and below Chicago educational comps. 

A typical day at work involved reading The Columbia Chronicle for the latest scoop on administrative issues, reorgs, and leadership snafus as the leadership takes on "Redefining Greatness" as smoke and mirrors motto for the sinking ship aka "right sizing" efforts. 

The most difficult part of the job is watching long-timers try to rally liberal arts students - to stay in school while they accrue massive student debt, leaving Columbia among the highest rates of student loan default in the country. The college also has one of the lower graduation rates in the country.

There are lots of great things about Columbia, including the students, excellent faculty and staff and middle management. The work/life balance is generally excellent. Salaries are low to somewhat competitive, but the benefits are fantastic, including great health insurance that is a steal compared with most employer provided coverage.

However, Columbia is in crisis. Enrollment has been falling for the past ten years (Spring 2019 enrollment was about 43% less than it was in 2008), and the organization in general, and senior leadership in particular, have been slow to even adequately identify problems and bottlenecks, much less implement solutions. The quality and marketability of Columbia's academic programs vary, and it is slow to plan and implement cutting edge changes to curriculum. It is also slow to plan and implement new opportunities for revenue generation, such as online and professional development/graduate studies. Online has been in the works for a several years now, but it has suffered from high staff turnover, a seeming lack of adequate focus and program offerings, and low enrollment.

I'd still recommend Columbia if you can minimize your exposure to senior leadership, and assuming you don't plan your retirement around it, because I'm not confident that long term, it can survive the current higher education crisis.

I work primarily from home, which saves me a considerable amount of travel time and cost, as well as allows me to create my own hours. I have a lot of freedom like that in this internship because my employer trusts me to do a good job. 

This is an editorial internship, so I edit two to three pieces for our quarterly magazine. For our last issue I worked with four different editors, adding my opinions to their conversation with authors. All the editors I worked with were impressed with my diligence, so this issue I'm working alone with two contributors, as well as writing my own feature piece. This has been the most fulfilling part of the internship so far; it helped me realize that I want to go into editing as a career.

My day-to-day duties are more marketing-based. I manage Ms. Fit's social media presence, and I've learned that frequency, post time, and phrasing within posts is important not only to entice people to click on our posts, but to direct traffic to the Ms. Fit Web site. Another way I direct traffic to the site is by compiling a bi-weekly list of feminist and women's sports links.   

I'll be sad when this internship ends, but I've gained valuable experience and a close friendship with the editor-in-chief, who, beyond being a good friend, is an important connection in the Chicago publishing and literary communities.  

During my time as a student at Columbia College Chicago, I learned a lot. I was not an employee but I was a student. The experience of working a live news show was just like working in a real newsroom. It was fast paced, energetic, hectic and overall a great experience that I believe has prepared me well for a career in television. For every live news show, we picked stories and split responsibilities of writing, editing, cutting teases, doing SOT'S and VOSOT's. Before a show, the classroom was typically very busy with some people writing and others cutting video or working or loading the shows into the computer. I worked with a great, talented group of individuals and alternated duties throughout the weeks of the semester. The hardest part of the job was technical difficulties with shooting and editing and having to put everything together with a tight deadline. The most enjoyable part of the job was doing what I love most-performing. There was nothing more rewarding than anchoring or reporting and knowing that people enjoyed it. I truly feel ready and think that experience shaped me for the best.

My supervisors have been amazing. The team of creatives are my friends and we were all great at our jobs and working with the college. But Columbia is not making enough money to support the needs of the students and has been laying off people campus wide. The Strategic Communications External Relations (SCER) department experienced a layoff of a third of its employees. Those that were not laid off are demoralized and I doubt anyone will still be working there in the next 3 months.

The Video Producer role will have no chance of promotion or large pay bumps. It's a pretty stagnant position and you will be working alone most of the time with little direction. You will also not be safe guarded from the whims of the Chief of Staff nor the AVP on projects of their own vision with little concern of strategy and relation to what prospective students and external audiences will want to see. 

I do not recommend putting yourself through this highly transitional time at Columbia.

Although the college has been and still is going through a lot of change, it is still a good place for those looking to make a change in career or add more experience to their resume. The environment can range from laid back to strict business but overall if you value your comfort zone then you will likely enjoy working here.

If you are focused on improvement and advancement you can make this experience work for you as there is plenty of units to work for around the college. It isn't necessarily a promotional advancement more of a lateral move but if you have drive you can make the best of it. If you are being considered for employment at Columbia College then I will tell you to expect compensation to be below market average. Most positions across the entire college pay well below average and often title their positions in an unconventional way that puts a lot of responsibility under one hat.

It is what you make it and in the end you will likely move on to a new opportunity.

A typical day would consist of assisting students and professors with lighting equipment and demonstrations. Putting together all printed material for professors and management. Daily inventory of office supplies and equipment. Ordering supplies. Maintenance of all studio lighting and equipment. Learning and discovering new lighting techniques. Working with Photoshop, Illustrator, Capture
One Pro, Bridge, Light Room, Publisher, Microsoft Word, Excel, Powerpoint, Wacom tablet etc. Maintaining daily studio appearance.
Working with professors and employees to create a productive creative atmosphere. Working with creative professionals within today's photography industry.
The most enjoyably part of my job was to be able to resolve lighting issues and work through different lighting techniques to ultimately create the perfect image. Being able to fix equipment myself without having to send things out for repairs. Training new hires.

I taught a first year writing class. I felt prepared going into it but that might have been mostly because I had taken a lot of secondary ed classes in undergrad. I learned so much from the students and their experiences and there were many times when I had to quickly adapt lesson plans around different situations, which pushed me but in a good way. The day I had my supervisor drop in unplanned to review me was (inevitably) the one day we had finished class early and I will forever be grateful to my students for sensing the vibe change when she walked in. Several of them stuck around to extend the length of the class. I still got a bad review based on that single observation period and it kind of turned me off of continuing further in academia to be judged entirely from just one small slice of what we as a class had accomplished. All in all, mixed bag. But it helped pay my tuition.

I had ample time to solidify my skills because there was a level of autonomy given to me when I joined the team. Don't get me wrong I had to have the skills but I was nervous and those nerves quickly went away because management, really everybody, is supportive. I came in a little green and from day one they had my back and surprisingly they remained helpful even after I began to establish some prowess and shed the newbie persona.  The pay was okay but Chicago kept getting more and more expensive to live so in my opinion pay could be better due to the cost of living. I was hired on contractually and they honored the entire length of my contract but then I decided to move out of state but was offered another opportunity under a new contractual agreement. I turned it down but don't regret or have any ill feelings as I really enjoyed the time that I had while at Columbia College.

My daily responsibilities include a managing a face to face  student registration process, meeting with students to explain and sign their loan paperwork and develop and follow up  on their payment plans.

This position prepared me for my career in management and counseling students. I learned to manage my time and interact with co-workers.

The hardest part of this position is not permitting students continue with their education due to having an outstanding tuition balance.

The most enjoyable part would be attending graduation and seeing all of the students  I assisted in completing their college education.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Administrative assistant 3 salaries reported	$54,000 per year
Tutor 3 salaries reported	$15.67 per hour
Associate professor 3 salaries reported	$78,667 per year
Academic advisor 3 salaries reported	$48,000 per year
Student worker 5 salaries reported	$15.00 per hour

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