assistant professor

administrative services

custodian

academic coordinator

student coordinator

Northern Arizona University

A typical day at work was meeting with students and discussing their loans,grants and scholarships and cost of their higher education. Submitting documentation/ information to the Department of Education, Sallie Mae and other banking/loan institutions. Supervised 8 VA student employees and worked with the VA on submission of different Veteran Educational benefits. I learned an exstensive amount about applying for Financial Aid and all the government processes. I also learned how to give presentations to large groups of parents and students with my expertise in Veterans Educational benefits. I enjoyed all my co-workers, we were a great team that constantly helped one another. The hardest part of my job had to be the public speaking, the first time I spoke to a large crowd I through up after words, I became better at it the more I did it, but I really didn't like the large groups. The most enjoyable part of my job was working with the Veterans, I received many letters of praise for the help I gave to them. I was very passionate about helping our soldiers since they did so much for my freedoms and the countrys. It was very rewarding to get them as much monies for school as I could find in scholarships and other Financial Aid. Exspecially since the VA didn't provide enough monies for them to further their education. I loved It!!1

Working at Northern Arizona University was challenging due to a combination of high expectations, emotional labor, and limited structural support. The role required you to balance multiple responsibilities at once, often serving students who were navigating stress, academic pressure, and personal challenges. This created an environment where you were constantly “on,” needing to provide support while also meeting administrative deadlines and institutional expectations. The turnover rate was excruciatingly high which made building a support system extremely tough. 

There was also a level of pressure tied to performance, visibility, and professionalism within a large university system. Navigating internal bureaucracy, shifting priorities, and communication gaps between departments made it difficult to feel stable or fully supported. Additionally, the compensation and advancement structure did not always match the workload or the level of responsibility required.

Emotionally, the role demanded a lot of energy especially when working closely with student wellness and campus engagement initiatives. Supporting others while managing your own transitions and post-graduate uncertainty added another layer of stress. Due to issues such as these I wasn't even able to graduate thanks to the workload.


The NAU Chemistry Department was the best job that I could possibly have had during my time at NAU. I was able to have a support group within my own major, as well as being able to contribute to other student's education. 
My typical day as a Teaching Assistant consisted of managing a class of 20-24 general chemistry students. I show the students the proper lab techniques and procedures for the experiment that particular day. Then, I manage the lab as they do their work. 
My coworkers were all of my fellow class-mates in my own classes, so the environment was very comfortable for both new and experienced workers. 
The hardest part of the job goes hand-in-hand with the most enjoyable part of the job; seeing students succeed in lab was always my pride and joy. However, many students often struggle with the concepts and skills from lab, so I had to constantly reinforce their knowledge with various teaching techniques.  Throughout most of the semester, the student's struggle. However, by the end of the semester, I get the opportunity to see how much I have influenced their education, both in my class and in other chemistry courses.

The University President is so wonderful and I was so excited when he was brought on. The employee benefits are really great, however, the pay is awful and so under market. I left NAU for the private sector because it came with a 40% raise! While the University President is wonderful, the individual department leadership (depending on the department) has lots of room for improvement, but will likely have no improvement because once folks get to a director, AVP, leader level at NAU they will never leave and it is next to impossible for HR to fire people.

I single handedly left NAU due to a toxic leader in the marketing department and watching her continuously get promoted after several people made complaints to HR about this specific individual. I finally decided that was an environment I could not thrive in and made the decision to seek other employment. 

There were so many people I enjoyed working with on a daily basis and the enjoyed the work I got to do everyday, but it did get stagnant after a while. There is little to no room for growth. 

Human Resources is great to work for, especially if you are a student. They have flexible hours, incorporate their needs along with yours and pay minimum wage. If you do well you also can receive raises. A typical day at my work consists of working at the front, answering phone calls, checking the mail, helping customers. I also meet with the Training manager and assist her with anything she needs like enrolling new employees in classes, helping her set up for a class and working with PeopleSoft, a program NAU uses specifically. The hardest part of my job is keeping myself focused because I also a lot of filing which can  get boring or tiring. Also staring at a computer screen for several hours a day can take a toll, but the 15 minute breaks they allow us help. The most enjoyable part of my job is working with the Training manager, she is sweet and understanding and always in a happy positive mood. This helps the days go by faster. My co-workers are also great to work with because they always help when you ask for it and will never let you down.

There were only a total of four of us working, one professor (P.E., Ph.D.), one graduate research assistant, and two undergraduate research assistant. We would meet roughly once per week to discuss action items for the coming weeks. I learned a lot about traffic data collection directly from the ASC/3 traffic controllers and how to work the given data in various items of need and compile that data into an easily readable excel file. My boss was great and always available for questions and answers when needed and the same goes for my coworkers. Although we had different tasks, we could still bounce ideas off each other and help work through our problems. The hardest part of the job was compile 15 minute bins of a weeks worth of data and funneling it down into different time slots for different days of the week. The most enjoyable part of the job was going out in the field to collect the data and visually be able to see how the controllers work at an intersection.

The Residence Life Support Services Ground Crew was split into multiple teams of 5 and assigned specific areas of the northern Arizona University to work on. The team I was designated to was the projects team, which was the only team that had to do a little more. The team worked on building planters for flower beds, move them to dorms and then plant flowers, we built a ramada for a dorm. The team also had their own area to take care of on campus and once finished with mowing the grass, weed-waking, and trash-picking, we would drive around to the other teams to help them with their work. Sometimes it involved placing weed barrier and covering it with decorative gravel, or uprooting dead bushes and replanting new ones in their place. My team worked independent from the supervisor who was our team lead as well. We were told that we would work with little supervision and needed to think of what needs to get done and complete it by the end of the end. However, if anything was important enough, the team would be radioed in and given the assignment.

My typical days involved coaching and guidance of political discussions for debate members of the Northern Arizona University Forensics Program, observation of debate rounds and adjudication of those rounds.  I learned how to better guide growing adults with complicated political perspectives towards clarifying their arguments, ideas and points into comprehensive data. I dealt with the Director of Forensics as the management for the team and their travels. The hardest part of the job is dealing with the rounds you know from the beginning who is going to win.  Having the ability to look from the back of the room and know generally by the first few arguments on each side which team will be victorious feels uncomfortable at times and frustrating, considering I had once been a competitor. The most enjoyable part was explaining my decision for the rounds I watched, having the chance to explain why I felt the way I felt regarding the arguments presented before me.

A typical day of work consisted of setting up for a sporting event. Whether it was men's basketball, women;s basketball, women's soccer, or men's football. Myself and the rest of the crew would set up all the cameras and audio table for each game. I would fax my camera and any other camera in the production. I would then work the game by shooting the game action with my handheld Sony HSC 300. After the game i would strike all the cameras and platforms and wrap up all the cable. My co-workers were students just like myself at the time. it was a wonderful experience learning about production fellow classmates and NAU students. 
  The hardest part of the job was keeping the director and my boss happy. We needed to make sure we were on top of everything because it was a live broadcast. 
  My favorite job was operating the handheld camera. knowing that whenever i was taken live thousands of people were looking at my shot was a cool experience.

While at NAU I had the opportunity to work in many capacities. As an undergraduate I started as a student working in biology labs and as a teaching assistant in physical sciences. As a graduate student I did research and worked as a teaching assistant, lab supervisor and lecturer. NAU encouraged me to take on as much responsibility as I felt comfortable with and everyone I worked with was encouraging. I enjoyed and benefited from my time at NAU and exposure to the students, staff and faculty I worked for and with. 
I think I could have benefited from more frequent evaluation and feedback. I could have completed what I did there a lot faster, but that was ultimately my responsibility.  I also feel that many of the graduate student are under compensated for the services they provide. Especially those that teach challenging labs and lecture classes.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Assistant professor 50 salaries reported	$67,894 per year
Administrative services 9 salaries reported	$42,679 per year
Custodian 19 salaries reported	$41,327 per year
Academic coordinator 6 salaries reported	$45,552 per year
Student coordinator 11 salaries reported	$49,658 per year

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