academic advisor

admission counselor

adjunct faculty

team leader

director

Southern New Hampshire University

GENERAL OVERVIEW: Worked there for 6 years and had 3 new deans,  2 complete institutional restructures changing definitions and structure of departments, 1 change in online learning environment, and ONE one-time bump in pay. There are no personal benefits for contracted adjunct outside a discount on courses. There’s no job security, consideration for experience or contribution/participation or seniority, nor advancement outside taking on advising or peer-review work that doesn’t increase earnings, job security, or position - mostly, just increases workload. The workload for each course is quite absurd for the pay; between being required to be available for student and admin contact at any time and the level of expected personalization/individualization for things like substantive feedback on literally dozens of rubric areas for each of dozens of assignments for dozens of students for each course, it becomes overwhelming - particularly when you are under constant oversight by other instructors from different subject areas, often with much less experience, with threats of their reviews impacting your course load or even continued employment. I have taught in traditional and online classrooms for almost 20 years and my time with SNHU finally burned me out. They do NOT pay for time spent in preparation or in grading for incompletes and extensions, nor the extensive hours required to deal with their 48-hour turnover on term grades, despite allowing students to turn work in late. They will close the Uni offices on holidays, but do not allow instructors to be unavailable or not complete grade deadlines. Once I calculated out the hours I was spending to do the job of actually instructing (my personal standards) and keeping up with their administrative demands - without including the pre- and post-term work required, it came down to getting paid something like $2-5/hour for a course…I was crushed. That’s just completely unacceptable and especially so when you’re talking about a job requiring grad degrees and experience. 

WHY DID YOU WORK THERE?: I started there on recommendation from a friend when I was looking for a remote position so I could move back to help my family with rebuilding the family ranch after a wildfire. It was great and I had a positive experience for the first few years. It started to go bad with more and more turnover at the admin level. I stuck it out for a long time because I did enjoy working with some of my colleagues and loved so many of my students - many of whom I still keep in contact with. 

There are some truly incredible people working there who have so much to offer professionally and personally. Even as a seasoned instructor, I learned a lot from my colleagues through the COLT community, reading threads and posts that provided a lot of support, inspiration, and tools for improving my own approach to my passion - teaching. 

WHY DID I LEAVE?: I eventually left because of some ethical issues. As yet another Dean left and a 3rd restructure was in the works, the tone was seemingly shifting from one of a try-hard online educational institution fighting to be recognized as legitimate in an academic world to a pay-2-learn degree mill. 

When I approached my team lead (who I am still friendly with and list as a reference), she warned that my concerns would mark me as a “boat-rocker”, which made me especially expendable. Seeing students being treated as “clients” needing to be appeased rather than students needing to be taught forced me to ignore her warnings to vocalize this concern to my deans and in conversations in the faculty community. 

For the next 3 terms, I suddenly came under intensive review by a newly assigned “faculty supervisor” from outside my department, despite being employed for years and working with leads within the same department for that entire time. I teach History - at this time, I was teaching US undergrad and Perspectives grad courses, but my degrees have an emphasis on race and gender relations and I also hold a degree in Psychology of Prejudice; when I was instructed to take what read as a punitive “racial sensitivity workshop” for reasons they would neither clarify nor explain, I declined and requested a meeting with my Dean. 

A few hours later, half of my contracted courses were cancelled. When I inquired about this,  I was told it was a recommendation from my supervisor based on my availability for future terms; when I logged into the system to check, my availability was changed to half in the approaching term and none for future. After a week of no response from the new Dean or my supervisor, I penned a resignation letter and never felt better about quitting a position. 

This place has such potential, but they need to treat experienced faculty with a lot more respect and build a better system to show accountability, transparency, and allow instructors to feel valued rather than expendable and under attack - especially when voicing legitimate concerns. I wish them lots of luck. 

What is the best part of working at the company?
I started this job at the advice of another employee who really hyped it up and made it seem like a positive, supportive, non-toxic place to work. Because of that, I came in excited and wanting to succeed. I haven’t been here long, but honestly, I absolutely hate it so far. I want to love this job because I do think the position itself has potential, but I’m quickly learning that having the wrong team lead can either make or break your entire experience here.

I understand that feedback and corrections are part of any job, and I’m not expecting to be told I’m perfect. But there’s a huge difference between constructive coaching and constantly making someone feel like they don’t belong there. My team lead may not directly say I’m terrible at my job, but the way things are handled constantly makes me feel incompetent, unwanted, and like I’m failing no matter what I do. It’s draining and honestly discouraging.

What makes it worse is that I’m scared to even speak up about it because there’s a real fear of retaliation. No matter what companies say publicly, employees know when environments feel unsafe to voice concerns. I’m not going to quit over one poor team lead, but at the same time, it feels like if I say anything, they’ll eventually find a reason to push me out or fire me anyway.

I’ve also heard very mixed experiences from other employees depending on who their team lead is, which says a lot. Some people seem supported while others are completely miserable. On top of that, the training process makes absolutely no sense. Everything taught during training is apparently wrong once you hit the floor. I constantly get corrected or in trouble for doing things exactly the way I was trained to do them. So how does a training department win awards when employees are later told to forget almost everything they learned? The expectations are inconsistent and confusing, and it sets people up to fail from the start.

Right now I honestly don’t know what to do. I came into this job wanting to grow, learn, and succeed, but instead I feel anxious every day walking in because I never know what version of expectations I’m going to get.


What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
The most stressful part of this job is definitely the meetings, especially the one-on-ones. You never know what to expect walking into them or what you supposedly did wrong this time. Instead of feeling supported or coached, the meetings often feel intimidating and leave you anxious beforehand. As a new employee, it honestly starts to feel less like guidance and more like a form of hazing. Rather than building confidence, it feels like you’re constantly being picked apart, which makes it difficult to feel comfortable or successful in the role.


What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
My coworkers are honestly the best part of this job. They’ve been extremely helpful, supportive, and understanding, especially as a newer employee trying to learn everything. I actually find myself going to them with questions more often than my team lead because my team lead often seems irritated or annoyed when I ask for help. My coworkers, on the other hand, never make me feel stupid for asking questions and are always willing to explain things or point me in the right direction.

Without them, I honestly think this experience would be a lot harder. They’ve created more of a supportive environment than leadership has, and they deserve a lot of credit for helping new employees feel welcomed and less overwhelmed.


What is a typical day like for you at the company?
As an Admissions Counselor, my responsibilities include taking inbound and outbound calls, conducting discovery calls with prospective students, and building relationships to better understand their educational goals, challenges, and motivations. I assist students throughout the admissions process by collecting application information, answering questions, providing guidance on enrollment steps, and helping them feel confident moving forward with their education.

A major part of the role is encouraging students to stay engaged and committed throughout the process, helping reduce withdrawals or dropped applications by offering support, communication, and follow-up. The position requires strong communication skills, patience, active listening, and the ability to connect with students from many different backgrounds while maintaining productivity and performance expectations.

A typical day required me to work in the Dining Hall, Athletic Building, the Hospitality Building, in some of the dorms and Robert Frost Building and three other buildings. I was supposed to make sure all the trash was removed in the Dining Hall, tables cleaned, floors were cleaned and no food was on floors, bathrooms were cleaned as well. Maintaining 8 areas within the Dining Hall was extremely demanding and difficult and I do not really think my supervisors were understanding and aware of the problems I faced cleaning the building interior.

Things I noticed about my position was whatever I did I was not praised a lot. No one really understood how I tried to do the best job I could. From working at Southern New Hampshire University I learnt how hardworking I can really be. I am easily motivated to ensuring I complete tasks in an appropriate manner.

My co-workers were also hardworking and although I did not understand why my supervisors did not give us a chance to work together, on certain times, especially since our jobs were demanding, I found their approach to working was different to the manner in which I was expected to work.

The Dining Hall was the most difficult part of the job. I had to meke sure the trash was emptied four times a shift each day was extremely challenging. Since I had to make sure the tables, and floors were free of food and plates were taken to a certain area to have them cleaned I also had to bear in mind that other areas of the campus had to be attended dto which was not always an easy thing to do. .

In my next occupation or career I hope my supervisor can respect the jobs I perform or the requirements of what the job description mentions I do. I hope because my energy level varies and my supervisor will give me some latitude as to what kind of job I do and allow me to use the experience of the content I have learned from other jobs, which will enable me to be a worker of quality.

I want to be able to be a Professor, or a someone who works within administrative services. I also wish having the knowledge to give ideas on how to implement procedures would be a productive occupation to fall into. Meeting certain deadlines and seeing to serveral projects which different perspectives would be interesting would be great to delve into as well.

If I could teach a topic within Sociology or Social Sciences at a University level and understand student's personalities, I would enjoy this position. Allowing me to teach various things to students or learning how to inculcate certain values or ideas to them would be great as well. I think overall, I hope to be given the opportunity to earn a Masters Degree in Sociology or a Doctorate in Sociology and Social Science.

Policies change regularly. Leadership ranges from very competent to extremely awful with metrics-driven initiatives that don't reflect the experience of those who do the job day-to-day. Despite overarching policies for multiple departments, you'll always be clueless as to what your job entails because things change all the time. Your direct supervisor may be the most empathetic person you'll ever meet, or your worst nightmare. Your director may be the most numbers-oriented person (despite the job being people-focused), or a brown-noser who got there because of who they know. Internal promotions are rare as Team Lead positions are hired based on demographics rather than experience. One moment, you're on top of the world and hitting all your goals. The next moment, you're scrambling to get everything done in a timely fashion so your Team Lead doesn't put you on a performance improvement plan. There is so much emphasis on trying to prevent people from withdrawing from their courses that it's obvious the higher-ups are desperate to hold onto federal funding. Oh yes, reader. It's not about the people at all. It's about the taxpayer money from the Department of Education to SNHU since a lot of our students rely on financial aid. Forget the Core Values that they try to sell you on. Forget the 'nonprofit' angle they advertise in the commercials. Have suggestions about how to improve things? Save you energy. You'll either get some passive-aggressive response, have it explained to you why the idea won't work, or be told it's too expensive or will take too long to implement. Open-door policy is only valid depending on who your leaders are. Student caseload size has no limit, so you always run the risk of being assigned students when you already have 260 people to connect with.

We make it so easy for students to apply, take courses, and earn their degree that I'm so surprised that our leadership doesn't simply make us do the work for the students. Some of these students ARE NOT READY FOR HIGHER EDUCATION. We don't test anyone or even make them work to come here. As long as the student graduated from high school, it's fine. And it's all for the $$$. They track everything through their metrics and usually, they look at all the same stuff all the time. Take your skills, talent, and experience elsewhere if you want to actually help people. If you don't want to feel icky about yourself for support such an insidious business practices, stay away.

I have been an adjunct faculty member at Southern New Hampshire University (SNHU) for over two years, specifically teaching online courses in the sciences. In terms of course structure, all assignments for undergraduate introductory courses consist solely of essay work. Each eight-week course requires students to complete eight essay projects and assignments, in addition to four discussion board essays. This volume of writing and grading is excessive for an introductory course, particularly when compared to my graduate and doctoral coursework experiences.

My decision to resign was ultimately driven by the unreasonable expectations regarding faculty availability. Instructors are required to log in every single day of the week, including holidays and weekends. I find this expectation unethical, especially since administrative and support staff are not held to the same standard during these times. Furthermore, during emergencies such as natural disasters, faculty are often met with frustration from administration if they cannot meet these obligations, despite extenuating circumstances.

The communication of expectations was also inconsistent and contradictory, particularly between the office of the Deans and my direct team leads. I was explicitly told I was not permitted to take weekends, holidays, or religious observances off. When I sought clarification on this policy, I received vague responses that failed to address my concerns.

Additionally, I encountered issues related to necessary time off for important family commitments. Although my team leads had approved my absence for six days during the term, the Deans later expressed discontent and insisted that I remain available. Faced with an ultimatum to choose between working online or resigning, I opted for immediate resignation in light of the unjust expectations and lack of clear policies.

In conclusion, I would not recommend SNHU for adjunct online positions, as the university often contradicts its own policies, imposes overly burdensome grading requirements for minimal compensation, and maintains unreasonable expectations regarding availability. My professional perspective is that work is meant to support life, not define it.

Dear Recruiter,
    I am writing to introduce myself and inquire about the openings of marketing executive. With a solid and successful background as a Marketing and sales assistant for SOGO department store and Fubon MOMO Online shopping Inc., I am able to be a quick problem solver and effective communicator. I especially enjoy working and thriving in the fast-paced environment. I believe my past experience and my skill sets are perfect match with this position

      Having worked marketing assistant for around three years, I am able to prioritize my workload and respond to frequently changing demands. Additionally, working under pressure of facing several strict deadlines in the same time and tackling excessive work tasks timely, I learned to see team members’ needs before being asked, take work tasks autonomously before being assigned, priorities work tasks, and to pay meticulous attention to details. When studying my master’s degree, I applied these skills to organize the scattering ideas posed by my team members into clear logic flow such as goals, long-term strategies, and short-term strategies. This clear logic flow helped us have coherent presentation in marketing project competition.

  I am a good team player with strong communication talent.  For marketing project of mine involving iPad purchase motivation, the two other members in the team both enjoyed working with me. While I was focused on the outcome of the project, I truly supported my team members and wanted the team to succeed. As a leader, although I often took challenging work assignments autonomously, I did pay attention to the sharing of workload, making sure that two of them was treated equally, and more importantly, was able to come up with new ideas and creative solutions. 
  With the great understanding in marketing, the great overall ability I have, I believe I am a great candidate for this position. Thank you for considering my application. I am really looking forward to being part of the company.


When I had first started the position there was genuinely a good culture and I felt the work was manageable day to day. Managers were supportive and did not need to micromanage so much and had confidence in us to do our jobs. It was once a truly great college to work for.

Unfortunately due to the very quick growth of the online programs, all of this has changed. With growth, leadership began adopting a much more micromanaging style, and there is now definitely a pecking order style hierarchy in management in this department. Expectations to what we can get done in a day continued to grow and has become unattainable. The new micromanaging style has also increased the sort of mini reports and other tasks that are solely for management’s benefit to increasingly track our productivity. However this just adds to daily tasks and pressure, making it harder to actually do our jobs for the students. Advancement opportunities are extremely limited and not promising. I learned that many of my coworkers in Admissions had the same grievances, it seemed to be felt across admissions and other students experience teams. The pay and benefits are great, but it’s clear it’s to try to keep people from leaving, and there is now a high turnover rate. 

It’s very sad, this is why I felt I needed to leave and start over in a new career. I genuinely enjoyed helping students and sometimes would have a profoundly positive impact on their lives. Even though the pay and benefits were great and I tried to stick out the hard times, I stuck in there too long and I had become truly miserable, and needed to make a positive decision for myself to leave.

Also one thing that always bothered me is since most of the admissions department is young in age, rewards always involved pizza or ice cream... always. :( Made me feel we were viewed as children.

I have been teaching at SNHU as an adjunct instructor for about three years. 

The pros: extra cash, flexibility, not having to create the course
The cons: low pay for the requirements, extreme micromanaging, hard to get revisions to a course done, and many courses badly need updates

I say: Think carefully before you commit! This job is fine if you want to supplement existing (full time) earnings, but it is NOT going to pay enough to be your only job if you have no other sources of income! You will not get a class every 10-week term, and the amount of time you are expected to devote to the course is nowhere near commiserate with what you will earn -- $2500 flat rate for graduate. Classes will not run if they are not full to the brim, so get ready for 20+ students with three assignments to grade per student, per week. You also have to respond to 70% of discussion posts (no copy-paste) and respond to emails within 24 hrs. What everyone says about the "micromanaging" aspect is 100% true. You will be assigned a team lead whose job it is to stalk your course and evaluate your announcements, your discussion board participation, and your grading. Most team leads try to be nice about it, but if you do not do things exactly their way, you will hear about it -- and quickly, too! This job is fine if, say, you just want to get or keep some college and/or online teaching on your resume, but don't get too serious about it! You will not advance, and getting good evals from your team lead and students will have no bearing on how often you get a course, and it will not increase your pay. My big advice is to develop a system for keeping the time commitment reasonable for yourself. That includes saying "no" to most student requests that are outside of your normal requirements. Set boundaries, and don't let the school (or the students, if necessary) forget this is part time/no benefits. This school is a business, and if you are to get what you want out of the experience, you have to approach it from that mindset on your end, too.

A typical day at work is always productive as Southern New Hampshire University uses Audio Visual Department to ensure that learning is improved with the use of information technology.

We help professors and students to rectify technical problems - Computer hardware, projectors, internet connections (WiFi and LAN), audio and visual equipment, software issues and more.

I've been trained to work with minimal pressure in real time and understanding clients need. For example a professor might be having issues connecting is computer to the projector and screen or his presentation loses audio while having a class. I learnt how to ask what the issue is (Customer Relationship), how it happened and how to fix it without interrupting his class and if the solution requires hardware repair that can't be done during his/her class it will be politely communicated to him.

The AV/IT Department of SNHU is well organized as our coordinator ensures that all our equipment used for presentations or lectures are well maintained and managed.

Co-workers and my supervisors are very helpful in their guidance and discussion in the office are mostly about latest equipment that is related to our work at Southern New Hampshire University, movies and sports.

The hardest part of the job is been able to locate and manage some of the hardware equipment needed for our day-to-day activities. Some employees sometimes forget to update the location of certain equipment in our AV book (which is a system that accounts for our day-to-day activities) and that sometimes can make the job hard sometimes.

One of the goal of Information Technology Service is to enable learning. Being able to solve technical issues that allows professors, students and non-teaching staffs to learn and improve themselves daily through research work, classes, refreshers course etc. daily is the most enjoyable part of the job.

I have been working here for a bit now and I am very dissatisfied. So dissatisfied that I provided my comments in an employee satisfaction survey AND here. 
The issues:
1) You never hear from anyone until you do "something wrong"
2) They assume that if a student complains about you that YOU are the problem without getting your side of the story or explanation (e.g., I had a student complain I ignored emails and the dean emailed me as if I ignored the emails - although I never received the emails)
3) Final grades due less than 3 days after a course ends, when you as an adjunct have 40 papers to grade (10+ pages) each plus discussion posts
4) They require you to reply to students within 24 hours; which is generally okay, but this means you NEVER get a day off away from the computer. Is there really any harm in letting people have a day to be AWAY from the computer?
5) The pay is low but the expectations for how much you're available to students (within 24 hours of an email) and end of course grading timeline is insane
6) You should never expect to receive "kudos" or anything positive regarding your work; I spend hours giving students valuable comments, but is that ever recognized? No. But forget to mark someone as having a zero grade or forget to add a rubric component, you are emailed almost immediately (I'm assuming it is an automated process)

They are currently hiring in my area and I do suggest staying away. Low pay plus 24 hour expectation on emails is ridiculous. As a part time employee, do not go away for the weekend, unless you want to check emails. I suggest avoiding this place. Why do I stay? I have student loans to pay. 

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Academic advisor 14 salaries reported	$59,179 per year
Admission counselor 10 salaries reported	$24.00 per hour
Adjunct faculty 21 salaries reported	$2,350 per week
Team leader 7 salaries reported	$71,366 per year
Director 4 salaries reported	$105,625 per year

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