research assistant

field interviewer

graduate researcher

postdoctoral fellow

instructor

The University of Michigan

My typical work day consisted of conducting courses, holding office hours, advising students, preparing class materials, attending faculty meetings when they were held, spending time in the language laboratory to assist students.  I also spent considerable time working on my computer, preparing supplementary materials, such as practice quizzes, syllabi, worksheets, cultural material, including photographs of historical monuments and art work, biographies of historical personages, realia to help the students experience the current everyday life of the target country, such as advertisements, descriptions of hotels, tourist sites, shopping lists, news items, popular music and entertainment, video clips of historical events, films, dramatic presentations.  These collections were available to the students to peruse at their leisure or during class time, when we would discuss the presentation in the target language.  For the Latin class, I would show photos and films of ancient sites, such as the Acropolis of Athens, the Roman Forum as well as clips from modern films which depict ancient subjects, such as the stand of Leonides at Thermopylae.  
My colleagues were the best and most dedicated pedagogues, as should befit a close-knit campus community.  We had faculty outings, picnics, lunches, banquets and many other social events in the setting of a beautiful estate of Fairlane.  Thanks to the immense woody grounds and the Rouge River, we were able to enjoy nature during hikes and bird watching events.  I would say that we were a family.  My colleagues always shared their expertise with me whenever I needed their knowledge.  I also gave freely of my expertise whenever a colleague would require it.  Occasionally, there would be a tiff or misunderstanding, in which case the problem was handled by the Campus Grievance Committee, on which I served.  We also enjoyed lectures by the faculty members, an opportunity to learn about their particular field.  
As for the disadvantages, the annual faculty reviews were a great chore to be dreaded.  We agonized over what to include in the dossier, how to present it to our greatest advantage, how to meet the deadline, given the other responsibilities of teaching, preparing the curriculum, advising students and correcting papers. 
At times I felt overwhelmed by the paperwork, as we could not ask the secretaries to perform the tedious tasks of typing out exams and course material, nor could we expect them to run off copies of the prepared papers.  However, I could stay as late as I wanted to use the excellent office machinery.
Now that I am retired, I look back with great satisfaction on my time as educator in a university.  Most of all, I miss the wonderful exchange of knowledge with my students.  Many of my students remain in touch with me and some have become close friends.  They have been grateful and appreciative of my teaching.  That is the greatest blessing that one could expect of one's career.

U of M was a great place to work.  I had great supervisors all until my last two years of my employment.  She never wanted to work with me to see how I really worked.  I am an honest hard working person that is just looking for someone to appreciated me.  I did not get that there in my last couple of years.  I was not one to be on my cell phone texting.  Leaving my job early and say I left at the designated time.  I stayed over if I had to.  I did not ask for extra pay.  Others would claim they would work a double and go home 2 hours early and leave me with the rest of the work.  I was unable to do the work of two people.  I was never told when I did a good job, but when the littlest thing came up that was wrong, I surely heard about it. I was bullied and harassed by her.  
I'm looking for an employer to give me a chance. I'm a good worker and I have great work ethics.  I don't try to cheat on my time or with anything else for that matter.  I am totally drug free of controlled and illegal substances.  At any time please ask for a drug test.  I have nothing to hide.  I am looking forward to working with a nice group of people, co-workers and managers. 
A typical day at work was very structured.  We each were assigned to jobs accordingly to match the workload for that day.  
I got all on the job training and was able to pass the National Certification for Pharmacy Technicians.
Management (except for the last supervisor) was fair with everyone.
They were always wanting to help show you something new so you could be a better employee.  My co-workers?  Up until I worked for my last supervisor, they were reporting back to her exaggerated lies via text messaging about me.  So, that was a horrible experience, for they wanted to do whatever they could to make themselves look good.  They did not know any better for this was their 1st job.  Actually, the hardest part of the job?  There were no parts of the job I considered "hard".  Some were just time consuming, but not hard.  
I loved my job and doing my job.  I was learning something new everyday.  I enjoyed taking care of people who called and were in need of something for their patient.  I would even drop everything and deliver STAT's to wherever they needed to go.  I tried moving to other areas, but was basically stuck and set up to fail. I was unable to take the mental abuse I was getting.  It was best I left.  So, I hope someone out there understands.  I am everything I say I am.  


I worked for UMHS for 10+ years in med surg units.  UMHS recently changed name to Michigan Medicine and it is connected to many hospitals in Michigan now. The hospital is just rewarded Magnet status.  It is also one of the largest teaching hospitals in the US.  There is no hesitation to ask questions.  All doctors, residents, ancillary healthcare providers usually answer your questions and explain well.  I liked this aspect very much. It was an excellent experience for me because there are many cases I have ever seen or heard of, and as a nurse I learned a lot.  Since there are about 1000 certified beds in the hospital, many services are specialized in detail which sometimes confusing.  There are so many other healthcare professionals and services that they are often not well communicated.  This causes nurses a lot of problems.  There are many ambulatory care clinics around it if you are interested in.  

The RNs and CNAs are unionized. There is career advancement, but hiring order is set by the union, and if you have low seniority and minimal experience, you are the last one to get the job.  The workplace culture seems to vary by unit and services.  It is OK to report unprofessional conducts and it can be done anonymously.  Every day job is very busy in every units.  We gets very high acuity patients from all over Michigan and nearby states. Also there are many races, cultures ethnics, and languages. In most units nurse to patient ratio is lower than surrounding hospitals. But it is very busy and often exhausting days.  There are many nurses worked with this hospital more than 20 years and some of them are more than 30 years.

I was not excited about management because of micromanagement every aspect. The hospital is growing rapidly, bur not enough parking for employees. You pay a lot for the parking or take buses which is crowded and not great in snowy cold winter.  Their pay is good but not the best, and your raise is negotiated between hospital and union, and usually gets raise without problem.  The benefit is not bad but is declining.  They are concerned about employees' health and have programs and services to keep us healthy.

But over all, if you are interested in different conditions and diseases, you like to gain special skills and knowledge, and good benefit, this is a great place to work.

What is the best part of working at the company?
UofM Law-abundance of free food as the school was always spending stupid amounts of money to keep their privileged students happy. 
Also, the yearly gift they have employees at the summer picnic. AirPods after we returned from covid! 
Other than that…the place was horrid. Faculty were to be treated godlike. The students even more so. Baby them to death. Handhold and whatever else necessary to ensure they have the most wonderful time at law school-just to ensure they become overzealous donors when they get a job!

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
Every. Single. Thing! Parking. Paying for a “chance” to get a spot in a parking garage. Being treated like children instead of staff, god forbid they treat adults as such.   The hardest part of law school is getting in-once you’re in, the staff is expected to do anything and everything short of wiping their butts to make them happy! It was sickening! Oh wait, I have to work late to help a student who is too busy PACKING for a ski trip to Chile (the country!) for a long weekend. Sure I’ll stay late and do their their legal work FOR THEM, I never said, but was told to regardless. 

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
Ha! Hostile. Unfriendly. Cliques. No teamwork. Low employee morale, especially after being made to work in the office 5 days a week again after covid when clearly it wasn’t necessary…just need to “be around” in case an alumni showed up. Never know who is going to fork out the big bucks! 

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
8am-5pm. Usually no lunch because either too busy or can’t afford to purchase lunch as you cannot get lunch anywhere around central campus for less than $15. Fight traffic both ways. All students act like privileged toddlers and god forbid they look up from their cell phones long enough to see if they are about to run into you. And crosswalk! Forget it. You could be in your car and sit there for 10 minutes! You will never get a single student to wait a nanosecond, it’s all about them! And yes, of course it is as they pay tuition, however that does t give them the right to treat others like whipping posts!

U of M mandates nurses to work overtime almost on a daily basis. Contractually, they are able to mandate a nurse for four hours per four week schedule. Many people volunteer, though, to avoid being mandated when inconvenient for them and to not make the next shift work short. I have worked as a float nurse for the pediatric units, as well as the children’s emergency services department. I have nothing negative to say about the emergency department. However, the management for CSR, who “manages” the float nurses, is horrible. She will do most anything to make herself look good and has no follow through on most everything. All lip service. She can be smiling at you, if she even acknowledges you, while stabbing you in the back. Never any recognition of anything good. Doesn’t stick up for her nurses and never gives them the benefit of the doubt when issues arise. She often doesn’t grant your schedule requests.  Every person on my current unit have left to go to other units or totally left nursing. I filed out an incident form and an ADO (assignment despite objection) form on a Thursday and the following Tuesday was called to the office for a meeting. I requested a union rep to be there and she wasn’t too pleased. Basically, she was closing my unit and my job was being eliminated. I’ve worked for the U for almost 21 years. Doesn’t say much for job security. As for the pay, it’s decent. That manager offered me a 12 hr night shift position floating to 6 units, instead of my own unit +3 others. However, the small raises the nurses get compared to management bonuses is nil.  Regular, vs temp or travel nurses, get combined PTO/sick time. Sounds nice, but if you call off more than 6 times in a rolling six month period, you get written up. The U says we don’t want you to work sick but then punishes you if you aren’t there. And, if somehow you are reaching your maximum PTO allowance, you will probably be denied any time off. That forces you to either call in or lose the PTO. The culture varies from unit to unit. I have found units that are welcoming and nurses who care and will help you as well as units that are clicky and don’t even know you’re drowning or even there.

The University of Michigan police department is known for its great pay considering the actual work performed.  Pay is great but promotions are based on nepotism and cronyism to a degree I've never seen at another police department.  There is essentially no competitive testing for promotions or assignments and the leadership regularly hires from the outside for choice positions in supervision, management and leadership (all with healthy salary increases that current employees often don't have any realistic opportunity to compete for.)

Fairly low competency when it comes to investigating complex or sensational crimes.  There is a LOT of second-guessing by other staff departments that have nothing to do with law enforcement.  

Rule number one at this police department is: "Don't embarrass the University".  Not "Do the right thing" or "Do the ethical thing" or "Always adhere to the Constitution."  Rather:  "Don't embarrass the University".  

This seems to be the way things operate at all three campuses:  Ann Arbor, Dearborn and Flint.  

The police labor association/union is worthless.  The sworn police officers are represented by the same union that represents civilian security guards.  The security guards far outnumber the actual police officers.  As a result, any time the police officers want to fight for something in contract negotiations, the University just promises the security guards something like a cash bonus to vote for that particular contract as presented by management.  They play one side against the other very successfully.  The union reps are afraid to do anything about it because they're afraid of losing their preferred positions within the organization.  

Not a bad place to work as long as you can check your dignity as a police officer at the door.  Wear your golden handcuffs proudly but don't expect to be respected by any other law enforcement agency.  

Overall, a great-paying way to be part of the Keystone Kops.  

The University of Michigan has a great diversity. It always feels like I am part of something and my research makes a difference. These feelings have helped me toward becoming a successful researcher and student in University of Michigan. 

On a typical day I move towards the objective of my project. We face numerous challenges, gather lots of experimental and theoretical data from various methods. A day is typically either spent on making a plan or executing a plan to process the experimental and theoretical data to overcome the challenges and move towards the objective of the project. 

I have gathered different sets of skills through the rigorous training as a PhD students. Some of these include clean room device processing, optoelectronic device characterization, material characterization, electron microscopy, device design in Sentaurus and Matlab, understanding, analyzing and predicting semiconductor devices etc.  

The management is quite efficient. As a NSF funded student I have various collaborators and we work as a team. the team has multiple groups and there are various types of meeting to ensure excellent communication between the groups. This also helps us achieve the end goal faster and more efficiently. 

My co-workers are extremely helpful. We have different specialization which makes the work and meetings much more interesting. Working in such a dynamic environment also has helped me a lot to grow my skill sets. 

The hardest part of the job is when we hit a dead-end. We spend months figuring out ways to circumnavigate seemingly impossible challenges.

The most enjoyable part comes with good results and when we realize these results can be used in the electronic and optoelectronic industry in near-future which can significantly improve device performances.

InsideOut Literary Arts Project:

My sponsor was very encouraging. They brought me to meetings, where I contributed my thoughts often drawing on what I'd learned in previous semesters; using theories where they were applicable or provided insight. My sponsor encouraged and appreciated my engagement. 

My effort was always appreciated, but what I produced was always open to criticism and improvement. I was able to gain experience in doing professional work and approaching that work in an open and evaluative manner. To evaluate the task and the overall goal of the lesson plan, before and through its execution, became integral to my lesson plan development process. Therefore, revision was critical to develop a sound product. 

As I developed lessons for writers-in-residence, senior writers would provide consult on my lessons.


Qualitative Research Assistant on Asian American Mental Health:

The team's sponsor was very friendly and they always demonstrated interest in the professional growth of each member of the team. They often facilitated consensus building exercises to prepare us to assume full responsibility for building consensus on codes and coding procedure on our own later in the program. 

The most difficult part of the job was co-authoring a proposal for the APA research conference. Although this was difficult it was in many ways very exciting, especially as our co-authored proposal was used to gain entrance into the American Psychological Association research conference in Washington D.C. 

I often took great initiative in this project. My coworkers were younger and I filled the role both of their peer and leader. I never resisted asking questions or speaking up in meetings, and I was skilled in encouraging the other coworkers to take the same initiative.

I really liked being able to pick what hours I could work and being able to take a week or so off here and there without having to plan many months in advance. I also really liked my boss, he was a great guy who was helpful, appreciative, and easy to get along with. I also really enjoyed being able to help students in subjects they struggled with, but that's more personal. I think it's an excellent job if you're a full-time college student, don't need to pay for all living expenses, are competent in a few subjects (and able to communicate reasonably well), and you're not looking to advance within the UM Athletic Department. I understand the vast majority of tutors employed by the athletic department are part-time and frequently aren't seeking a full-time job or career within the Athletic Department, but it's a real shame they don't seriously consider letting tutors advance to counseling positions or some form of management unless the tutor's degree is related to teaching. I also understand that finding students to work with and scheduling appointments is way easier by working at the Athletic Department than trying to tutor independently, so making less per hour than working privately makes sense, but the difference in pay is enormous. I discovered private tutors can easily make $30+ dollars an hour for the same subjects I tutored, so paying less than half of that to us seems a little unfair. This isn't really a problem though unless you're trying to pay for living expenses, which are grossly inflated in Ann Arbor. Overall I truly enjoyed my time as a tutor, and it was great for just making some easy money on the side, but the lack of advancement opportunities was very discouraging.

I really enjoy my job and it has excellent benefits, but I don't feel like the university supports researchers as much as we'd like. There are also an insane amount of politics. Funding is tight and they frequently don't step in to help though they receive millions of dollars in donations. I am sure they do in some instances, but that is where the politics come in to play. I've seen them close down a department that provided services at cost to researchers, then force the researchers to go to an industrial lab and pay more than 5x for the same service. They are resistant to provide funds to help a researcher get a grant for equipment. They will, however, purchase expensive equipment to keep a professor from leaving when that researcher has no experience with the equipment (and end up not using it). The university also seems to be "top heavy" with more administrators than researchers or professors, which is probably why they do things that don't make sense to the researchers I know.

There are a large number of postdoctoral research fellows, which is typical as they carry research projects. However, I've seen a large number of staff scientists (who are writing grants, running the lab, designing experiments, etc.) get laid off and replaced with post-docs (who should be able to focus on their research) because the staff member is "too expensive". It makes one very nervous if they are a staff member.

On a positive note, I have a more or less flexible schedule. I work in a research lab working on some very interesting and challenging projects. My boss gives me a lot of work to do, but I know it's because he knows I am capable of handling it.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Research assistant 29 salaries reported	$19.00 per hour
Field interviewer 3 salaries reported	$26.00 per hour
Graduate researcher 33 salaries reported	$39,006 per year
Postdoctoral fellow 15 salaries reported	$62,043 per year
Instructor 9 salaries reported	$3,028 per month

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