graduate researcher

senior research technician

service associate

assistant

office assistant

University of Nebraska

I love being able to work at this research center. My co-workers are wonderful and friendly while still being productive and well-respected by the university and others across the nation.

Whenever I come into the office, I ask if anyone needs me to do any work for them so that their job is easier. When I first worked here, they had me making a lot of copies or taking out the recycling. I still do that, but they have moved me onto more pressing matters.

Usually they request I help them review documents or surveys before they send them out because I am a detail-oriented person. In certain "seasons" I will work extensively on surveys for grant projects. They will ask me to create survey templates using Remark Office OMR, scan the surveys once they come back to the office filled out, and enter the survey data using OMR and/ or Woodcock-Johnson III NU Scoring.

I've picked up many skills at this job, mostly computer-related. I have always had a knack for computers and I am a quick learner when it comes to new programs.

My co-workers are amazing. I love working with them, chatting with them, and getting to spend some time with the whole office at our quarterly office parties. Our boss is an incredible woman who is renowned for her research, writing, work ethic, and talking skills. She is often away giving key note speeches on researching educational topics. She is fantastic at office management and fun to be around, so she is both well-loved and respected by us all.

The hardest part of the job is when deadlines are tight and occasionally unreasonable. We feel pressured to finish work that would take hours, days, or even weeks more than is initially expected. We work around this by communicating with the project managers and explaining how much time it really will take.

The most enjoyable part of the day is getting to talk to such honest, warm-hearted, and caring people. I feel like I am a part of the office family and always want to go to work. They are also very flexible with my time and I do not get in trouble if I arrive later then I thought I would or cannot come in at all. I am grateful I get to work here.

Most faculty members care deeply about their work, but are so overworked that they can barely stay afloat.  We're asked to do more and more in our classes (DEI, active learning, hybrid options, more flexibility for students) but get zero time release to implement those changes.

The support offered through the teaching and learning center is excellent, but nobody has the time to take advantage of the supports.

They treat teaching-oriented faculty as less than research-faculty.  No tenure.  Much lower pay.  Contract reviews every few years.  Fewer rights within departments.  Dumping the huge and undesirable classes onto teaching faculty rather than rotating.  Absurd and inconsistent rules about what counts toward teaching load (8-student graduate seminar for a tenured prof counts the same as 250-student undergrad class for a PoP; supervising internships doesn't count at all).

Graduate TAs are scarce and often unprepared for and unwilling to teach, and many departments have no funding for undergraduate TAs.  So teaching faculty spend a tremendous amount of time on low-level organizational tasks instead of the high-level work that matches our expertise.

Good availability of technology that supports teaching, but awesome tech tools often disappear after a 2-3 year contract.

I love UNL.  I love my students.  I love the Instructional Technology team.  I love my fellow teaching faculty members.  I just can't take the workload, the lack of respect for teaching, the constant ask for more, and the growing disengagement from students without administrative support to help the issue.

Oversee the maintenance and coordination of the CARI Registration Services program to ensure proper conference coordination, planning, integrity of registrant data and financial information for all events.

• Coordinate with conference committees to arrange registration services and any other services as needed for each specific event up to and including marketing, onsite coordination, and budget tracking.
• Managed the implementation of a major software and website upgrade, significantly increasing the productivity of event registration system and on-line registration customer service satisfaction.
• Almost immediately after employment started in Sept 2006, initiated a website upgrade and system overhaul. This enabled a nearly a six fold increase in organization hosted events from 26 events in 2006 to 149 in 2007 without an increase in marketing funds. Now in 2012, an average of 130 conferences/workshops both national and international.
• Developed and maintained 4 major websites for the department to handle research, education, publications, and registration services.
• Trained and maintained a cohesive, productive team of individuals from diverse areas of the organization, utilizing strong interpersonal and leadership skills to foster and encourage teamwork and cooperation among team members and with user areas to work within the registration database.
• Utilized TQM principles to implement several internal process improvements that have resulted in hundreds of time-saving hours annually.
• Assisted in the design, data analysis, and coordinated the project teams in the creation of an IPAD app for a special event of the Department chair.
• Awarded the UNL IANR Outstanding Employee Award Honoree, 2012 1st Quarter.

My main project for this job was Dry Weather Stormwater Monitoring. I worked for the University of Nebraska Lincoln who had a contract with the City of Lincoln, NE to monitor storm drain outlets throughout Lincoln. My job was to collect water samples from 50 different outlets and test the water for parameters such as pH, Turbidity, Chlorine, Chloride, Fluoride, Nitrate, Surfactants, and temperature. I also had to calculate a rough discharge. The main purpose of this project was to find illicit discharges in the water and report it to the City of Lincoln public works staff. At the end of the summer I wrote a 55 page report with my results and problem sites with extensive research on certain sites. My supervisor and I submitted it the report to the City of Lincoln public works staff. I met with my supervisor who is a professor at UNL about once a week with my progress and concerns each week but was on my own for the majority of the project. Other parts of this parts included updating the 250 site list for the 5 year rotation as well as organizing and combining previous years reports together. I also helped train and familiarize the student who took this position for the Summer of 2013 in April 2013. 

Another project I worked on for this position was to construct well models showing the difference between using bentonite clay to fill wells as opposed to gravel. I worked with a Grad student who designed the well models and wrote a report explaining the difference and reasons why bentonite clay should be used in future wells. This project was submitted to Heath and Human Services.

I absolutely loved my time as a parking enforcement officer for the University Of Nebraska. Of course, you get the standard insults, but overall, it's a very good student job. For one, it's the highest paid job on campus, and the supervisors are absolutely wonderful about working around your class schedule. I had so many last minute tests and meetings come up, and they never got mad about one of them. They just asked when I needed off and marked it down. The great part about the job is that you basically get to dictate what you do during your shift. When you arrive for your shift, you check out your equipment, choose your zone of campus, and go. You patrol that zone for the entirety of your shift. Yes, there is a quota of 5 tickets per hour, but it is extremely easy to meet. I know there are some people who despise parking enforcement and see us as bad guys, and I see their point. What we do doesn't really help anybody and tends to hurt a lot of students. However, the job gives you a wide range of discretion in dealing with situations, and I ended up voiding a ticket if I could more often than not. As long as you meet your quota, and people don't complain about you, the supervisors don't really bother you. It's a very relaxed atmosphere there, and I'd suggest this job to any student at UNL.

I started out coming from another much larger plant and was curious about the systems they used there at the utility plant. That took all of 2 days and from there I hit the ceiling of what the plant is willing to do for their operators. There were no written procedures nor was there any meaningful documentation on the equipment available to operators (Those belong only to the engineers apparently), everyone had a different way of running equipment which some were less than willing to share due to the horrendous turn around experienced here. I've seen several people who were willing to totally burn their bridges here because they were so adamant that they would never work for the University again due to unqualified supervisors who are not even trained in Operations. Now those same supervisors who would never have been promoted at any other industrial plant think that hiring unqualified workers will change the years of horrible workplace culture. Any decent operators who value their skills and ability stay far away from UNL, unless you like being part of an organization that runs as well as the Football team. 

A typical work day consists of answering student/parent/faculty questions about housing. I do this via email, phone and in-person and questions range from concerns about price to “what residence hall will fit me best.” 
When I’m not working with concerned students and their parents, I spend much of my time proof-reading materials before they are sent out. We send out things such as pamphlets, contracts booklets, information guides, etc. and they have to be grammatically and factually correct, as well as visually appealing.
Finally, I process and verify newly admitted and returning student information and have created an effective filing system to keep them in order on a yearly basis.
	While I love my coworkers and management team, I find that our office is over-staffed. I have repeatedly asked for more work and new projects, only to be told that there are no projects/work to give out. 
	I am seeking a job that is engaging and fun, but that will challenge me on a daily basis. Above all, I want to keep learning and honing my public relations, marketing and advertising skills.

In general UNL's work environment IS great, reliable and very competitive. However I do not recommend working for the College of Engineering Trauma Mechanics Research Center at the MME. Management used to be great as of last year 2011-2012. Graduate students and research lab/office staff in this research center academic/professional goals have suffered greatly which, in my opinion, is impacting the college's reputation negatively. There are other great professors and Principal Investigators (PIs) in this college that are awesome to work with (as a TA, RA, Postdoc, other). Little pay for more work than agreed upon. No possibility for academic or professional growth. Challenging and tense work environment. Great-idea-center badly directed.

This was a difficult place to work. The politics are ubiquitous and vicious. Relative to other universities, Nebraska pays very low salaries while expecting a great deal from professors.

I did love the students. Since philosophy isn't a requirement, students "self-select" to take a philosophy course. I consistently had students who were genuinely interested in philosophy.And because students generally believe it is a difficult field, I tended to have brighter students who could question the various philosophic positions we covered. Some of the classes were really electric and fun!

The administration was a very mixed bag. Some administrators tried to prevent any change in the status quo. Luckily, my last few years there, we had a wonderful Dean who was open minded and fair. I worked closely with him and the Dean who preceded him - which taught me an enormous amount about administrative compromise (Unfortunately his superior, the new Chancellor was really not up to the challenge - she was fired shortly after I left.)

Employees really care about what they are doing, doing the right thing and supporting the University. Your duties, security, work life, schedule, etc. differ for every department or campus you land in. I work in one unit interacting with all staff from all campuses, all departments so have seen a wide variety of workgroups. I've had a really great supportive team where I grew a lot and was highly encouraged by my immediate coworkers and management. However, once it got higher than that, the lack of leadership or forward thinking decision making is greatly lacking. No one seems to be committed to making lasting movement toward getting up to speed with technology.  Sad and disappointing, driving away good talent either when they get frustrated or are pushed out. 

It is public sector so don't expect top pay in your field, don't expect frills but do expect to work hard with co-workers who care. 

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Graduate researcher 3 salaries reported	$31,067 per year
Senior research technician 2 salaries reported	$19.75 per hour
Service associate 28 salaries reported	$15.16 per hour
Assistant 9 salaries reported	$40,000 per year
Office assistant 4 salaries reported	$21.08 per hour

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