student assistant

graduate assistant

research assistant

teaching assistant

administrative assistant

University of North Texas

To start, most people at UNT are AMAZING people to work with. They are thoughtful kind and caring. When I was diagnosed with cancer, I was overwhelmed by the support from co-workers and even others outside of my department. 

Beyond that, I don't have many great things to say. Pay is mediocre at best, with many many staff members feeling overworked and underpaid. The department I worked for constantly had after-hours and weekend events which I was required to be there for on top of my normal office hours. While most departments do allow you to flex some of those hours or get comp time, my department had a cap on comp time and would force you to take days off when it was least convenient. All in all, work-life balance is non-existent.

Management in my department in AITS is the worst I've seen in my 20+ years working in the IT field. I was lured into my position with promises to promote which never came, and if an advancement opportunity did come along, they chose to hire someone else because "they couldn't afford to lose me in my current position."  The upper leadership within AITS has been there for 20-30 years and have spent their entire careers at UNT. They started there as student workers and then stayed, which you would think would speak highly of the university, but what that actually translates to is closed-minded leadership who get offended when an outside perspective is presented. They refuse to change and have antiquated thought processes in terms of business process improvement, ITIL or Six Sigma methodology, or any semblance of forward-thinking. In addition to poor leadership, we rarely had the equipment we needed to actually do our jobs well. When I asked where certain tools were to repair something, I was laughed at and told we don't have any tools you'll have to bring your own or try to borrow them from another department. Life cycle management and asset management are a joke and while the university does use Service Now as its ITSM ticketing system of choice, they were too cheap to purchase the full feature set so there were very few features available for use. 

While there are some amazing people and departments at UNT, I would NOT recommend taking a position with AITS. It is the worst management I have ever encountered and they need to be forced out the door and new leadership put in place. Hopefully, the new CIO will make some much-needed changes and not just join in with the existing "Good ol' Boys" club that currently manipulates and micro-manages the place. 

Navigating the narcissim that exists at the senior exec levels is how most of us spend our days at work
The President stated departments will allow remote work to anyone who's job enables a remote environment- still, aging AVP's and VP's insist on folks sitting in an office environment. Some had rather see a body occupying space and  on facebook all day in their office than having a great productive employee work from home- there are major control issues here
Too many committees just to check a box
Too many Division retreats, committees, meetings, trainings that take the 20% of the people doing 80% of the work out of the office to only stress us out further and adding to our workload; the only employees enjoying these events are the 80% who don't work and don't care
The hardest part of the job is having an Exec AVP, VP or above who needs control over the daily minutia of lower level employees and micromanages even down to the lowest levels
The systems and programs we have to use to get our work completed is incredibly outdated -its embarassing
The chancellor and BOR can't figure out if they want separation of campus & systems or a merge
The systems office of employees who support campus has been severely understaffed for several years now
My immediate director is an amazing person and the only saving grace in our division; they are the reason we stay
The only way to get a deserving employee a pay increase is thru reclassing  position, or thru equity reviews- merit increases are a joke and not truly given for merit anymore
The old addage- a few people do all the work stands firm (Pareto Principle)
The phrase Percussive Sublimation is a real thing....
Paid health insurance is nice
Holidays were great- but year by year- they have slowly reduced the number of days off we get every year; but they are still good
Other good benefits- wellness perks, etc.

Continuous research is conducted daily to meet the goal of the projects and improvements are made during the process. For my automatic, temperature controlled, intermittent spray-cooling mechanism, I have learned how to automate the spray-cooling mechanism through the computer with external drivers necessary for temperature control of the heat exchanger fans. For my hydrophilic/hydrophobic copper samples, I have used photo-lithography to produce such combination on the sample surface needed for enhancing heat transfer. In management, I have to report on the progress of the projects to my professor in meetings conducted every week and share thoughts and solutions. My co-worker has been helpful and we usually work as a team to accomplish the goal of the projects by sharing ideas and perceptions besides performing tasks together. The hardest part of the job was the programming of the drivers necessary to control the fans at the heat exchangers using thermistors and pressure transducers. However, this task is accomplished by tuning the temperature and pressure settings of the driver correctly and testing the pick-up time of the fans to start spinning. The most enjoyable part of the job is also the most intense part of the job which is LabView programming. The ability to automate the intermittent mechanism or on-off mechanism together with collecting temperature and pressure data and compiling them into an excel file automatically in the computer with just the Start push button on LabView program brings out the best part of the project to be self-reliant. Besides, a safety mechanism has been programmed into the LabView to curb potential radical changes in pressure and temperature of the spray-cooling mechanism by shutting down the whole mechanism.

Great individuals, great resources, but administration is extremely disorganized and demeaning to adjunct staff overall. Hours are seemingly randomly assigned, given and revoked at a whim. There is a sense of indispensability in how all the talented adjunct staff is treated but expected to bend to the chaos of the administration's disorder. Unfortunately politics, and little to no communication/collaboration between adjunct teaching faculty and hiring administration makes for a work environment where your successes are mostly unseen, and communication is at a low between the two sides. Excellent performance reviews from faculty and students could, and will, end up in no job security unfortunately as there is no sense of connection between the administration and workforce.  This is new with the changes to departmental hiring being the job of the new administration, and no longer informed heavily by the professors of each department.


Great students, great curricula and freedom, along with excellent emphasis on research and quality work/faculty. I really enjoy my colleagues and bosses as well. There is a lot of compassion and support on the lower level. All of this is tainted by the lack of transparency, honesty, and communication of the administration level. 

Excellent job to expand on your teaching and creative practice, but have a backup plan. The "life of an adjunct" is absolutely disposable to the new team of administration in the CVAD while they jockey for power and accreditation with their name on them. You're not a person here, you're a number, unfortunately.  

Management here is awful. They will ignore discrimination and derogatory language even if it is happening right in front of them. They will point to their O.E.O, but that office does very little in terms of investigation so they can continue to sweep things under the rug. The pay here is sub-par and they will discriminate based on gender. I was paid somewhere along the lines of 9$ an hour, when I know for a fact male coworkers were started at 11$-12$. You will never ever have a clear idea of what you are supposed to be doing because none of your supervisors know anything about anything (except of course university policy so they can penalize you at every turn). They also will actively lie to you about benefits that the university provides to discourage you from using them. The culture here is extremely elitist so if you don't have an office job, prepare to be ignored, harassed, and bullied often. In fact, they often host staff parties and breakfasts and things, but if you aren't one of the desk-jockeys you will be forced to work the event but will not be fed or given the gifts like they do for everyone else. The people who work desk jobs here would probably spit on you if they could. I have worked plenty of "bad" jobs in retail and food service, you name it, but this is by far the worst work environment and pay I have ever received. Please please please do not work here unless you have no other options. This place is terrible. 

I am a member of UNT's student staff. As a Resident Assistant, I work in the resident halls on campus as a student leader and "community developer." The job is interesting, though for engineering students it provides very little in applicable experience. Generally, work consists of meetings and clerical work at the front desk of the resident hall. Additionally, Resident Assistants are required to work as the RA "on call," an overnight shift where the RA on call is required to answer any calls for problems that arise. In this position, I've developed my people management and communication skills (while resolving conflicts and developing a community among the 33 residents in my wing). This job also helps develop some administrative and planning skills, as RAs are expected to plan and execute events for residents. The management is good, my manager has always been very supportive and encouraging. Workplace culture is essentially identical to college culture overall. The most enjoyable part of this job is seeing residents take advantage of the community created by the RA, having fun and communicating with each other.

The Student Assistant for the Basic Communications course at UNT was expected to administer to at least 10 Teaching Assistant/Basic Course Instructors on a daily basis. This included developing and distributing course documents, creating systems for Basic Course projects, and producing spreadsheets where quality of the Basic Course was analyzed. 

I learned a great deal about communication in this department, and how to communicate effectively with many different types of people - staff, students, and faculty members alike. I also learned about many different management styles while doing favors for other faculty members in the department along with the work for the Basic Course. Independence was another skill I developed, as supervision was not an overall concern in the department. Through my position here, I learned that trust is key to efficiency. 

The hardest part of this job was saying no to those who may want to take advantage of potential down time that Student Assistants may have. This could cut into overall productivity and start a spiral of requests for work outside the essential elements of the job. 

The most enjoyable part of working in the Communication Studies department was working among so many different types of people, and feeling genuinely appreciated in a fun work environment. The people here know how to work, and how to have fun at the same time.

I am an Research Assistant while pursuing a PhD at UNT. The work hours are flexible and result based, meaning I have weekly meetings and set research mile stones with my professor. My professor cares very deeply about my own research, and academic development and is always very helpful with guidance. He even cares about my own personal career growth as well as our groups, and always has helpful insights for securing internships for further career development. I have not heard any horror stories about other professors, in fact all the professors I have met are very kind, caring and extremely hard workers. Being taught by, and working under these kinds of people also motivate me to work harder, and learn more. Although it is dependent on your professor how your experience is at UNT as an RA, I believe, at least at the Computer Science and Engineering department, you will be very happy with your professor. I can't recommend enough how beneficial a position like this is for a person pursuing a PhD.

One con: at times, reimbursement for medical or your pay may have some severe delays up to a week or so, and communication regarding this is lacking. Mistakes happen, and this may not be the norm, I could just be very unlucky in this regard.

Working at UNT is a great starting point for a career in Information Technology. Being a university it's extremely stable and the benefits are on par with most. The downsides are weak salary when compared to market averages, university politics, and the constant budget issues. 

In particular most Information Technology areas are suffering from positions not being filled. Thus, increasing workloads and scope of required duties. Budget cuts have affected IT shared services, pushing previously high-level managed services onto individual IT support areas. Throw in tons of useless / redundant committees and the university eliminating comp time. A lot of IT staff feel burnt out and are looking for jobs elsewhere. 

Advancement in the university can be a slog, at a certain point you are as high as you can go salary and position wise. Since getting into higher management positions is mostly reserved for knowing the right people. Large raises or matching market averages is mostly non-existent. In HRs mind they would rather areas hire / train someone new at the lowest on the pay scale then retain top talent.   

The University of North Texas, and the Athletics Center especially, comprises an enthusiastic and determined team, willing to contribute to the overall image of the university by maintaining effective channels of organization and communication. A typical day at work for the IT support team includes general maintenance of the network under support, such as managing user accounts and rights on the system, assisting in general troubleshooting hardware/software issues, maintaining the overall security, and assisting users in technical problems or questions.
Through this experience, I have enhanced my communication and interpersonal skills and learned the value of teamwork, responsibility, initiative and perseverance. The management is well-defined and the co-workers are a great source of support, which makes the transition and learning process easier and the work environment effective.
The hardest part of the job is responding timely, accurately and adequately to the changing and unpredictable demands of the users and the network, whereas the most enjoyable part is coming up with ideas and thinking in a creative and critical way to solve problems which may arise.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Student assistant 11 salaries reported	$10.64 per hour
Graduate assistant 5 salaries reported	$15.00 per hour
Research assistant 11 salaries reported	$18.78 per hour
Teaching assistant 8 salaries reported	$14.00 per hour
Administrative assistant 17 salaries reported	$32,346 per year

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