graduate researcher

research assistant

graduate assistant

assistant professor

postdoctoral fellow

University of South Carolina

Ordered lab and teaching supplies for largest USC department (Biological Sciences), sold and reported these supplies, provided training to lab employees on safe transport of chemicals and gas cylinders, did all international paperwork to ship research equipment for research teams traveling globally, prepared all FedEx and UPS shipments and associated paperwork, trained work studies and part-time employees on inventory control and customer service, acted as receiving agent for all incoming orders, samples, scientific catalogs for entire department, ordered and dispensed ETOH and reported sales monthly, supplied stockroom inventory and sales reports, reserved department vehicles and boats for use by faculty and lab techs, made arrangements for scientific equipment calibrations for department, signed out audio-visual supplies, ordered-stored-sold and reported gas cylinders for College of Science and Mathematics,
led college in recycling efforts and won award for same, ordered live specimens (invertebrates) and specimens (dead) for research and teaching labs, ensured that teaching labs safely disposed of said materials when research or teaching was concluded. Inventory estimated to be upwards of $1 million in stockroom. Time-sensitive dry ice shipments of DNA and proteins. Ordered, stored, sold and reported dry ice for college. Worked closely with USC Environmental Health and Safety Department to ensure that stockroom met all OSHA standards and that employees were properly trained in transport of hazardous chemicals and gases.

I sincerely love my internship work at Carolina. I think one of the reasons I love it is because there is always something new to do. A typical workday always includes monitoring and updating our social media sites i.e. Facebook, Youtube, Twitter, Flickr, Instagram, Spurs Up Blog which is always entertaining and informative to see what fans as well as our online sponsors are responding to and what they want to see more of. Then I either have an interview of a player or need to add a new interview to our website or I design new graphics for social media sites or posters for the Gamecocks. On game-day a typical day involves being at the stadium 3 hours before kick-off and setting up in the press box, after I assist with an auctioned tour of Williams Brice Stadium (usually about 20 fans), then I photograph and shoot the "gamecock walk" where our players are greeted by fans as they parade into the stadium. From there I monitor and update Twitter feeds before and throughout the game. Also during the game, I photograph the crowd and fan photos which I later add to our online photo albums. The hardest part of a game-day is running up and down the numerous stairs and being everywhere at once, luckily I utilize a tablet and can do most of my tweeting between taking fan photos. The most enjoyable part of the job is Monday mornings after a gameday weekend or now that is is baseball season the day after a great game, its amazing to see the reactions we get on our social media sites and how much our work as a team increases others experiences at a sporting event. Also, it is pretty exciting to log on to our social media and see someone has used my design for their Facebook Coverphoto or Twitter background.

Literally, hands-down, and unquestionably the single worst professional experience in my entire life.  In almost twenty years of working, I've never seen anything quite like it.

Worked in USC's Human Resources department for just about three years.  My manager would come in on average two to three hours late most days, then berate the staff for not staying with her at the office until 8 p.m.  There was nothing internally written down about how to do my job: no manuals, no templates, no flowcharts.  Even better, the entire university was (and may still be) switching from a legacy system to a "streamlined" digital system.  Go read Fitsnews to see how well and above-board that transition is going.  There was nothing you could put your hands with this that told you how to actually get anything accomplished other than "call so-and-so, and see if s/he can help you."  At one point, I was informed that I was opening letters incorrectly, because these are the hard-hitting, totally-not-micromanaging decisions that my boss felt compelled to address among her staff.

I eventually got pushed out of my position because office politics dictated that it was my turn to go into the wood chipper.  In the meantime, I had to get treated for a stomach ulcer and chest-pains because the atmosphere there is so unrelentingly toxic that the school should share a phone line with Poison Control.  Also, be aware: upper management is too intimidated to actually talk to the rank-and-file, so any problems you might have won't ever be addressed directly.

If finances dictates and you do end up having to work here, start documenting everything on Day 1.  Upper management will do everything in their power to defend their own, so a thorough paper-trail is the only thing that will save you when, inevitably, things do go sour.

Librarians are not paid fairly across the board. Some librarians are making over 100k while others start off below 40k. This is unacceptable for a job that requires a Master's degree. The minimum salary should be 50k period for any librarian job. And that's even on the low end.  Disappointing and unchanging - I've watched the stagnant compensation for over 15 years and don't think there are big changes coming anytime soon. It took me 12 years just to increase my salary by 5,000. That's unbelievable.  I think the library is under appreciated and needs to be completely rennovated or started with a fresh building as well. Comparative to similar schools USC's T-Coop is the least impressive one I've been to aside from College of Charleston. We have no innovative fun eye-catching makerspaces on the main level. The building architecture is a mess, with most of the levels underground. Workplace depression is common because we don't get any sunlight down here in the dungeon. Too much emphasis on rare books and not enough on student outreach and programs IMO. But we can only improve from here right. First we have to stop the building from leaking everywhere.  This has been a problem since 2014 and I've yet to see a solution- only new leaks.

As a TA and lab assistant a typical work day would involve anything from helping students work on labs that involved circuit design to working on small scale projects for orientation week or EE conventions. Working as a TA came with the responsible of describing circuit design and implementation on a deeper level that the students could understand. This could range from breaking a circuit down to the component level or showing the relationship and understanding from going from a schematic to building a small scale circuit. Working in the labs provided extra time to fully work with various sets of lab equipment including; oscilloscopes, function generators, power supplies, and digital multi-meters. The most enjoyable part of either job was the close relationship between peers and students, getting the chance to reacquaint myself with previous labs and having the chance to teach upcoming sophomores. The EE department at USC is tight community of engineering students and professors and being a part of overall system at work there truly was something I felt honored to be apart of.

Your experience as an employee will depend on the department in which you are employed and what your position is. It's a very large University, so it's hard to make one general statement about the employee experience. I think there are differences in fairness of treatment, salary, opportunities for advancement, depending on the position. Staff have the opportunity for growth or changes and flexibility more so than faculty.  Faculty salaries are expectedly higher than staff salaries. Benefits are okay. The University culture is fine. Lots of events and activities take place within the University, but the responsibilities of my job never have never permitted me to benefit from them. I'm a University employee by name only because I don't really get to enjoy what the University offers to its employees. For example, I have much leave time, but because my work is tied to students, I can only take time off during the student breaks and holidays.

The USC Geography Department is situated in an A+ college and city. You will get a lot out of living in Columbia, but the professional atmosphere in the department may leave one in want. One half of the Profs are a delight to work with, and the other half are looking for a way to undermine your professional advancement. This is likely due to a very strong publish-or-perish atmosphere, as well as the sub-par professional personalities that have been allowed to emerge there in the last 15 years. What was once a top tier program on the cusp of nearly all geographic advancement is now drowning. This is likely due to poor hiring and advancing the bad personalities through to tenure. Now, it seems as though they are clinging to whatever funding they can to keep the program alive, and in doing so the junior faculty and PhD students seem to be thrown under the bus. As a result, the turnover rate is fairly high for both. If you consider working there, please be on guard as you move forward in your interviews.

I love working here. The other staff members do their best to make sure that the student workers are all happy and well taken care of. Everyone is so nice to each other to the point that a family atmosphere is easily attainable. If someone is not happy then the other members notice quickly and try to help. 

The work we get is generally from professors or students looking to make a video for the purpose of promoting a class/club or informing others about a lesson or social topic. This is not to say that the work cannot be time consuming and/or difficult, but it makes it all the more enjoyable.

The most enjoyable part of the job is that when the student or professor gets their finished production and the look of wonder and amazement on their faces. While putting in the work and endlessly wondering and hoping that it turns out alright, the recipient is utterly happy about the entire product.

The main duty of student-athlete academic services personnel is to provide academic resources to student-athletes. The student-athlete academic services worker arranges for academic counseling, mentoring and tutoring, assuring that the student-athlete stays on track academically to remain eligible to play sports and, ultimately, graduate. Other academic duties include running team study sessions and helping student-athletes purchase books and supplies. The academic service coordinator also offers career counseling, including assistance with resume and cover letter writing, job searches, internships and networking. Along with offering academic guidance, the student-athlete academic services coordinator may also provide social mentoring, helping student-athletes adjust to life as a college athlete, which is often a high profile and high pressure role for a young adult.

This review is from a STAFF member, which I have to differentiate since USC does treat their faculty entirely differently. My main complaint with working for USC is how difficult HR is when it comes to allowing raises and promotions for staff. After 2 years of HR denying requests for a raise (with excellent yearly evaluations by my leadership) I've found out the only way to have an increase is to essentially hop jobs in other departments every now and then so that at each new position you can get an increase in wages.... but how is that inspiring loyalty to any one department? 

Over all I love my work and my work/life balance is very good, but the pay is just not competitive by any definition of the word. If I could afford to wait for Governor McMaster to increase state wages every blue moon I would stay in my department until retirement.  

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Graduate researcher 5 salaries reported	$30,200 per year
Research assistant 3 salaries reported	$14.00 per hour
Graduate assistant 4 salaries reported	$16.25 per hour
Assistant professor 9 salaries reported	$155,944 per year
Postdoctoral fellow 4 salaries reported	$59,500 per year

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