research assistant

graduate researcher

student worker

teaching assistant

graduate assistant

University of Southern California

USC is a highly prestigious university to be associated with.  Many of the people I was around during my time there were pleasant, likeable, and helpful.  However, they all were not so delightful.

I moved across the country to take a job with USC in August of 2011.  I was asked to commit to 2 years in the department up front.  I was promised full time hours.  At first, I was promised 40 hours per week, but once I started working, full time turned into 37.5 hours per week.  That's a large chunk of change when you think long term.

After working for about 10 months, my supervisor suddenly began to have complaints about my work.  It was as though it came out of nowhere.  I went from receiving lots of praise and positive reinforcement to receiving only negative feedback.  Then, on July 1st, 2012, I was told that I had to start working part time hours (18.75 per week) due to budget issues.  This was after I was guaranteed full time hours before moving across the country.  My supervisor never filed the proper paperwork with HR to move me to half time because they didn't like to play by the university's rules.

Then, toward the end of 2012, I was told that my job would be posted for advertisement online and that as soon as a replacement was found, I would be let go.  My supervisor even had the nerve to say I could stay on and help train my replacement.  This was the last straw for me.  I took this information and evidence I could gather through emails, etc. to the Human Resources office.

The people in HR acted very concerned about what was going on.  They told me they were glad I had approached them, and what my supervisor was doing was not right.  They even went as far as to say that my supervisor seemed to have problems following the rules in other situations.  They immediately called and told my supervisor that they had no grounds to get rid of me based on my performance.  I was told that they were going to investigate the situation, and that they would look to transfer me to a different position in the university where I would carry over the same salary and hours (which, in the university system was still full time).  At this point, I went on medical leave for 3 weeks on the advice of my physician.  I had undergone so much undue stress from my supervisor that my blood pressure was in the high range.  Doctor even tried to offer me anti-anxiety meds, but I know enough about them to refuse that sort of treatment.

Upon returning, after nothing happened for weeks and I continued to work in an EXTREMELY hostile work environment, I tried to get in touch with people in HR to find out what was happening.  The situation continued to get worse with my supervisor to the point where she wouldn't even communicate with me.

Then, out of the blue, my supervisor asks if I could meet one afternoon.  I go into the conference room to find my supervisor sitting next to the HR representative that had appeared ready to lay down everything to make things right for me only weeks before.  The HR rep proceeded to tell me that I was being laid off, and that my position was being eliminated.  I received a month's pay followed by a month of severance (which was better than what I was going to get before), but here we are in May, 3 months after being laid off, and I still don't have a job.

Basically, the HR department here looks out for the supervisors and ignores terrible things that are happening to regular employees.  I watched myself get laid off for budget cuts while my supervisor went to conferences every single month and spend thousands on 5-star hotels, flights, meals, etc. out of the same budget my salary came from.  Something isn't right there.  And I had to process the receipts!  On several instances, my supervisor flew across country to "work with a colleage" and spend upwards of $500 per night on hotel rooms and ate dinner at places where the bill was over $300 for no more than 3 people.  I still have the electronic versions of the receipts to prove it, actually.

Something is wrong here, and it certainly wasn't my performance.

It’s goal is to assist first generations college bound students from economically disadvantaged families to prepare for and succeed in a post-secondary educational program. I learned too be patient, have empathy and leadership skills.  Provide assistance with registration and course scheduling, participate in recruitment events on and off campus, provide leadership in organizing, implementing, and evaluating students’ academic progress,student advising; evaluation of transfer credit, review of admissions petitions, issuance of status reports, clearing of seniors for graduation and other student services, coordinate college fairs and organize outreach programs for students and parents, assistance in selecting a major or school of interest, develop programs designed to increase student’s participation in college services, maintains direct contact with students providing academic, personal, and career advising, coordinate off-campus advising services, including developing programs to assist underrepresented students, ensures that all students integrate career and/or life ambitions with knowledge and skills acquired from experiences both in and out of the classroom, responsible for two million dollar departmental budget; researching census data, organized and prepared grant proposal for USC-Upward Bound program.

My co-workers are great we all work together and make sure the our students receive the same opportunities as everyone else. Tutoring, Saturday classes and after school events, we all participated together for the student success.

The hardest part of the job is having to watch a student choose the wrong road. Seeing their failing grades.  No one really cares, but me and the staff. Sometimes there is nothing we can do, but we try with mentoring, social, cultural and recreational experiences.

The most enjoyable part of the job, was watch them over come adversary and finish the university's program. Then they would come to my office and ask for a letter of recommendation, and enroll in a college of their choice. Just watching them succeed and helping the community is a very rewarding experience.

As the title suggests, USC only wants the best professionals to join their ranks. The work culture is great as you'll have plenty of opportunities to meet various professionals from disciplines of work that I originally never considered could exist. Being in the vicinity of so many talented and passionate individuals led to an incredible amount of work opportunities, so as long as you are approachable and passionate about your work, you will be noticed in USC.

However, the pay isn't great for anyone involved in the transportation department. Although the workload is significantly easier than other agencies in the area, you will often be asked to work ridiculous hours of overtime. Overtime is always voluntary, but the low pay makes it almost compulsory to pick up whatever hours are available.

The busses provided by USC are in horrendous mechanical condition, so get used to limping through Los Angeles traffic with a literal half-broken bus: broken lights, unusable mirrors, electrical issues, no AC, wonky steering, and clogged DEF systems.

The laxed bus schedule will make dealing with these mechanic issues manageable, but tolerating these problems day in and day out can very easily eat away at one's sanity. From what I understand, corporate management chooses to hold off on addressing these issues until the leases on their busses expire, so again, you'll have to get used to operating commercial vehicles undergoing constant decay.

The passengers are pleasant, sometimes a tad clueless (especially the younger students), but the other operators are a great team to work with. It's a small department, so you'll get acquainted fast on who's there to work and be team players. The transportation department is a tight knit group and does not tolerate in-house drama, so don't expect to be employed here for long if you're inclined to be unfriendly.

Overall, my experience working for USC was positive, with great coworkers, supervisors, and management. A lot of the issues I've outlined are somewhat out of bounds for the immediate managers to address, but you too will grow frustrated with a lot of the department's shortcomings and wished something could be done about it.

My best advice for anyone joining the team is to smile warmly and be happy to be here; it'll greatly affect your work experience here. 

The work itself was meaningful, I enjoyed partnering with clients across the university, and I worked with many talented colleagues. Unfortunately, the experience was ultimately defined by leadership failures rather than the work.

Over the past year, the department experienced significant turnover, including the loss of experienced leaders and team members. Rather than addressing the underlying issues, remaining employees were expected to absorb increasing workloads while operating with fewer resources. The result was burnout, declining morale, and an environment where simply keeping up became the expectation.

Communication from leadership was one of the biggest disappointments. Difficult conversations were often avoided, transparency was lacking, and decisions frequently felt reactive instead of thoughtful. Employees were expected to navigate constant uncertainty with little guidance or support. Accountability also seemed inconsistent, leaving many employees questioning whether concerns were being addressed fairly.

As someone who worked in central HR, I understand that organizational change is inevitable and difficult decisions must sometimes be made. What disappointed me wasn't the change itself, it was how people were treated throughout it. Respect, transparency, and professional communication should never be optional.

USC has incredible employees who genuinely care about the institution and its mission. My hope is that the university invests as much in developing effective, accountable leaders as it does in attracting talented staff. Doing so would go a long way toward improving the employee experience.

I don't regret the work I accomplished or the relationships I built, but I do regret the leadership environment that ultimately led me to leave.

What is the best part of working at the company?
The atmosphere we work in the company. We keep the partnership the conversation every morning in meetings. As a group, we work as a team. We are looked at it as one. We take care of the job as one teammate partnership. Understand me, communication.

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
I find it hard to find anything that would be stressful about the company I am working for now. The university of southern California.
Has a fine atmosphere in its workplace? If there were anything I had to suggest, improvement would be a bigger work truck to put more material. For use of the job and more tools for use of the job at hand

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
Working in the plumbing crew at the university of southern California. We have plumbers from all areas we have experienced plumbers, good plumbers, and not soul experienced plumbers. We all work together, we share our workload, we share our thoughts in completing the job we all participate. And share our work habits together and learn from one another. We all accept every individual has its own way of working, his own style of working. We have to understand and accept, we are all different. We have found ways to work with each other and grafts, the knowledge From all within

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
I go to work. I take care of my jobs at hand complete them. Write out an invoice and explain the next morning if there needs to be a return call. If there is any issues with the call that I'm at and we can explain what is there? If any issues when jobs are complete, we let them know in the morning meeting we walk away and everything is complete and done ready to start a new day

During the 7 years I worked at USC my health deteriorated due to stress related issues, benefits were gradually eroded by senior administrators, and they somehow convinced the rank and file staff that they should feel privileged to work for the so called Trojan Family.

While I worked at USC s a middle manager:
- Lived in a small apartment that I barely qualified for in terms of income
- Drove a 13 year old car with a shaky engine and couldn't afford a new one. I had to pay for the privilege to park at USC too.
- Zero communication or respect from VP level.  Worked more than ever and they thanked us with pay freezes and layoffs.

I then left USC to work for a public utility.  Here's what happened (has been 5 years so far):
- after several years fulfilling clearly defined performance criteria, more than DOUBLED my USC salary in real terms
- moved out of my 1 bedroom apartment and bought a newly built house in a great location close to work
- bought a new SUV to transport my baby daughter safely, paid that off, then bought a brand new Tesla as a commuter car.  
- I have a defined benefit pension, and my financial advisor said that I can retire confidently 7 years earlier (and with double the retirement income) than I would have had I stayed at USC.

my advice:
- only take a USC staff job (faculty are treated better and paid accordingly) if this is your best or only option.
- always look to apply for other companies even while working at USC
- If your boss is unreasonable, don't be afraid to push back.  The economy is doing well so USC can't backfill your position that easily with their scant pay should you decide to walk away.
- whenever year end raises come around, don't buy into the notion that USC can't afford to give more.  They can, and they've been fooling staff into believing otherwise for years.

I personally scheduled my office hour before the discussion session so that if the students have questions about previously learnt material, we can have the chance to discuss one-to one before jumping into new material. During the discussion session on Tuesday, I would quickly go over the theoretical concepts taught in the lecture by the in structor, following by a sequence of explanation of example problems to demonstrate application and enhance students' understanding of the abstract theory. During the process, I would be checking if the students are following or having problems with any materials from time to time.  Thursday discussion sessions is divided into two parts. The first 20 minutes would be devoted to answering questions that the students still have after Tuesday's discussion. During the rest of the class, students would be taking a quiz designed to testify their understanding of the week's material.

what I learned from the teaching experience with undergraduate students is that people with different background requires different techniques while introducing them to new concepts and ideas. Being a teaching assistant requires me to look at the material I am familiar with from the aspect of someone that sees it for the first time and utilize different tools to help students accept and understand the seemingly abstract and difficult concepts and definition of math before having any negative attitude toward it. And this is also the hardest part of the job.

The most enjoyable part of the job is to see the students excel, especially improve in exams following the techniques  and tricks that I presented in class, which shows that they did follow in class and absorbed what I taught.

University supports career growth of independent tenured faculties and physicians.Great place for those with independent labs to contribute to new discoveries and  further advance to reach top positions.University provides good benefits and very supportive.

For non tenure PhD scientists, career progress depends 100% on their PI.  If  the PI is a mentor with leadership qualities, he would support the career growth of next generation of scientists by supporting innovative ideas, project development, publications, grants and help you to reach independence.

If the PI is just a  boss, he would prefer to have workers who just execute the tasks dictated with no questions about the master plan. Ambitious individual wanting career progress would be politically suppressed from advancing further and contributing to discovery through creative ideas.

Unfortunately, unlike few highly ranked Universities at USC, there is no assessment of career growth for non tenure faculties in terms of project presentations, primary and senior author publications or grant submission.  Extremely regretful that a great number of experienced researchers compromise creativity and scientific aspiration for the sake of job security. Along with lost opportunities, many discoveries are also lost. 

Most Universities do not care for non tenure research faculties and have no assessment of PI's ability as a leader to help career growth  of those working for them.This is the major problem to be addressed by the country to save new scientific discoveries.

During my time as a Master's student at the USC School of Pharmacy, I worked as a lab research assistant across two distinct research settings from 2021-2022. Initially, I was placed in a microbiology lab at the USC Pharmaceutical Science Center, where I was deeply engaged in academic research with a collaborative team environment. This setting was intellectually stimulating and allowed me to develop a solid foundation in microbiological techniques while contributing to meaningful research alongside fellow researchers.

Later, I transitioned to an electrophysiology lab due to staffing needs. While this lab offered more advanced and specialized research opportunities, particularly in delicate and high-precision techniques, the environment was quieter and more solitary. Despite the shift, I remained committed and adaptable—staying productive during downtime through tasks like cleaning, organizing supplies, and managing lab inventory. Although the electrophysiology methods were conceptually straightforward, mastering the techniques required patience and precision due to their fragility.

Overall, the experience across both labs enhanced my technical skills, adaptability, and appreciation for collaborative research environments. I particularly enjoyed the microbiology lab for its interactive and educational atmosphere, which reaffirmed my passion for learning and working within a team-based scientific setting.



Working at USC is a fantastic experience for anyone trying to develop skills and networks in a variety of research-heavy fields. They offer the ability to take courses for credit, which can help towards either official degree programs or make you more competitive for post-secondary education. The mentorship is great (as expected from supervisors whose job it is to teach and mentor) and the colleagues are some of the brightest in the field. The campus itself is beautiful and safe, although it is located in a rough neighborhood, so living close to work can be problematic. Food options around campus are limited, as is parking, but these are small inconveniences. While you can certainly make an entire career at USC, it is probably most beneficial for those with ambitions to quickly build skills and relationships and then take those new skills to either higher paying jobs or continue with your education 

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Research assistant 15 salaries reported	$42,800 per year
Graduate researcher 6 salaries reported	$39,465 per year
Student worker 23 salaries reported	$18.43 per hour
Teaching assistant 10 salaries reported	$19.90 per hour
Graduate assistant 4 salaries reported	$20.75 per hour

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