research assistant

postdoctoral research associate

clinical research coordinator

senior research technician

graduate researcher

Washington University in St. Louis

The good: Pay is good, if not great, nothing to write home about, but you'll be making okay money. Benefits are top-notch. Healthcare and retirement plans are, no question, the best you can get. You are able to access health and medical services you may not have even been able to consider before. Most of the people on the same level as you are really great people, and they're good to work with.  The café area is always stocked with free snacks and drinks, and a coffee maker and water dispenser. No charge for any of that. 

The bad: Administration is like Big Brother watching from afar. Most of the buildings and parking lots are camera-monitored. You can get in trouble just for stepping out to get something from your car. Meeting with tenants or viewing properties can get near impossible, because they always seem to assume you're actually doing something else to get out of work. If you don't have physical or digital proof you actually went somewhere or met someone on work-related business, they'll never trust you again. A word of advice- never delete anything, you never know when you'll get asked for it later.

I ended up working through my meals, coming in early, and staying late, just to try to finish projects. You have to have absolutely perfect, flawless time management to balance completing your actual assigned duties on one hand, and compiling your work logs and documentation for the admins on the other. Sick leave hours get denied frequently, even for doctor appointments, and even if they get approved, they'll still be held against you later. 

Remote work is promised when you start, but you're actually expected to work in-office full-time. You can occasionally work remote for short periods, but they always want you back in the office because no matter how much you're getting done remotely, they always think you're not actually doing any work. 

A lot of the biggest projects never even functionally start because of the disconnect between different parts of the administration team. Tenant growth stalled because construction and renovation projects are always on an indefinite hold, because there's so much lack of contact and back-and-forth among admins, and the different department admins never seemed interested in meshing well together towards goals. Lower employees are always the ones put in the hot seat, even when you aren't getting anything from administration that you need to complete your part of any given project, or if your contribution to a project is very small, and you've already completed it anyway. The department struggles to achieve goals, but the administration never wants to look at themselves. 

There's no real chance of career growth, so you'll just stay in the position you're hired in if you stay with the employer.

It is a great brand to outsiders on a resume. The 403(b), the higher education version of a 401{k), matching was recently changed to 7% if you contribute at least 5%. Vesting time is 2 years. If you work here 7 years your kids can get a free undergrad, but they have to pass admissions (they still give preference to non-whites) and the coursework itself. Few employers prefer a private school education anymore (unless you have more debt) so there is that. The liberal agenda is strong here, so if you cannot drink the cool-aid keep your mouth shut. They will let a lot of positions work from home and even work from phone which means you can be anywhere as long as you verbally attend meetings. If you are an individual contributor that has a measurable product you may not like how so many work from phone/anywhere and do not have a measurable product outside of meeting attendance.  Cameras are not often expected to be turned on.  They are pretty flexible about customizing your company computer if you are a techie, just use common sense. If you accidentally install malware it will be tracked to you. The bad is you must pay 1% St. Louis city tax even if you are not on campus. There are some times when you need to work on campus and parking is scarce. If you do find a space it will cost more than $10 a day as an employee. I have heard WUSTL will assist in some way with a mortgage only if you want to live near campus. They seem to want to improve some areas when they really need more parking. Pay is about the same as my last company. No periodic bonus was offered to me which is unique for my job. Health benefits are medium. Time off is typical, but you cannot often get more than a day or two at a time and it is use or lose. A big adjustment for new hires here is they pay once a month. Politics is at least as intense here as any large corporation so watch your back very closely.

Initially I was thrilled and excited for the opportunity. WUSTL has a reputation of being a prestigious work place with generous benefits and encourages promotion. Don't believe it. It's hype. Never have I experienced such micro-management. I was trained by people who had never trained before. I was given ridiculously long step by step instructions, only to fail due to several steps being omitted from the instructions. When I took meticulous notes and followed them to a T, I was questioned about it, then told it was wrong. What?!  Multiple co-workers said it would take at least a year to feel comfortable and confident in knowing how to do my job. I spent hours and hours at training sessions doing everything I could to absorb every aspect of the environment, whether it related to my job or not. They often spoke of how everyone is important and really encouraged everyone to find their niche. They encouraged networking and offered "informational interviews" to learn about other jobs. I was in the process of setting one up because I knew this place was not for me! Apparently someone caught wind. Four months in they gave me an ultimatum of "resigning" or being terminated. For an educational institution that encourages learning and finding your fit, this was a far cry. I have never experienced such a stressful, frustrating, isolating, discouraging workplace in my whole life. I felt like I was being gas lighted on another planet. Very strange and unsettling place. Glad to be gone. (And I haven't even touched on the improper student application process. That's another story.)

● Work-life balance
Work life balance is poor. You work during business hours and only get one break during your shift. You are off during the weekends though.

● Pay & benefits
Low pay and just ok benefits.

● Job security and advancement
Advancement is given after nine months if management likes you.

● Management
Management rarely advocates for you. Management leads with the mentality "My way or the highway". Management will throw you under the bus whenever it benefits the individual supervisor/manager.

● Culture
The particular department I worked for did not offer remote work during this pandemic. If you were not management or in the clinic, it seemed your health was not important. From the beginning everything I was told the position was it was not. I was told of all the perks and freedom by administration. However I was not told that administration was changing the environment to a more rigid one.
I believe if you get in the right department with management who respects and cares for the employees, WashU would be a great place to work. For me personally it was a bad experience and if I could go back to offer day I would not have taken the job.

● Overall
Working on the phone team was a very stressful job. If your attitude is not how management believes it should be you will be reprimanded. If you do not conform to the culture understand management has placed you on the "chopping block". The work day consists of micro management, one 30 min lunch break and being spoken to with little respect either through emails or via telephone. I personally do not recommend working in this area of the department.

A considerable amount of experiences at public talks and conventions as well in the workplace have shown me considerable number of examples of how toxic faculty can be to each other and their staff. Considerable change needs to be made in the manner Human Resources investigates workplace verbal abuse and gas lighting. The faculty operates in research and education in a manner that is narcissistic and its a culture that academics and students reflect in their views and beliefs. Inclusiveness is key tenet by Wash U, but should not be confused as a need to be a "savior" to others, and supersede the personal faculties an individual has to engage the workplace with productive and positive impact, as well in how someone can aid and give intelligence to the department and local lab or office. 

Additional...
There are cases of furloughed employees asked to work during this period. Which is a moral hazard for the institute and lab manager. Lab PI or lab mangers do not know legal facts on Fair Labor Laws, or Human Resource policy, leading to over worked(outside of clockin or clock out) then underpaid employees. Which is illegal, but the manner of investigating this is anemic and non-existent. At times the employee is blamed for this incorrect pay via Time-sheet error, and is said to be sure to follow policy, and is never Back-Paid.

Due to poor planning by management, members of my department were moved around to several other IT departments on an as needed (by the university) baisis, being required to learn different jobs and tasks quickly and not being able to do the job we were hired to do. This was due to poor planning by managemnt in finding a location on campus for us to work. Training for those new tasks these new departments was minimal and poor management was encountered often. One temporary direct manager worked off-site about 85% of the time I was there.
Two department heads in management thought it was OK to install a hidden camera (within a fake USB charger) to monitor employees over several days, recording both video and sound. One department head claimed it was hers, but one video clip showed a junior employee unplugging it. 
The employee that found the hidden camera was likely fired in an effort to prevent them from reporting the hidden camera to HR. 
Despite employee claims of taking sick days off for medical issues and explaining what was causing them, an employee was grilled on why those days were being requested off, when the employee still had two weeks of sick days left to use.
Parking was atrotious and had to be paid for by employees. Management gave little to no assistance with locating parking while being moved from one department to another for months. 





Pay is mediocre at best when you factor in the various roles one is expected to do.  Long hours, overworked, stressful, lack of employee appreciation, expect employee loyalty but employees are not shown the same loyalty. Tuition benefit is a constant reminder from management to support where pay is lacking.  The more money a patient has the better the treatment.  They claim they are focused in diversity, work-life balance, advancement opportunities for employees when they aren't.   The only way to advance is willingness to throw coworkers under the bus and having a brown nose with management.   Management could use classes to learn managerial skills.  Micromanagement was the worst I ever saw in my employment of 20yrs.  I gave the overall rating 3 stars because I did enjoy part of my time while on staff-- it wasn't always like it is now.  Be prepared to work long hours and feeling like your job comes before family, and to love the color brown if you want to advance.  Also raises are ate up every year because parking and/or health insurance premiums go up --one year both went up.  Flexibility and remote work were also constantly threatened to be taken from staff even though some staff didn't abuse the privilege.  Some staff the rules didn't apply and were able to pretty much do as they please.  

Too many red flags I ignored from the beginning. I had an offer made to me, accepted, only to have HR rescind it and offer me a lower hourly rate instead of original salary. They said that since some of my jobs I had while I was student did not count towards my experience even though I was being paid. These were real jobs I had while I was in school that paid me a salary. I accepted anyway since I wanted to get my foot in the door and they promised advancement. On my first day my team forgot I was coming and I had to figure out for myself what exactly I would be doing. Nobody communicated to one another, impressively even with weekly team meetings. After I was hired, the person above me quit unexpectedly, and I was told I had to take over their duties, for no extra pay and more hours/work. I told my boss we needed to hire more people but that never happened. I burned out really quickly with no help or guidance and for mediocre pay. The worst part was that everyone had constant office happy hours and parties to create this facade of community but would then shame me when I couldn’t make it since I was stressed and overworked and just wanted to go home and sleep.  I’m sure it was just my department as other friends of mine work here and are satisfied but I will never work here again. I resigned and couldn’t even make it one year. Sad because the role had so much potential. 

Although this was my dream position, I was bullied from one of my first days. Another research assistant was outright mean every singe day, withheld information from me so that I could not train properly or quickly. A separate research assistant made it known to the manager (who was often busy, in her locked office), that this bullying was going on. It became a joke, and nothing changed. Eventually I was told that I was not learning quickly enough and then given a different position in the office that I was not interested in, but took to maintain my pay and benefits. After about a month in that role, I was given my performance review and was told that I was doing a great job with my duties, but that I was awkward with the other research assistants. I am not an awkward person and have never had a problem with coworkers in the past. Instead of dealing with the person that was knowingly bullied, my supervisor blamed me. A week after my good review, I was let go for something that I did not do with no mention of "awkwardness." 

Washington University is prestigious. They exude excellence. Benefits do not get much better than what they offer. 

In my personal experience though, I was ready to work as a part of a team and was treated as an incompetent competitor.

The atmosphere and benefits are pretty decent, but the pay is increasingly below competition. Hiring managers always try to sell prospective hires on the benefits alone, but they fail to realize that more and more companies are offering similar benefits WITH better pay. Unfortunately, benefits alone cannot pay rent/mortgage nor support a family. The wage increases have not kept up with inflation and employees are thus making less each year. I hear hiring managers consistently complain about the difficulty in finding and keeping talent, and I firmly believe this is why. While I like my job and want to continue working in research, it is simply approaching unsustainable for me. Not to mention the fact that staff are required to pay absurd parking fees in order to park in a secure location. Tons of employees are forced to park on side streets and walk long distances because they cannot afford $100/mo parking fees. I've known several who have been mugged, had their vehicles broken into, and/or been in a scary situation because of this. The powers that be need to wake up and realize that they are quickly desteoying their reputation as a good employer in the region by failing to value their employees security, both physically and financially. 

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Research assistant 15 salaries reported	$18.88 per hour
Postdoctoral research associate 17 salaries reported	$63,206 per year
Clinical research coordinator 23 salaries reported	$60,089 per year
Senior research technician 11 salaries reported	$21.56 per hour
Graduate researcher 4 salaries reported	$37,425 per year

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