educator

graduate researcher

school program staff

research assistant

postdoctoral associate

Weill Cornell Medicine

There are no typical work days in a news room. Work was dependent upon the academic calendar, routine assignments and any special publications that required attention. 
There is not enough space here to tell you what I learned working for a major Ivy League research university. I learned that even the smartest people on earth are human and have their foibles. Management was extremely generous in allowing me to work creatively within the structure of an essentially conservative framework. Added levels of middle management, a trend in all higher education institutions, create a lot of confusion at times. There were too many meetings about meetings. 
My co-workers are good friends to this day and I am close friends with several of them. 
The hardest part of job was never feeling that we could get the job done to everyone's satisfaction. 
The joys of the job included having a dog on the premises year round; a colleague was a dog socializer and these animals went on to help the blind. Other joys: Being able to get up from my desk, sign-out and walk across the street for a cup of coffee without anyone asking me what I was doing. In an open news space, there is a lot of palaver and it was always fun to stop by a co-worker's cubicle, unannounced, and ask questions or simply to chat, briefly. There were many freedoms in that position and, having gone solo, I miss the social aspect of work. I very much miss having a staff computer tech who was of endless good will.

Cornell served as my first work experience after earning my master's degree. I was thankful to have such a supportive supervisor in this temporary position. In terms of professional growth, I had the opportunity to lead a learning tour to meet with Florida high school students in multiple info sessions to share more about the School's offerings. As a positive, the work-life balance was certainly encouraged, which was surprising for such a large institution. 

In my role, I served as an academic advisor to first-year students which was relatable as someone who had recently graduated. I enjoyed learning about their passions and interests, as well as encouraging them to take courses based on their desired path.  I would consider these sessions to be the most enjoyable part of the job. It also served as the most challenging aspect of the job as some of my sessions with students involved discussions beyond academics, where some students struggled with internal and external pressures.  I served to provide safe counsel and referrals to appropriate campus services when needed. 

What I learned in this job was that this campus housed some of the brightest, gifted minds that I have had the privilege to work with, and I was left inspired by the infinite potential that they had to offer the world.

I work for a male professor who routinely finds it necessary to manually adjust his crotch area when talking to me. Once he even unzipped his pants to do it. He has even done this in staff meetings when women were present. The pay is well below average (around the 25th percentile) but we are expected to work a minimum of 50 hours/week. The professor treats his staff with no respect. He has called an impromptu meeting that lasted until almost 6:00 and several impromptu meetings that lasted 2 hours or more and ran through the entire lunch hour. We are required to cc him on every email that we send, even to each other. Even though we have to write daily work summaries and he generally talks to everyone every day and then have to report on our work at weekly staff meetings, he claims that he needs to read all of our emails so that he can see if we are doing any work! He pressures the grad students into taking the minimum number of classes so that they can spend more time working for him. We never discuss what we should do or how we should do it or how long tasks should take; he arbitrarily decrees EVERYTHING. He'll spend an entire evening working on something but tells everyone that he did it in 40 minutes. Then he will expect us to perform similar tasks in 40 minutes!

Cornell Dining is not run like any other food service operation.  The words: good food, food cost, and customer service do not apply and are never mentioned.  Instead endless talks about name tags, buttoning shirts to top, and cosmetic things are the priority.  Workers are encouraged to leave lines of people in order to talk with a supervisor, or restock.  No one is ever trained (it sounds like an exaggeration but it is not).  People have to prove their food experience, only to never be given any chance to be creative or have any input whatsoever. Regardless of experience.  People are commonly treated like they are a dime a dozen.  I'm sure you have met others from Cornell with similar stories.  
I've met many good people, and took it upon myself to become a union steward to help protect good people who are not great at protecting themselves but the union officers are paid by Cornell and most union workers are imtimidated into submission.  
Frequent layoffs are met with an inability to aquire unemployment insurance, and such limited openings that getting a temporary job is quite often impossible. 
I like working with food and I'm good at it... when things are going smoothly working at Cornell is tolerable.

I have worked there for 2 years and the pay and benefits are really good (unlikely to find better in Ithaca). But my boss is incredibly difficult to work for and will change job expectations on a whim without telling you. He also has a very different mgmt style than I do. He uses criticism, and NEVER shows any appreciation or kind comments. I am a supervisor of approx 15 students and my mgmt style is being kind and letting them know when they do well and gently correcting when they need it. I asked my mgr if he could work on giving me feedback about when I do well instead of only negative feedback and he said "that's not my job". So if I had a different boss this would be an entirely different review. If you are lucky enough to get a decent boss then Cornell is a great place to work with excellent benefits. But there are a lot of bosses who are very.....difficult.

Show up, do a great job, and there are plenty of opportunities for advancement across the university. Excellent benefits- including paid time off for wellness and for taking classes at the university (at no cost).  Excellent medical, dental, tuition, STD/LTD, Life insurance(s). 
Standard work week is 39 hours, typical schedule is 8am-4:30pm, with lunch break. Though schedules are flexible depending on your department and operating hours. Moving up within your department might be harder as  most people choose to stay where they for a very long time (because they love their job), so you may need to move to a new position in a different dept or college to move up, or wait for someone 'above you' to move to a new position or retire.  Depending on your job- You will need to learn several software systems and want to be motivated to improve yourself and your skills.  You also can complete any eCornell certificate program for a flat $100. (Likely can get this reimbursed through your departments continuing education fund.)

As a graduate student in plant sciences, the opportunities for research are excellent.  The pay is pretty poor, and does not increase in line with inflation, but is still superior to most other agricultural universities.  As a fifth year I am effectively making less pay than during my first year, even though I have much more experience and am more productive. In my department, there is a lot of focus on a few specific crops and systems, so if you don't work on those you are kind of left out as far as collaboration and support. For those seeking careers in industry, there are very few networking opportunities with relevant employers, and the university even discourages collaboration with some of the largest ag companies. The university is also not very accepting of differing ideologies and frequently informs employees of what they are to think in regards to critical issues, if you disagree you are made to feel unwelcome. 

What is the best part of working at the company?
I was getting to learn a trade

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
Being the only person of color

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
They cannot stand black people and it shows. They kept making up excuses to get rid of me. From complaining about how far I had to drive, which I always made it on time; my work shoes which I always had but because I drove an hour to get to work at 4 am I always wore crocs to drive and then switched to the boots at work. This was an issue for them. And them saying that someone saw me on my phone apparently which wasn't true. My trainers and other co-workers were always on their phone and none of them got reprimanded. I don't even remember being on my phone unless it was to get food that I had ordered which was during lunch time. The company doesn't know how to embrace people of color and the sad part is, I was in a union and the union couldn't even protect me or fight for me. 

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
Go into work and followed my trainers around who would leave all the work to me.

Responsible for the development, writing, and coordination of grant projects, manuscripts, and clinical trials studies for the Institute of Bladder and Prostate Health in the Department of Urol- ogy.
• Prepare and assist in the writing of IRB protocols, IND for FDA, Grants, and manuscripts (re)submissions.
• Drafted and reviewed budgets and financial statement compilations before being approved by sponsors and the financial departments.
• Responsible for patient care and recruitment activities: obtain general medical information on potentials participants in NIH and industry sponsored studies, and records statistics as re- quired.
• Prepare data collections reports and track participant’s for follow up assessments.
• Compile research data. Record study relevant information utilizing Epic and Eclipsys. Data en-
try using statistical software and SaS for analysis. Maintain files of consent forms and patients
prescriptions.
• Participated in the writing of and educational books on the herbs and alternatives techniques
for urologic problems.

What is the best part of working at the company?
The pay was great! I just wish they had better benefits.

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
Depending on who you work for, department, you might get someone controlling or someone who will allow you to have autonomy. If you have autonomy and you are a workaholic like me, you will thrive. But if someone is always over your shoulder you may have trouble. Also, they are not as diverse as they try to appear. This was my biggest concern.  

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
It was a very toxic environment. If you are a woman with caregiving responsibilities, they tend to distance themselves from you and may not consider you for hiring. They would rather remove you from your position than support your needs. I have seen them push people out of their positions after having babies. It was not what I expected but experienced. 

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
It was very busy. Sometimes lunch was not an options.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Educator 77 salaries reported	$22.96 per hour
Graduate researcher 14 salaries reported	$43,728 per year
School program staff 33 salaries reported	$20.88 per hour
Research assistant 9 salaries reported	$20.00 per hour
Postdoctoral associate 13 salaries reported	$67,611 per year

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