Challenging, Friendly and Rewarding Work Environment
A typical work week is about 20-26 hours while taking 18 credits. It is rare to have a typical day because you never know how many students will attend the tutoring sessions each day. The job can be difficult when you have to tutor three students in three different subject areas in one session. The most beneficial aspect of tutoring for me is the ripple effect. When imparting knowledge, I find that the subject matter reinforces itself in my mind, and I, in turn become increasingly more comfortable with the subject. When I tutor someone, I imagine I am explaining it to a younger version of myself, and provide helpful hints, which I wish I would've known earlier. I've found that some of my students actually form study groups and pass on their new ways of thinking about a particular topic, and the other students also weigh in, and this just continues. The novel ways of thinking about tried subjects never ceases to surprise me. My supervisor and administrators are incredible examples of selfless, empathetic and hardworking people.They set the tone of the learning center making it a valuable asset to any student trying to better themselves. My co-workers are friendly and energetic which strengthens the learning environment. The most difficult part of the job is making sure you don't develop a codependent relationship with a struggling student. We want them to succeed by becoming a better student which involves working through their weak points. This requires a student to make an h
ProsThe director of education and the administrators were extremely accommodating and helpful.
ConsHave to tutor up to 3 students individually in multiple subject areas.
Great career for first 15+ years - New "Agenda" ruined last 5+
All depends on the department in which you work. I've worked in several departments and met fine, extremely intelligent, dedicated, thoughtful, and caring individuals over my 20+ years at Rutgers. I've also met some of the most lazy, uncaring, angry, and egocentric people.
Initially (15+ years) it was a great place to work. Excellent benefits, work-life balance was awesome, people were helpful, and excited to work there. I met some of the most incredible people doing some really great work.
Over the last 7 or 8 years Rutgers became top-heavy, too many VPs with little contact with the working professionals. Many times over the years you'd receive several weekly emails, one email that read, "Although we're under a hiring freeze with no salary increases this year, keep up the Rutgers quality of work!", and the very next email from the President would read, "Lets welcome the New Dean of...", or, "...the New VP of...". Management seemed clueless about what resources employees needed and required in order to do their jobs efficiently and effectively. Many tasks simply became automated with new tech and applications and were quickly and often passed down the ladder too the working professionals with little to no warning.
Flash forward to present day under Rutgers' new "agenda" where acquired skills, knowledge, and dedication do not matter and you're no longer valued if you don't have the correct title or fit the right mold of person for this day & age. The average employe
ProsGood benefits for full-time employees
ConsNew agenda and leadership are killing what was once a great & enthusiastic work environment
Rutgers University was established in 1766 making it the sole university in the United States that is a colonial-era college, a Land Grant institution, a public research university, and a member of NCAA Division I athletics program. This low cost, tier-two, public university has a total enrollment exceeding 41,500 students. Rutgers’ main campus, sitting astride the Raritan River in New Brunswick, hosts over 30,000 undergraduate/graduate students and is comprised of five sub-campuses. The university has 14 distinct schools and colleges, and over 175 centers and institutes, and offers more than 120 undergraduate majors and 160 plus graduate degree programs. The college is ranked among the top public universities by U.S. News and World Report. The university accepts students from all 50 states and 115 plus countries. 87% of the student population is New Jersey residents. Gender breakdown equates to 49.5% male and 51.5% are female. Entrance into this school is moderately difficult with the overall acceptance rate being 56% (transfer students were accepted at a rate of 42%). More than 40 % of the entering freshman class ranked in the top ten percent of their high school graduating class, and possessed an average high school GPA of 3.6, with an average SAT score of 1837 - more than 300 points above the New Jersey (1511) and national (1498) mean scores. At the May 2014 commencement, over 9700 students graduated from Rutgers’ flagship campus in New Brunswick. In 2016, Rutgers Univ
S&L has made a lot of improvements embracing new ideas from all levels and fostering improved company culture. The work can be highly demanding at times, and for extended periods depending on your project assignment/team and your value as a performer. There is a large knowledge base of senior engineers and managers to lean on, and SMEs in various disciplines for technical support. Management is supportive (in my experience) and wants to retain talent; they do their best to keep employees interested in the work and still get projects done. Experience with particular clients, systems, or projects can pigeon hole individuals in one place at times. Some new hires on large projects do not enjoy the work initially as there is a large amount of administrative type work vs "real engineering", and large, complex projects can take many years to complete, so the satisfaction level can be low. At the middle management level/ senior engineer level the job can be extremely demanding juggling multiple projects, shifting resources, client interface and technical oversight simultaneously. The individuals that can do this well succeed, however, outside of a few select specialty groups, there are no real positions that are purely technical. One of the larger challenges is the lack of skilled senior designers that can work relatively autonomously, despite the company business process being structured such that engineers do very little to no true design (CAD work). Overall, the company is a great
Very fast paced environment, everyday multitasking
- transferring calls, scheduling appointments in Axium, processing patient information in the system including insurance, receiving patient referrals.
- I've learned how to be a better multitasker, handle sometimes challenging situations and assist all kinds of patients and their dilemma.
- Management does a good job with recognizing the issue in a situation and finding the solution for it. Their organization and communication skills are very helpful for employees. However, they should have more control over the workplace culture with rules and regulations that should be applied for every employee.
- The workplace culture can absolutely use improvement. Although management and most employees do their best to assist patients to the best of their ability, keeping a healthy work environment for employees with each other seems to be a challenge.
- The hardest part of my job is telling a patient that their assigned department is not able to assist them at the moment and that our to get back to them at a later time. Patients often get impatient and sometimes belligerent due to the fact that the clinic at times takes to long to solve their dental issue. Handling these kinds of situations sometimes become tough.
- The most enjoyable part of my job is knowing I have fully helped a patient and that their dental process wishes have been fulfilled. Knowing I have done my job well makes me very content.
ProsTwo 15 minute breaks in the morning and afternoon and one hour lunch
Military-like culture, but without promotions or turnover.
In much the same way Cuba is likened to the US minus 50 years, everything I worked with- buildings, equipment, management philosophies, and employees- was state of the art in 1990 and hasn't improved since. Mission is not followed. You will not be given any say in how to do your job, or any (true) information about management's plans for the future. Do not assume that you can just get a lateral transfer if it doesn't work out, management is always quick to use underhanded "employee retention strategies".
About half of those who left during my 5 years did so with a lawyer on retainer, rather than leaving by retirement or having gotten a better job. These were high-quality, well-adjusted, and competent people to begin with, and were recruited at the peak of their careers.
Disclaimer- My experience was as a support staff member off-campus. Rutgers is good at many things, and employs many good leaders and happy employees on-campus. I approve of the CEO. Just be aware that it's a large and diverse organization, and you can't assume that everything Rutgers puts its brand on is of the same quality. In addition, do not assume that the institution's 250-year history means everyone thinks about the long-term best interest of the organization. It's largely tax-funded and, as a result, there is virtually zero accountability.
ProsHealth plans, free pens, paid snow days off.
ConsPay, low turnover, job satisfaction is treated as a form of theft.
Great opportunity to teach students not in a STEM major.
A typical day at work as a teaching assistant for the lab portion of a Environmental Geology course, would entail in a small lesson on the background of the lab. Being that this lab is a self taught based, it was my job to aid the students having a hard time understanding and completing the lab. Throughout the time that I was at this job, I was able to understand that students will only care about the lesson if you take the time to prove just how relatable it is to them. Whenever it came to a difficult situation that occurred to another teaching assistant, or a relatively common issue that came up in more then once section; management addressed it to the other teaching assistants in a weekly meeting, and as a group we came up with a solution to resolve the issue. Co-workers did a wonderful job in communicating with each other if need be. The hardest part of the job is to see a student truly not care about the course, and I couldn't persuade them the importance of understanding the basics of Earth. The most enjoyable part of the job is when I was able to aid students who didn't understand the course material to the point where they were so interested in the lab that they scored really well in the written portion of the lab.
ProsRefreshed my memory on basic things I learned years prior to teaching the lab.
ConsToo many technical difficulties with the on-hand learning portion of the lab, due to lack of budget.
Coffee hour is great, and I like the seminars, but the benefits are not good. As for the job itself, it really depends on the lab you're in. Some PIs are easier to get along with than others. In the case of those who are not so easy to get along with, finding support from your co-workers is important. The actual work you do also differs depending on whose lab you're in. Some labs work on tuberculosis, others malaria, others cancer, etc. I worked with lyme disease. In the lab where I worked, typical duties included culturing bacteria, isolating DNA, protein purification, PCR, Western blots and the like. Animal experiments usually last 4 weeks, with a visit to the animal facility for a few hours one day a week during the experiment, at least for the most common animal experiments we do. I was often feeling overwhelmed, but I did learn A LOT. I learned to do a variety of molecular biology techniques and also did some editing of papers prior to publication. The grant-funded nature of the position makes it not a good long-term option, and there are no advancement opportunities without a PhD. The parking situation is bad, especially if you arrive after 9am, especially on Mondays and Tuesdays. Despite its location in Newark, they have a security guard 24/7, which definitely helped ease my safety concerns.
ProsCoffee hour, seminars
ConsParking (or lack thereof)
2.0
Mental Health Technician | Newark, NJ | Oct 26, 2016
Disappointing experience
Worked here for a short period of time . Surprised by little guidance and poor overall communication across departments and department itself. Most days were spend doing paperwork or seeing clients back to back. No time for breaks. Little opportunity to better integrate or get to know any of colleagues as everyone worked alone in their office behind closed doors. Staff appeared skillfull and knowledgeable but overscheduled and spread thin. Little contact with upper management. Suggestions or questions/ concerns were discouraged and reprimanded. Supervision focused on administrative matters and less on clinical issues. Direct supervisor seemed burned out and overcritical. Overall, disappointed and unhappy about my experience. It seemed like it would be a great job opportunity except in my experience I saw that everyone kept their head down, opinions to self and kept working until a better opportunity came along. On a
positive note, I enjoyed working with clients and sought out a better fit.
ProsWork with clients, most days 9-5, no on- call but different rules may apply to different units
ConsHigh risk for burn-out: no or very shorts breaks, poor communication and little guidance from management, inadequate clinical supervision
A lot of the times am doing others jobs or showing them how to do their jobs better & more efficiently. I have learned to ask a lot of questions to learn how some processes work to better my job duties & managements job duties to operate smoother & more efficiently. I have helped fellow workers to do their jobs correctly & increase their knowledge of their job duties. The hardest part of the job Is dealing with management not listening to the workers perspective how to do a job more efficiently & end up doing things few times because they keep changing or redoing jobs that they didn't think out fully or listen to my idea which is what they up end eventually doing because they over looked a problem that I foreseen before doing something the first time that the better way. The most enjoyable part of the job is teaching others skills I know & sharing my knowledge.
Prostimes when they include me getting involved giving input to jobs to make them go smoother, more efficiently, & less costly.
Conscalled during lunch several times, interupting our break times for jobs that come up which most time can wait till after our break
Questions And Answers about Rutgers University
What is the best part of working at Rutgers University?
Asked Dec 29, 2019
Teamwork
Answered May 19, 2022
Probably the diverse group of workers I've became friends with and very good pension and benefits
Answered May 14, 2022
If you were in charge, what would you do to make Rutgers University a better place to work?
Asked Nov 20, 2018
Treat Dining service workers with more consideration and give them more money.
Answered Nov 25, 2020
Hire the right people
Answered Jun 17, 2020
What questions did they ask during your interview at Rutgers University?
Asked Jun 17, 2016
Questions about fitness and recreation
Answered Mar 29, 2019
What is you work experience?
What are you qualifications?
What Salary range are you looking for?
Answered Oct 11, 2018
How do you feel about the future of Rutgers University?
Asked Nov 14, 2016
I think Rutgers has not even touched the surface yet; they are just getting started and bracing themselves to blow our minds and make even more great changes in the community
Answered Feb 9, 2019
I feelings though it will turn out great and a lot of people will enjoy it.
Answered Jan 12, 2019
What is the culture of the workplace?
Asked Sep 22, 2016
The dental school
Community is wonderful. The dean of that school is a self serving troll
