What’s it like to work at a University?

[WTCT]

I appreciate they aren’t all one homologous group but...

I have spotted a job advert for what appears to be my dream job. It’s within administration rather than faculty (is that the right word?)

I will definitely be applying but I’m interested in people’s experience of working in that setting.

My experience is retail (head office). It was fast paced, we were cash strapped so that was a big focus throughout everything we did. It was flexible, (ie they allowed flex working) fun and I worked autonomously. I had a lot of different bosses so it wasn’t specific to my boss.

My perception of working at a university is that it would be working in a setting where there are a lot of intelligent, driven people who want to be there and who are therefore motivated to succeed.

If you work at a university, how do you find it?

Ex fucking academic here 😂😂

I’ve never been happier since I left the toxic environment of the RG university I worked in. It made me ill with stress and I’m not a stress prone person

@foodname

Thanks very much food... I figured competency based might be the way forward (I will ask if I get an interview of course).

I will Google LGPS pensions... the advert doesn’t make reference so good to have something to look into in this respect.

@all.... In your experiences, do Universities heavily favour internal candidates?

@WTCT we had salary a salary scale, we had to start at the bottom (non negotiable in the first year) and then we automatically progressed each year until top of the scale, assuming you passed your appraisals. We also got annual cost of living increases.

You go up one spine point every year until the top of your grade, when you would need to be promoted.

The pension provision is excellent - possibly LGPS as mentioned above, or USS (or SAUL) depending on the university.

And good annual leave (usually minimim of 27 days plus BH) and ten days or so close-down at Christmas on top of that.

@HerBigChance

Thanks Her... I am applying tomorrow so will bear this in mind when tailoring my CV.

Bullying, bad management, slow processes, crazy bureaucracy, Misogyny, no diversity, Unmotivated admin staff, personality driven decisions.... I worked at one university in professional services for 2 years and it was hell for the entire time. I’d never go back.

WTCT - they can favour internal candidates, but there may also be candidates that they're obliged to interview for all manner of political reasons. They may be delighted to find an external candidate that they can appoint instead. It works in both directions.

Yes both unis I worked for shut down at Christmas, the second I had to take leave for but the first essentially reflected it in your pay if that makes sense, so everyone was paid 1 week less over the year to factor in the 1 week closure. It was hardly noticeable and saved me a ton of leave!

There is no one in charge anywhere in a university, and in the chaos people cling to the small amounts of control they have.

Academics value a nimble creativity and tend to work at the last minute. Academics value independence and can't be easily managed. Most have no real power. Administrators find this last minute working intolerable so then enforce process at the expense of productivity to reassert their limited control. Everything moves so slowly and everyone is cross. It is hard to punish incompetentence so every few years there is a massive "restructuring" so people can be fired. In the aftermath no one knows how to get stuff done, academics are even more confused and last minute, and then admin makes lots of new stupid rules to cope. Repeat.

I have found things to be disorganised and overall poorly run. Ultimately when all of the people above you have dedicated most of their working life to studying the use of the comma in 16th century poetry or the fishing industry in 1985-1986 Aberdeenshire, you are not going to get the best leaders, managers, etc in the world. Academics are often full of themselves too so that doesn't help.

Having said that if you accept this, it could be cushy job. I personally have never worked under so little pressure but perhaps it is my experience!

I can think of a lot of people who don't like their jobs at uni though so either my experience is unique or those people have worked there most of their lives so have no points of comparison.

Finally unis are big organisations: that means that there is scope to apply internally for better jobs I have seen many admin staff do that.

Pension wise not all uni admin are LGPS. Might be worth checking.

somanyresusablebags makes excellent points!

From what I'm told, admin and other staff (not academic) jobs at our Uni are considered to be like gold dust, extremely sought after.

As for weighed down with process and being slow to get anything done, the NHS (where I work now, as information analyst) is far far worse. The NHS also has far worse IcT support & equipment. The NHS admin is busier, more happening... also has many more people off long term sick.

Internal candidates: Uni where I work, those on the redeployment register may be guaranteed an interview (they leapfrog that first stage of screening) but at interview stage being internal is not supposed to give you any advantage.

I've heard a few stories about self-important professors who treat their PAs badly. We have quite low turnover among the admin staff who are based within the individual departments but there is high turnover among the central (all Uni services) staff; I guess that speaks for itself.

I've worked at two, the much larger more prestigious/successful one, each faculty is a silo.

Akin to the civil service agency I worked for when I started there 25 years ago!!!

They don't seem to have grasped they are businesses that need to become more efficient and utilise technology and systems that are more cost effective.

I worked for nearly 30 years at a RG university. I set off as a technician and then moved into admin in a very technical department. Mostly I loved it, sometimes I hated it. Universities are full of weired people who go from school to uni and never visit the real world. Mostly they think they work so hard but really it's all hot air and self promotion. It's different in every department and my pension is great!

I'd earn a shit load more in the private sector, but I stay because I get flexible working and term time only.

I’ve worked in several and every one is different. It can even vary between areas of the same one. So sometimes flexible working is the norm and other times it isn’t available. Sometimes you earn very well for what you do and other times you don’t.

Regarding the application, you need to tailor this exactly to the person specification as this is what they will use to shortlist. Give examples.

Oh, and make sure you are clearly meeting everything on the essential list - they usually have quite restrictive hiring practices which mean you won't be short-listable without having every essential criteria met.

If it's a post-92, you might be in TPS pension-wise.

Good luck!

I love working in a uni. 32 days leave, two weeks off at Christmas and bank hols plus good pay and two pay increases a year (cost of living and moving up a spine point).
I have flexible working and a huge amount of autonomy. I love my job.

But equally the team that sits opposite me is draconian in their policies and over supervised by control freak managers so it really does depend on the department you’re in!

I work in professional services (management level role) in a RG uni having previously worked in corporate environments: on the plus side the work life balance is much better, holiday allowance is great and it is a ‘liberal, left leaning environment. On the other hand: a significant minority of academic staff see themselves as above any rules and are generally supported by leadership to treat their support staff like dirt, bully and generally flout any kind of procedure without consequence (they’re ref-able after all). I’ve worked in some really high profile businesses and never been spoken to this way before so it’s been a bit of a culture shock!

Much talk about diversity ... while recruiting from exactly the same demographic. Openly overlooking people who demonstrated aptitude for a role in favour of people who said the right buzzwords at interview ... and quit shortly thereafter. Gobsmackingly awful management.

I’ve worked for two different university in admin/support roles and found them very good employers. Postives for me

• good pay scale, automatically moving up and fairly competitive pay
• strong HR department
• good annual leave, one uni I worked for was closed for nearly two weeks at Christmas which was on top of normal annual leave and the other you got a week at Xmas and a week at Easter
• staff development was good, opportunities to learn languages at lunch time, attend different development classes etc
• lots of Christmas parties/quizzes/social activities across the year, one uni had a sports day for staff which was fun
• good pension scheme

I didn’t have to work that closely with students or academics so I can’t really comment on that side of things. I’ve interviewed for a lot of uni jobs and usually it was an interview and then a task like writing a letter etc. For higher roles I had to do a presentation. In my experience if you’ve got the job they get back to you that day and if you haven’t you get a generic email from HR about a week later

Oh yes as possible said trailer your application exactly to the person specification they have given. I would really spell out exactly how you meet each criteria as they’ll get a lot of applications and literally will go through and tick off how you match the criteria

I’ve worked at two HEIs and have had mixed experiences. The middle role, for me, was awful and I couldn’t wait to leave. I originally worked at an RG university and have been lucky enough to go back to the same place following my disastrous middle job. It really depends what you do; I’m now at a senior grade, in PGR, and am enjoying the role. I find academics need plenty of direction from professional services and that can be good if you are happy to help manage e.g. a programme or department. Salary is pretty reasonable, benefits good, progression through the salary points is also good, and for me, supporting students through their studies is very rewarding. Yes, as pp say, progress on matters can be a bit glacial sometimes, but I don’t think that’s unique to HE. Good luck!

Oh, and in my experience excellent annual leave!