Anyone worked for a State University Campus?

Bchen2

Hey guys Im apply for an IT User Service Position at a University
Im having an interview pretty soon and hoping to see a bit of a pay increase compare to where I'm at
Hows it like working for a state university?
Promotions
Raises
Advancement
Pay
Work Schedule
Stability etc?

Akaricloud

I worked Desktop Support for a State University for about 3 years. There was a huge disconnect between student workers and full time hires even though we did exactly the same work.

For students the schedule was very flexible, pay was low and there wasn't much room for advancement. They were substantially more strict with FTEs but also paid them 2.5x as much with room for advancement. Overall I really enjoyed the environment and would go back for the right position/pay.

Most states require state employee salaries to be public information. You should be able to look up what other people in the same position are earning and get a better idea of what you would make.

kurosaki00

Like Akari said, salaries should be public information.
Something to have in mind, if the state has salary freeze, it will affect the Universities and its employees.
I went several years without a raise because the state was in salary freeze.
Benefits are great (usually) though.

Bchen2

Akaricloud wrote: »

I worked Desktop Support for a State University for about 3 years. There was a huge disconnect between student workers and full time hires even though we did exactly the same work.

For students the schedule was very flexible, pay was low and there wasn't much room for advancement. They were substantially more strict with FTEs but also paid them 2.5x as much with room for advancement. Overall I really enjoyed the environment and would go back for the right position/pay.

Most states require state employee salaries to be public information. You should be able to look up what other people in the same position are earning and get a better idea of what you would make.

Did you guys work on any interesting projects or was it just pure grunt work typical Standard IT Desktop work?
It sounds good right now I make 20 an hour doing help desk for a school district
So Im lookin to bump up a bit more and see also learning opportunities
What did you have to know for your position at the state university?
Any Specific requirements or knowledge?

the_Grinch

I know in my State the University employees have it pretty good. You'll have steps so you'll know in 10 years what your salary will be and in my State they are able to attend school for free. No one ever leaves so that must tell you something about it.

10Linefigure

Ours is great . Pay is okay for the area, good time off. Yet to meet someone who was outright rude / disrespectful. And they pay for school (3 classes a year, 1 per term). Most everyone has been here a while except me, I just started.

olaHalo

I work for a school district (not university) and what everyone is saying is correct.
Pros
Decent Pay
Great Benefits
Usually very little on-call
Hard to get fired


Cons
Some coworkers will be lifers who've been doing very little work for several years and they cannot be fired
Usually pays less than non state jobs
Lots of red tape for everything
Youre effected by politics and may get pay freezes for several years

UnixGuy

Con:
small budget for fancy tech compared to other corporate environments (telcos/banks/ISPs..etc)

cprimero

I currently work for a State University upper Ivy league school.

Pros:
Benefits are great with retirement pension after 20 years.
Work schedules are pretty normal mon-fri depending on what you do there may not be a demand for within the school year. (Hints "work from home")

Cons:
Pay is typically decent. Since it is State funded you may not get a raise for a longer period of time.
Advancement: Many people do not leave these jobs, I am 25 and most people in our IT department are 35+. So I can either leave, or wait for someone to retire. Positions hardly ever open up.

RoyalRaven

olaHalo wrote: »

I work for a school district (not university) and what everyone is saying is correct.
Pros
Decent Pay
Great Benefits
Usually very little on-call
Hard to get fired


Cons
Some coworkers will be lifers who've been doing very little work for several years and they cannot be fired
Usually pays less than non state jobs
Lots of red tape for everything
Youre effected by politics and may get pay freezes for several years

I completely agree with this. I have 12+ years in two large universities.

A few more..

Pros:
Stability = absolutely. Most people leave on their own merit.
Benefits = almost impossible to match elsewhere at the same rate. Time off is extremely generous.
Usually a path to move up..but ultimately you need to be management, faculty or administrative to advance in pay.
All salaries are public record.
Tuition breaks (if you want to pursue more education)...although this is scaling back in some places over time.

Cons:
Heavy amount of unstructured organizational workflow (areas run their own ships).
Stale at times. Slow adopters, usually funds are garbled based on state funding or other initiatives.
Raises or cost-of-living are not guaranteed.
Poor performers can stick around a lot longer than expected.

Have seen many folks get frustrated with how universities operate. It's more about politics and goodwill with others than business lines. Also the "Peter Principle" is in full effect. Folks get promoted until they can't sustain, which ultimately convolutes the environment. It is NOT run directly like a business and folks who try usually fail in that attempt.

Not bad. Can get really comfortable...actually too comfortable. Easy to get into cruse mode and not realize it. Good opportunities and good way to get the career going if you can be a FTE. Student jobs not so much, they're barely compensated and lowest on the totem pole.

Overall, you can only take on so much of it before you question if you'd be better off elsewhere and keeping up with modern trends. I don't think you get pushed as hard as you would elsewhere, so it's important to stay relevant.

Bchen2

One more thing guys what were your qualifications and skills that you needed to get the job?
Im applyin for a Desktop Tier 2 kind of job from what the titles says ( IT User Service Consultant)
I would post the responsibilities here but they took off the job posting by now

Akaricloud

Bchen2 wrote: »

Did you guys work on any interesting projects or was it just pure grunt work typical Standard IT Desktop work?
It sounds good right now I make 20 an hour doing help desk for a school district
So Im lookin to bump up a bit more and see also learning opportunities
What did you have to know for your position at the state university?
Any Specific requirements or knowledge?

I worked on plenty of interesting projects, but only because I started working on them then showed the value they would bring our department. Most of the other people just did typical grunt work putting very little thought into what could make us more efficient.

My position was very entry level to start, in fact the department was created with only myself doing the work and then grew substantially while I was employed. I had very little on paper at that time, but sold myself strong in a couple interviews.

LeBroke

So, I didn't know university salaries were on public record.

Guess what, psychology profs make on average $150k or so...

Akaricloud

LeBroke wrote: »

So, I didn't know university salaries were on public record.

Guess what, psychology profs make on average $150k or so...

Most have at least one PHD, if not multiple, lead large research projects, teach, and will spend their entire career in research/education.

You can surpass that much quicker in IT.

JasonX

From my experience:

Very political with lower wages and increasing health insurance costs. Management who couldn't even console into the hardware who received these jobs from either being friends of Director's who were equally incompetent or received their jobs at the same University they graduated from in the 90's with an unrelated degree and fell into IT.

A good stepping stone, but you should leave asap if you want to expand your skillset and obtain a fair wage.