New job opportunity Questions

I have been offered an interview at a local college ranked in the top 100 in the nation as an IT manager managing both paid professional staff and student staff as well. I just wanted to get everyone's take on working in Academia(pluses and minuses) as well as thoughts for an interview in that space?

Find more posts tagged with

Save $250 on 2025 certification boot camps from Infosec!

Book now with code EOY2025

Button

Comments

Everyone

So... Purdue? :P

I have mixed feelings about working in Education. I work with them, but haven't worked for them. I've seen a few that are just awful, and a few that are pretty good, as far as IT goes.

If you care about security at all, working in Education may drive you insane. A lot that I've seen don't care much about security at all.

A long time ago when I used to play on the wrong side of the fence... I knew anything I found that ended in .EDU was usually an easy target.

The pay can often be quite a bit lower than other sectors, but that depends heavily on the school. A top 100 college probably pays much better than the local community collage.

Same holds true for funding for the department for things like new servers, networking equipment, etc.

lsud00d

I enjoyed working in higher education in a large enterprise setting. There are a lot of technologies you get to work with, the environment is more relaxed, and the people as always are a mix of highly motivated go get-ers with lazy people comfortable with coming in at 9 and tuning out at 5. The conferences are fun as well (ResNet, ACUTA, EDUCAUSE) and I enjoyed representing my employer (also my alum) both inside and outside of work.
What aspect are you interviewing for? HD Manager, Network Manager, etc?

Akaricloud

There were parts of working at a major University that annoyed me(such as the budgeting), but overall I really enjoyed it. I would love to find a position at a college again.

Plusses usually include free classes, a more relaxed/casual environment, working with people who are generally more educated, opportunities to move and/or advance within, and pay seems to be a bit above average IMO.

crazyITguy

I would be interviewing for a HD manager position.

crazyITguy

Interview went really well today I thought. Met with five people ranging from direct manager to vp as well as counterparts. This is a new managing supporting students and faculty. I also heard from my references already. I met with five total people, should I send a thank you email to everyone? Decision to be made in less than one week

paul78

Glad that your interview went well. I would suggest sending an individualized thank you to all the folks that you met with. That's the generally accepted courtesy.

As for your original question - I worked at a top 20 rated university about 20 years ago. It was one of my most rewarding times. The pay wasn't great but the benefits were excellent including:

very generous vacation and holidays
free classes
officially it was a 35 hour work day
summer hours (4 day work week/9 hour days)

The part of the job that made it rewarding was the work. I worked in academic computing and supported several academic departments. I was a system programmer for a newly acquired mini supercomputer. I felt that I was actually contributing to society with my work. One of the more rewarding projects was setting up and troubleshooting a new software solution on Unix systems designed for brain surgery research.

crazyITguy

I was told by the committee when I interviewed last week that they would be in contact this week as they were making a decision. I sent letters to the people I interviewed with late Friday with no response and left a message with the direct managers secretary yesterday afternoon. Should I just wait at this point?

coreyb80

crazyITguy wrote: »

I was told by the committee when I interviewed last week that they would be in contact this week as they were making a decision. I sent letters to the people I interviewed with late Friday with no response and left a message with the direct managers secretary yesterday afternoon. Should I just wait at this point?

That's pretty much all you can do at this point. I've found that while thank you letters are a nice gesture, most won't respond to them.

crazyITguy

I called today to follow up and the hiring manager said letters were mailed yesterday and I should see something in the next couple of day. Is this good? Is this bad? Any ideas on what I should do next

networker050184

Sounds good to me. It's usually an offer letter that's mailed out. Good luck!

crazyITguy

Wouldn't you expect that they would just call me and let me know also. That is the strange thing. Even when I called she didn't seem like she was willing to divulge much information.

Ivanjam

Everyone wrote: »

So... Purdue? :P

It could also be Indiana University -Bloomington