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Northwestern University

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Declined In Recent Years - Anonymous employee Northwestern University Employee Review

2.0
Aug 14, 2015
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Benefits are outstanding. They have a retirement match up to 5% and put in an additional 5%. Health insurance is affordable.

Cons

The pay is terrible and there has been lots of downsizing and job reclassification in recent years. You will work the job of two people. Huge culture shift from years ago is tacking place in that it's taking on a more "corporate" feel in a lot of areas. I think there are many unhappy staff and this is not reflected in the overall rating because the reviews are affected by graduate students. Management does not have concern for workers well being and will run off even long time employees if you do not conform to their current paradigm. The turn over is way too high and it's hard to make meaningful connections with others. Career growth is based on who you know, not what you know. No accountability for upper management and how they treat others.

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5.0
Jul 7, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

- Good opportunities - Campus accommodations are nice

Cons

- Underpay - $4000 for eight week full time research (40 hrs/week)

4.0
Jul 6, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

It's steady and stable money. Coworkers can be great, and benefits can be good**

Cons

They recently changed all of the benefits due to the government administration pulling federal funding. They changed from Blue Cross Blue Shield to United so the insurance is pretty bad now, with higher premiums and higher copays. You get a 90% discount on tuition, yet also about 97% of the graduate programs are when you'd be working during a 9-5. So it's nearly impossible to actually utilize your tuition discount. There were a lot of budget cuts, and 3% bonuses were one of the first to go. Your base pay is usually underpaid because it's higher education/nonprofit, and the 3% raise is barely enough to cover the rise of cost of living. So now it's underpaid, bad or unusable benefits, and low morale because there were also so many layoffs with the rest of the employees having to do the work of multiple people. Systems in the university are antiquated and it takes forever for anything to get done and most of it is trial and error. They say there is mobility, but it's only lateral if you're lucky. I've been here for two years and there's been such high turnover in senior management including the President that everything feels up in the air.

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