Arbitrary and unforgiving: good and bad, but you are worth much less than the reputation of your boss or the university - Anonymous employee Penn State Employee Review

2.0
Jan 22, 2019
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Benefits are great, especially for student employees, and the university is vibrant and full of interesting and insightful minds. There is a lot of good in the institution and lots of people who care.

Cons

Everything you produce may feel half-baked due to resource constraints, largely because there doesn't seem to be any accountability at the highest echelons, and the institution is extremely ego-driven. Some personal projects get no support and some get a lot, and it feels like the distribution of intangible benefits is extremely arbitrary. If people like you, it's great. If people don't care, it's not. If they dislike you, it spreads, and everyone now pushes you away. It can become extremely toxic extremely quickly.

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5.0
Jun 27, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

They were very flexible with hours and it was a fun place to work. There was lots of downtime to do other things while on the clock, and an e-bike to get around campus quickly.

Cons

Toward the end they got pretty strict about keeping your computer on a certain tab to take online tickets, and you could get in trouble for not doing it. It’s tedious work overall.

4.0
Jun 26, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

flexibility. I'm on a fellowship I won with a great advisor. It is not so good for others.

Cons

An inherently liminal position with severely reduced benefits.

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