Virginia Tech reviews

Despite having thousands of employees and a yearly budget of over $1 billion, working there is rewarding only if one is "connected" to a relatively small # of people doing the actual hiring for the "good" jobs. Some of these pay very well (for the area) and yet I have seen candidates hired for these positions not because of better qualifications but because of their personal relationship to the boss/director of that department. The tenure-track faculty get the majority of the attention from the administration while what remains is largely taken up by the ever-growing student body. For those in the middle, there is virtually NO career development (unless one plays their cards right with the correct senior level person). Most of the positions are hourly and only recently did the University decide to offer what it feels is a living wage at the bottom of the salary range. Many people cannot afford to live near the University since >60% of the student body is housed in apartments, condos/townhomes or single-family homes with the latter two frequently purchased by the parents. Thus those that are paid the least have to commute the farthest. So if one wants a job (that they likely can keep for a long time) and does not mind not advancing while watching the favored attain high pay/high reward roles because of their special friendships, then yes you may consider VT.

- Leadership oppresses and abuses employees as if they're not equal humans. - VT does not respect or value experience. - VT promotes toxic individuals in to leadership. - VT enables bullying. - VT could not provide someone with my experience with enough work to keep me busy. - VT Leadership is not trustworthy and does not stand by their words. I was told I would receive a salary increase after my 1 year probation, only took the job because of this promise, and the salary increase never happened. Instead, the individual I submitted complaints to the director about for that entire year received a promotion to assistant director. - During my first week of employment my immediate supervisor told me that he, "regretted hiring me." He refused to collaborate with me for the rest of my employment. - This same immediate supervisor made inappropriate comments about my body. - This same immediate supervisor would not collaborate with the team and would demand things go their way if someone offered a different approach. - This same immediate supervisor was promoted to assistant director after all of the above issues had already been brought to the attention of the director. - Software development team with no documented standards operating on a out-dated codebase built without reading the framework's documentation. I rebuilt this codebase in two weeks, the director instructed the team to use it, and the team refused. - It was not uncommon to hear, “this is how it’s done at Virginia Tech,” when offering new solutions and alternative approaches. - Leadership can't be trusted - on any level.