I appreciate my small team - and I know that this is not the case university-wide, especially on larger teams with primarily entry-level staff.

State benefits are generous - vacation and sick time, as well as health and dental insurance. The tiered salary system at UMass benefits long-time employees.

UMass is a siloed workplace - but this works for me, because I like to work within a small circle of my colleagues to achieve our goals.

The interview process is extremely long and cumbersome, mainly as a result of university human resources and unclear expectations on search committees. In addition, it's vastly different based on departments, and generally favors internal candidates.

UMass is intensely bureaucratic and values length of service over quality of work. There are tons of long-standing employees in high-level and decision-making positions who are doing things as they've always done it and collecting a lot of money to do so.

I appreciate working for a business smart faculty member running an academic program - and at the same time, having been in multiple departments, know that a positive experience is highly dependent on your supervisor and immediate colleagues, and it is not common to be content in this area.