University of California, Berkeley

"Antiquated systems. Face time is important. Decisions are made by multiple committees over many months of time. "

"The employer regular states that due to their name and location, they do not need to be concerned about compensation or contenment of employees as there will always be a steady stream of people applying for jobs. "

"The environment is pretty friendly and open here, and your work speaks louder than anything else. Your level of happiness is likely to depend more on innate stesses of the job (whether you are tenure-track or not), than on dealing with sexism. Overall, a good environment to foster learning."

"They try, but probably not hard enough. Academia can be really terrible, but I believe it is slightly better at Berkeley than other places. At least they pay lip service to these issues, even if it doesn't always amount to much"

"Negotiate for a bigger salary up front because it's very challenging to get any kind of raise once you're in the job; most people get substantial raises by moving to a higher ranked position within the university. Also, when you start they offer to let you sign up for their supplemental disability insurance without having to apply -- DO IT. I did not and regret it. This is the thing that actually gives you some $$ during maternity leave (because pregnancy is considered a "disability"). The UC doesn't pay anything! All you get is the FMLA 12 weeks of unpaid leave. You have to make up the 12 weeks somehow out of your sick/vacation/disability pay. You have to pay for the disability insurance, but to my mind, it's worth it."