Duke University

"Negotiate aggressively on salary on your first job offer. Once you're in the Duke system, the most you can hope for is a 5% pay raise if you get a promotion. Duke's HR system is set up to actively encourage good employees to leave Duke if they want to make meaningful advancements in their careers. Also be careful of the many misogynistic and/or inept managers that have made their careers at Duke. I was at Duke for a decade and both saw and experienced wide-ranging incidents of sexism, racism, and bullying from Duke managers during my time there. Every time a formal complaint was made to HR about the behavior, HR brushed it aside unless the employee hired a lawyer. I was flat out told by HR when I quit for a position at another company that there was no point in me having an exit interview about my experience because the Dean of the school didn't care what subordinates thought of their managers or if a department was hemorrhaging money from the school. My last manager at Duke was engaged in illegal and ethically questionable tactics and still nobody at the university seemed to care. "

"Take as many trainings as you can to make yourself familiar with Duke systems."

"It’s seventh grade mean girls all over again, very sadly. "

"Get as much money as possible at hire; wages basically never increase again without transferring departments"

"If you plan on succeeding as a faculty member, make sure have high ranking collaborators."

"You won't have to work on weekends, and there are interesting people there, but you'll also be around staff who are just phoning it in."