Pros
MIT is a vibrant, creative, and fun work environment. The institution offers wonderful benefits (401K, pension, tuition support, vacation, etc.) MIT offers a wide range of training options. these give new employees an introductory footing in a wide variety of institutional tasks/areas/programs. In my experience, the main brunt of practical tasks training/education is through casual peer mentorship. I learned so much more from very kind and supportive peers than the official training courses. MIT offers a wide range of educational and cultural programing to all community members. There is always something interesting happening on campus.
Kontras
Employees work experience varies widely depending upon their position 'type' and the department that 'hosts' their appointment. MIT lacks a clear career paths for administrative and support staff. The career structure if left to the individual departments and is opaque to employees and vague or uncertain to internal HR Officers. MIT HR's internal career advisor is unable to help guide employees through the career structure at MIT. Instead, employees are asked to find someone on campus in a job they are interested, and then HR can advise regarding next steps (training, informal interviews, etc.) As there is no clear career path information for staff, financial admins, this makes career counseling night impossible for most employees. We are depend on peers to share insights regarding career paths, etc. I have been advised many times that I need to leave MIT in order to grow in my career. Specifically, if someone leaves MIT for Harvard, then MIT will value them more than an internal employee and will approve re-hiring the person at a higher rate/rank/job title. MIT tends to focus most HR efforts on faculty and research position. There is a popular internal joke, which was repeated by upper MIT Management in an institute wide "town hall" meeting, that MIT lists its key assets as "Faculty, students, and furnishings," and completely disregards/forgets staff members. It is disheartening to hear management, at both the department and institute level, repeat this joke and in doing so, reinforce the belief. The institute lags behind in offering competitive staff members payrates and cost of living wage increases. MIT offers annual "merit" raises, in lieu of cost of living increase, which are capped at percentages well below the inflation rate (pre-COVID times.) The upper level MIT HR presents a very modern set of guidelines regarding Tile IX, HR best practices, discrimination policies, etc. However, the implementation is spotty and varies widely between departments. When I have experienced or witnessed obvious problems - per stated MIT policy - the department HR was unhelpful. I was referred me to the DLC head who in turn stated an understanding of HR policies which was considered outdated in the 1990's. Have had an External Evaluator note that the MIT team members struggled with accepting current professional expectations regarding Title IX, mentoring, and general management practices. The evaluator clearly stated that, in their experience, MIT lagged decades behind other educational institutions in implementing best practices.