teaching assistant

postdoctoral fellow

research assistant

graduate assistant

administrative assistant

McMaster University

The Senior Student Consultant (SSC) is an hybrid position of both summer full time position and part-time position during the regular school term.
Summer
During the summer, the SSC team (5-7) develops projects which might help the students labs, University Technology Services (UTS), and managing the team of Student Consultants (SC) during the school year. The summer projects include lab machine monitoring system which monitors login activity and software usage of each user, digital display system which displays lab usage and status via Java/SQL/HTML. During the summer, the SSC team is responsible of representing UTS in various outreach events for new students. At the end of the summer, a training day will be held bt the SSC team and training will be provided to the SCs of group size up to 50.

School Term
During the school term, the team's main responsibility is to manage all of the SCs (up to 80) and keep student labs running smoothly. We provide on going assistance and training to any SCs that need help as well as customer service to professors. We work with the maintenance crew to keep the lab machines up to date and repair any hardware/software issues that arises during the term. The SSC team is also responsible to micromanage the SCs and host social events for team building. The SSC team is also involved in interviewing and picking out the SC team for the next year.

- I have enjoyed my experience at McMaster University working in an immunological lab. A typical day involves assisting M.Sc. candidates with various protocols and other technical aspects involved in their specific projects, in addition to conducting and planning experiments that relate to my interests.
- I have learned many technical skills relating to PCR, qPCR, ELISAs, flow cytometry, and mammalian cell culture. Many of these techniques require troubleshooting which I find is the most important aspect in fully understanding a technique. Although occasionaly I find experimental outcomes are unsuccessful, the process of optimizing a technique for its success is extremely beneficial and so experimental failure can be regarded as a positive rather than a negative.
- Management is conducted by my PI who is extremely helpful and patient.
- The co-workers change from time to time, with the influx of new students, which presents a fresh start for teaching techniques. I find this useful in furthering my understanding of a technique as well as promoting my teaching skills.
- The hardest part of the job is probably knowing how to efficiently manage your time and understanding how to conduct an experiment that will work correctly the first time.
- The most enjoyable part of the job for me is figuring out ways to ask specific questions experimentally.

Specifically as a teaching assistant, applied for as a graduate student- 3 consecutive semesters in this capacity.
Generally good supervision although I was a teaching assistant for an arts program and sometimes the professor for the course was ill-suited. You will be expected to keep regular office hours, usually a designated hour a week BUT you can get away with doing "appointment only" office hours if you have a busy schedule. 
Students I worked with were either there to learn more or there to argue to the bitter end. It is important to have patience. 
Grading can be tedious and a lot of students don't bother looking at the feedback so I kept it short and concise. Students did argue their grades and ask for another grade. If they had a compelling argument I would re-grade the assignment but let them know that this would not guarantee them a better mark if I found an error I had missed in my original grading. Professors were good about standing with the TA's decision and would take over if students got aggressive.

What is the best part of working at the company?
The people culture: from my first contact during my internship to the short-term contract as a Project Assistant, I felt a strong sense of belonging. 

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
I would not say stressful. Being an international student intern and first time in Canada, I had to observe first to understand the load of work, processes and policies. However, the culture of being considerate of one another and willingness to always help, made a whole lot of difference.  

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
We work as a team, we are considerate of others, there are no positional barriers such that you almost can not tell who is a manager! Additionally, there is a constant drive towards ensuring the environment is psychologically safe for everyone- students, faculty and staff.

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
Each day is new! There is always something to look out for. From engaging programs for employees to planning recognition programs or HR monthly meetings; it is a place you feel good about daily.

This job isn't considered difficult -- most tasks (i.e., sorting mail, updating work orders, requesting key replacements, etc) are considered low-stress but a lot of the office politics makes it easy for employees to burn out easily. The problem is chronic understaffing. Most casual/part-time staff work full-time hours at a largely reduced pay/no benefits and rarely receive benefits even after years of working there. Part-time staff often get little notice of scheduled shifts and are expected to be immediately available 24/7. Even full-time students (who are typically hired to work 10-15 hours per week) are often guilted into taking upwards of 30+ hours per week. New hires often do not receive full access to systems to complete work until 3 months into their contracts, and much of that work gets piled onto the same people with little intervention from management. Sounds like some of these issues are being addressed, but there's still a large gap between the frontline workers and management.

I worked at McMaster for 15 years and have loved the community, the organization and my jobs. I learned and grew so much while there and have found that so many wonderful people work there. Working with students is a great experience and the campus is a wonderful place to spend your work days.

Unfortunately, if you start out as unionized staff, the only way into management is with a master's degree and by using "strategic politics" or to leave Mac and come back into a Management position later. I used to hear this and believed it was a myth until I saw it happen again and again. While Mac is a great place to work, all Universities are big organizations, and change is not always embraced, and when it is, it can be very slowly accepted. Bottom line is still dollars. It is a business and sometimes people forget that.

- A typical day at work was either on the field or in the weight room. In the field we would run sprinting, long distance running, and games to help improve cardiovascular fitness. In the weight room we would assist in athletes with their training program making sure technique is correct and also spotting athletes.
-I learned a bunch of exercises and techniques and stretches for certain conditions, taping of ankles and apply them to athletes
-management was very energetic, they would host staff meetings everyweek to learn new exercises and techniques
-co-workers where all kinesiology student volunteer and part time.
- hardest part of the job was the early staff meetings that where at 6am on wednesdays.
-The most enjoyable part of the job was the learning experience. It was the fact that they would teach us many different things and we would train like athletes in order to help teach and coach the athletes their strength and conditioning program.

As a casual employee, a typical day would be working in between breaks from classes. Work to be done included coordinating with externals, attending meetings with other staff, and providing support to the program direct where needed.
Through this ongoing work experience, I have developed stronger communication skills both in oral and written.
Management here is great. They are very flexible and understanding to the needs of a student.
Working along side other students is a bit challenging, however it allowed me to further develop my skills as a team player.
The hardest part of the job is the fact that there is no specific outcome, rather a mission to be followed to achieve the goal of the organization. Having no clear cut expectations is a challenge, but the open-ended opportunities allow me to be innovative and creative.
The most enjoyable part of the job is when I get to work with others. Having the opportunity to interact with students or faculty in a team setting provides a challenging yet energetic atmosphere.

While grad studies is always a difficult endeavour McMaster university chooses to make it harder by having incredibly poor wages (bairly livable in Hamilton).  This is countered by the reasonable benefits, which are far in excess of most other universities.  However these benefits are being compromised by poor management and stagnant wages.  As of right now all the medical benefits were on the cutting block due to stagnant student wages.  

Furthermore if you are not industrially funded you will be unlikely to get a position.  And even still the university is taking the lion's share of the money and the students are living below their means.  

This system is not sustainable and labour action is inevitable.  Now the conservative government no longer forcing favourable arbitration decisions on the union, it is unlike the university can continue. 

Good luck.

This was a temporary position. The position evolved from a assembling Lab kits for on ongoing international study, to a data entry clerk, This was a wonderful opportunity to learn something very different from my field of study in education and psychology. I learned how to do invoicing with the shipping and receiving department and to follow strict protocols when assembling medical supplies. I also spent a vast amount of time learning new data entry tables, and entering in a large amount of data efficiently. I am always eager to learn about new things, and this job provided that window. The most difficult part of this particular job was the extended time sitting in front of a computer. Also, knowing that it was a temporary position, it did not provide any job security in the long run. All the personnel were friendly and helpful to the new data entry staff and I would welcome an opportunity to work there again

Top Job Titles	Average salary
Teaching assistant 26 salaries reported	$36.50 per hour
Postdoctoral fellow 13 salaries reported	$55,192 per year
Research assistant 7 salaries reported	$25.57 per hour
Graduate assistant 6 salaries reported	$47.00 per hour
Administrative assistant 6 salaries reported	$55,500 per year

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