secretary

research assistant

administration executive

stenographer

postdoctoral fellow

Memorial University of Newfoundland

Typical day at work was very comfortable, relaxed, and cozy. The office I was in was air conditioned with my desk having lots of space. Co-Workers were extremely friendly and always willing to help. My own individual project was to create a new web application from scratch which was an amazingly educational and fun experience. Someone hired into my position full-time would also likely be exposed to more operational tasks than me such as resolving tickets. My experience level and time was not sufficient for me to be included in that aspect. I also was not on the payroll for MUN so I cannot comment on benefits or salary. My funding was through my program at my institution. 

I went into my 12 week work term position as a Web Developer with next to no experience and came out being able to semi-fluently code a Full-Stack web application. My Co-Workers and supervisor were both more than willing to give me access to any learning material they had access to and were extremely supportive, friendly, and receptive of questions. They really promoted the idea of taking the initive to ask and learn which I took full advantage of. 

My supervisor was extremely friendly and even went as far as trying to help me with any work I needed done for my Workterm work. She's the team lead and a sort of project manager to the team. She was very organized and the team often implemented organized Waterfall project management techniques when starting tasks of a notable size. 

The workplace is extremely inclusive and non-judgemental. Being accepting of both mental and physical conditions as long as work can be completed. 

There weren't any particularly hard parts of the job for me. The hardest was just trying to learn as much as possible as quickly as possible so I could be a functioning part of the team. Other than that, sometimes it was difficult to get things outside our team moving. There were some issues such as granting certain permissions for the team that we need but aren't often granted. These policies can sometimes get in the way of work and cause difficulties for the team. Other issues like a malfunctioning computer can also take a week or more to resolve. In short, issues that involve departments or teams outside my specific team were often slow moving. Seemingly a side effect of having such as big entity as a University and a lot of policies to follow.

The most enjoyable part was seeing my application come to life after applying everything I was learning and improving it based on Co-Worker and Supervisor feedback. 

Overall I loved working for MUN and would highly consider working there after my studies full-time should I get the opportunity to. The workterm went about as excellently as I could have hoped it to. 

Working as an RA is a great growing experience and looks good on a resume. You will gain leadership experience, learn time management, how to work with a team and independently, etc.  There is also a sense of community within the residence life circle, so there is a lot of support.

However, this job has the ability to consume your life. Nearly every training session (one morning a month) and staff meeting, someone brought up the concept of the “fishbowl”. As an RA we were on constant observation from our residents, coworkers/peers, and management. One of the requirements of the position is to be a good role model, and they’re watching to make sure you are. Additionally, it is often repeated that you’re “always on duty”, you’re always required to be doing your job.  You must always be easily accessible. You are required to spend every night sleeping in the house. If you sleep anywhere else, even another house on campus, it counts as a night off. You get 6 nights off a year. This job strips you of your privacy. 

The expectations are high. Management has a tendency to focus on the wrong priorities and forget the reality of their community.  Generally, they care more about enforcing strict rules than the residents as young adults who need support. Because of the high expectations and strict regulations, along with their inability to get food that doesn’t taste like rubber, staff turnover is high.  Back in the day staff apparently stayed for much longer, even moving up to higher positions. Only a scattered few of that generation are left now and most staff only stay for 1 - 2 years. Because of the high turnover, some students get hired who are only interested in the free room and generally this can be hard to work with as they don’t actually have interest in the job. 

Management also plays favourites, which becomes very noticeable.  And though the community is generally supportive, there’s lots of cliques and lots of drama. 

Of course some of this is dependent on which house you end up in and who you work closely with. 

This is less a job than it is a lifestyle. If you go for this position, which I think you should, be prepared for it to consume your life and try not to let it become your whole personality.

What is the best part of working at the company?
14 holidays per year.  Paid time off for appts.  1 hour. 

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
Overworked seriously bad.  Not enough staff.  Underpaid.   Dont replace employees when they leave causing very high level of demand on remaining staff member/s.

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
Senior staff are great at assigning tasks to underlings and do very little work themselves.  For department events lower end staff are always left out and  cant attend as the need the office open.  People attending the events get paid to have fun while staff that stays back to work get paid much lower $ than the ones having fun off campus at lunches and get togethers. 

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
Insane.  No time for breaks.  No one to relieve you.  Overworked and under staffed

I worked for a brief 8 weeks with Memorial University within Facilities Management building for my internship. 
The job was absolutely outstanding, and the people I worked for were the best of the bunch. 
I had a lot of different tasks, which allowed me to extend my understanding of Human Resources and learn first hand the different situations you can find yourself in within the field. 
I was also given the great opportunity to attend meetings, interviews, and orientation days so that I could learn more, gain experience, and apply my own knowledge. 
The staff were always funny, approachable, and kind to me, and accepted me as a part of the team. Anyone to work for them would be nothing less than lucky.

Overall working for MUN is great, but not perfect and there are lots of very different positions within the university. MUN is one of the larger employers in NL, and their HR department seems understaffed for the demand. Great salary and benefits, and overall great atmosphere for growth. My lack of job satisfaction is a directly related to the management of my department, one person in particular, so I can't speak for the rest of MUN. However, MUN just implemented a new overtime policy which is really upsetting considering I have worked countless weekends. I am lucky to have a position with great job security.

They use bureaucratic methods to discourage advancement/promotion for staff. Pay is scaled and hard (if not impossible) to negotiate. Salary is currently too low for the job description. If you need to go through MUN to get anything done expect delays, it's a bureaucratic nightmare. The benefits are a joke: Not enough dental to realistically get two cleanings a year, the fitness/wellness benefit is a discount at the Works (whereas most places will give you an allotment to spend on things you'll actually use), and they make their employees pay for parking as much as $400 a year (even though their parking garage is practically empty). If you're in a good department/unit you can have a good work/life balance, and that's the only thing that has kept me from taking other jobs. 

At Memorial I worked as assistant to a researcher in Genetics, maintaining and updating a database of pedigrees (family trees) using the Cyrillic and Progeny computer programs, which were new to me.  I also maintained the associated filing system of medical information, and did typing and reprographic work as required.

It was a very friendly place to work, and my bosses were always very appreciative of what I did.

It was very rewarding to produce a complicated pedigree and work out how to make the program do what I needed it to do.

The hardest part was waiting to find out if research funding was going to be available, and having to give up the job when the funding ran out.

Hours and pay were pretty good. You can make a good life here if you’re happy. Managers are not good at applying standards and senior union members really call the shots. Absenteeism is off the charts and no one says a word to abusers. Newer employees or accountable employees fill in the slack while management threatens more job cuts. Management are afraid of the unions. People literally cry here everyday and no one cares. We had three employees who had taken months of sick leave throughout the year and laugh about how management says nothing.  Hard not to blame them while half the admin staff still work from home. Leaving MUN was the best career choice I ever made. My mental and physical health has really improved since. 

Working in HR at MUN was the most stressful time in my career. People are underpaid, overworked, and I can name several occasions where I felt I was being bullied. Leadership was so-so. Mostly it's what you expect from a pseudo-government organization - red tape, bureaucracy, people hanging out in their jobs too long, and general foolishness. I routinely had to punch 5-6 extra hours every week to barely keep my head above water, while my Director walked out the door on time every single day, it seemed. I took a lot of flak from people in other departments, often for things that were entirely out of my control. Going to work was hard most days. Parking was awful.

A typical day of work consisted of setting up experiments for the lab.
I developed good language skills towards instructing first-year students basic courses in Biology.
Management is terrible in this place, the science building is collapsing and seems to be a very bureaucratic place to make an impact to Newfoundlanders.
Co-workers are good, in my area all of us young and enthusiastic.
The hardest part of the job is not getting paid enough, compared to other major Universities in Canada MUN, pay grades are low.
The must enjoyable part of the job is the flexibility.

Top Job Titles	Average salary
Secretary 13 salaries reported	$48,442 per year
Research assistant 3 salaries reported	$22.67 per hour
Administration executive 8 salaries reported	$56,674 per year
Stenographer 1 salary reported	$40,830 per year
Postdoctoral fellow 3 salaries reported	$45,833 per year

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