research assistant

teaching assistant

postdoctoral fellow

program assistant

graduate assistant

Simon Fraser University

If you're looking for a cushiony job, job security, great benefits, free education, this is the place to work and wait till retirement. If you're ambitious, eager to make a difference, fast pace, this is not the place. 

Way too much internal politics between departments and levels of management. A ton of red tape and have to go around it to do things. Work hours are standard but expect them to push you to work overtime for no pay. If you need to work on the weekends, didn't get compensated and they expect you to not complain because it's part of the job, even if you've worked over 40+hours in the week. Sometimes you feel so bad that you end up forking out your own money or free time to get things done. I've seen someone told they have $20 to put together an appreciation gathering for 20 students who volunteered their time. The person who was planning ended up making food themselves at home and also put their own money in for it. 

People who work there are super nice and friendly. But if you want things to get done and efficiently, it's not going to happen. Majority of the people who work there are set for life. They stay within their job descriptions, does not go above and beyond, they do what meets requirements and call it a day. 

Ability to move up or career growth is pretty much impossible unless someone leaves. You can try switching departments but you can get snubbed due to internal politics. 

Anyone who is underperforming doesn't get any consequences. It is incredibly hard to get fired. And the "team" is expected to help out and fill in what's lacking. 

Pay is not on par with the market. GREAT pay if you're entry level, but pay becomes stagnant and below market for manager positions and up. Yes, there's a pension plan, free education for yourself, spouse, and children, mat leave top up, extended health and dental, 4 weeks of vacation to start plus holiday breaks when the school closes. Can't complain about the benefits. 

I've been with this organization for two years, and it has been a fulfilling journey. The workplace culture here is exceptional, fostering a sense of collaboration and innovation. The leadership team is supportive, approachable, and genuinely values employee input.

One of the standout features is the commitment to professional growth. There are ample opportunities for skill development and career advancement, which has allowed me to thrive in my role. Additionally, the company offers competitive compensation and benefits packages that demonstrate a genuine concern for employee well-being.

The workplace is inclusive, with a focus on diversity and equity. This creates a welcoming atmosphere where everyone feels valued and respected. Communication within the organization is transparent, and there's an open-door policy that encourages feedback.

One area for improvement could be streamlining certain processes to enhance efficiency further. However, this doesn't overshadow the overall positive experience I've had here. This workplace truly invests in its employees and provides an environment conducive to both personal and professional growth.

A typical day is contacting people via phone and email to ask their permission to film them for Simon Fraser University's Library Archives regarding Aboriginal issues.

My job is to build a relationship based on trust so that the atmosphere between myself and the interviewee is calm, and relaxed. Once that has been established and put in place, filming begins (by me) in allowing them to voice their opinions and/or concerns surrounding specific issues that affect First Nation people.

In the past I have interviewed Aboriginal people in regards to the Missing Women's Commission; Enbridge Pipeline Proposal, and Taseko Mining proposals in northern BC.

The hardest part of this job is making contact with a potential interviewee, but once the contact is made, and a relationship built on honesty and trust develops, friendships are made, and their stories are filmed and prepared digitally for the library's archives.

All interviewees receive copies of the film taken, and have the option to change what appears or to add something more should they choose to do so.

What is the best part of working at the company?
The individuals within the school work hard to achieve the best possible outcomes, they collaborte, partner and support each other in the development of the school and program outcomes. 

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
The leadership team is archaic in their styles, approaches, and methods.  It has a 1980's  feel using largely hierarchical, command-and-control, focusing on autocratic decisions, strict supervision, reward and punishment models. Very clique type of high school feel. The Mean Girls run the show.  Regina George at the helm. 

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
The general culture tries hard to be modern and positive, but the leadership kills that vibe continously.  Nonetheless, most of the teams manage to remain upbeat and forward focused. They all have a common mission.

Being a TA at SFU was a okay experience overall. I’ve enjoyed working with students—leading tutorials, helping them with their writing, and seeing their progress throughout the semester. It’s rewarding work, especially for someone who loves teaching. 

That said, the job is tough. The amount of work expected often goes way beyond what we’re paid for. Between prepping for tutorials, grading, replying to emails, and holding office hours, it’s easy to end up working over the allotted hours—especially around midterms and finals. It can be overwhelming, especially while trying to keep up with your own coursework and research.

The people I’ve worked with have mostly been supportive, but the pay and workload expectations need serious improvement. TAs are a huge part of how undergrad courses run, and it would be great to see that reflected in how we’re treated.

In short: it’s fulfilling, but exhausting. You do it because you care—but it would be nice if the system cared a bit more back.

Obtained statistics and data from Bloomberg to perform forecasting analysis by deploying econometrics models (VaR, Time-Series, Cross-sectional Panel regression, Garch) 
Help the fixed income team to performed fixed income analysis based on results generated from the econometrics models. 
Monitored financial and economic news on a daily basis to make sure the whole team can stay on top of most major financial events around the globe.  The hardest part of the job is when team members disagree with the conclusions that we issued, and most of the time we can arrive on rational conclusions. Every quarter the whole team has to report and present the performance of the fund to a panel of market practitioners who sit on the SFU endowment fund board, and handled questions and objections from these market experts.

I worked in the computer lab providing data support for a biology project. After download the data from public website, I am responsible for transferring it into a proper form that we can compare the "ortholog" between different genomes. Several computer languages are used during this process, such as Perl and Linux. Another team member will take over the data by comparing and uploading them on website with Perl and SQL.
During my intern, I learned a number of computer languages and realized communication is very important in team work. It was a great experience to work with my team members and professor, who demonstrated a professional way of working in a team.
Even though programming is stressful, I am able to complete the assignments, and always looking for a more efficient way to compile data. I identify a public server “Westgrid”, which tripled calculation speed.

The only complaint I have about SFU's DDP program, which I'm apart of, is it's lack of babysitting.  That may sound silly when a person should really be the only one responsible his or her own schooling and graduation progress  However, DDP (Dual-Degree Program) is a very fresh and new program that collaborates with Zhejiang University located in Hangzhou, China.  This program lets students, us, take part in both school's computing science studies and thus uses a complicated system to keep track of credits from both schools.  In the end, the students are awarded with degrees from both schools, and a more enriched skill set which includes fluent in Mandarin and English.

What does this all mean?  It means that, SFU kicked me off the cliff like parent eagles teaching their young to fly and I soared further than I could have imagined.

•	Provided superb services by managing aspects of day-to-day operations and following correct procedures as manager of SFU Recreational Intramural Leagues
•	Supervise and mentor five to eight staff members every semester to provide excellent service evidenced by positive feedback from participants
•	Contributed to maintaining great service by organizing and planning staff training sessions and performance evaluations
•	Built an effective line of communication between participants and staff including introducing feedback procedures and changes implemented as a response to feedback 
•	Implemented several innovative changes to improve Recreation’s services such as introducing All-star games, creating promotion material and initiating new sport leagues

Depending on the department you work with the job as a TA can either be enjoyable or not. It also depends on the professor you are assigned to. I have had both wonderful and horrible experiences as a TA and that is in part due to professors I have worked with and the administration  of my department. In some cases the administration did not work to help me in other cases it did. It really just depends.

There is a lot of work attached to being a TA and if you have a great professor and good administrative help You are happy to do it. If you don't? It is like you are living a nightmare that will never end. Also sometimes your department just works against you in terms of providing jobs. I am a graduate student and need an income, this was said to be for the most part guaranteed, it's not. That's something that should be said.

Top Job Titles	Average salary
Research assistant 4 salaries reported	$22.75 per hour
Teaching assistant 11 salaries reported	$28.36 per hour
Postdoctoral fellow 17 salaries reported	$63,647 per year
Program assistant 3 salaries reported	$55,000 per year
Graduate assistant 3 salaries reported	$32.00 per hour

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