University of Cambridge Employee Reviews

Excellent university with very supportive staff. Highly competitive academic environment but more emphasis on mental well-being now post-COVID pandemic

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Insights into University of Cambridge

Based on 21 survey responses

What people like

Clear sense of purpose
General feeling of work happiness
Time and location flexibility

Reliable

Facilitator (Current Employee) - Cambridge, Cambridgeshire - 2 May 2023

Good place to work, but limited opportunities for promotion for higher grade jobs. Collegial atmosphere, some training options, a lot depends on your direct line manager.

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Great place

Tech (Current Employee) - Remote - 25 April 2023

Great place to workGood staffGood benefits Good locationWould recommend anyone and everyone to applyLeft as I had to move to a different country Would work here again

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Rewarding

Lab Manager (Current Employee) - Cambridge, Cambridgeshire - 28 March 2023

Really rewarding place to work. Salary is not great, but you get a good amount of days off, and work is not overly stressful. I recommend working here, if you can get a job.

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Student (Current Employee) - Cambridge, Cambridgeshire - 13 March 2023

Good university, nice location. The city is a lovely place to live for student years. Would definitely apply again if I had the chance. Not much more to add.

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Good

Finance Officer (Former Employee) - Central Cambridge - 15 January 2023

Good benefits, flexible working, ability to progress internally, hard company structure to understand at first.

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Don't become an animal technician

Animal Technician (Current Employee) - Cambridge - 3 January 2023

Don't become an animal technician, it's a souless job that not suitable for anyone who wants to do something positive.Do something else with your life, if your thinking it's a cool/good career then your wrong.Good luck with finding the right job.

Pros

Good hours, job security

Cons

Workload, terrible environment

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Relatively smart colleagues but bad management and bad work-life balance

Administrator (Current Employee) - Cambridge, Cambridgeshire - 28 December 2022

Pros:- Usually colleagues are smart in some aspects so can learn from their smartness. Cons:- Sometimes you discover some not-smart aspects of colleagues and those aspects can make you less happy at work- Managers have unrealistic expectations. Expect you to get a huge amount of work done with little time- A culture of people are regularly taken for granted to work outside of their paid hours to get huge amounts of work done. The people range from most senior ones to most junior ones.- Want employees to go back into office without good COVID prevention measures in place to protect employees

Pros

Colleagues are smart in some aspects

Cons

Over-work culture, managers have unrealistic expectations, bad COVID strategy

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Great place to work and learn

Study Manager (Current Employee) - Cambridge, Cambridgeshire - 20 November 2022

Good place to workAble to learn a lotRelaxed atmosphereHoliday allowance is goodAccess to play schemeParking availableCasual attireWould recommendGood work culture

Pros

Holiday

Cons

Lack of staff in other depts

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Great people and interesting science

Postdoctoral Research Associate (Former Employee) - United Kingdom - 19 November 2022

I worked here for many years as a student and postdoc. Lots of interesting and exciting science and other things going on. I learned a lot in this job but found the pressure to write papers a lot. I understand that this suits some people but it was not for me

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Good Place to Study

Student (Former Employee) - Cambridge, Cambridgeshire - 16 November 2022

Enjoyed my undergraduate studies at the University of Cambridge. Admittedly during the pandemic it wasn't very fun to deal with the disruptions, but that happened everywhere.

Pros

Good Professors

Cons

Pandemic Disruption

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Not competitive salaries

Research Associate (Current Employee) - Cambridge - 16 October 2022

Good work culture and life work balance.Not many benefits and low salariesStruggling to keep upwith the current marketProgression depends on the management

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Good pay, management needs improving

Administrato (Former Employee) - Cambrid - 25 July 2022

Good place to work, obviously it differs from department to department but overall a decent place. Management could be tricky at times but pay is decent.

Pros

Decent Pay

Cons

Lack of support from management

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Enjoyable workplace

Postdoctoral Research Associate (Former Employee) - Cambridge, Cambridgeshire - 24 June 2022

My time working here was great, but being a lab-based postdoc meant little job security and working long hours. That said, the academic freedom and closeness of people in my lab was great and something I really miss.

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Depends from the department

Programme Manager (Current Employee) - Cambridge - 4 June 2022

I had a few experiences at the university and they were very different. One very energising and family inclusive; the other one less engaging and more academic. It really depends from the department you’re working in.

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Boring and intense

PhD student (Former Employee) - Cambridge, Cambridgeshire - 19 May 2022

It can be nice to work in an environment filled with incredibly intelligent people, but most of them tend to be pretty boring, cold, opinionated and intense! People only talk about their work like 99% of the time, even at social events, they seem to have difficulty switching off (or talking about normal everyday subjects). There's also a constant peer pressure to appear 'intelligent' making most newcomers start to conform over time to almost all become cynical 'know-it-alls'.

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High workload and repetitive

Junior Animal Technician (Current Employee) - South Cambridge - 29 March 2022

Working hours are OK, overtime is well compensated and arranged with good notice. Workload is very repetitive and not very engaging. Lots of micromanaging and little opportunity to progress and take on new responsibilities.

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Love it here

Temporary Receptionist (Current Employee) - Cambridge - 2 December 2021

Love working here, did take a couple weeks to get a computer log in but the people are lovely, the hourly rate is great and it’s a place where people stay. I work with a colleague that’s worked for Cambridge university for 20 years

Pros

Lovely colleagues & good pay

Cons

Bit boring job

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Employment Law is a Joke

Accounts and Procurement (Former Employee) - CRUK - 1 November 2021

I worked for UC previously on a fixed-term contract and had a positive experience. The atmosphere was professional, the responsibilities are varied and matched my qualifications and education at that time. However, when it was over I was unable to find a next role with any of the departments. They replied to me saying that have 'better people', 'more qualified'. After some time, I was offered a position with one of the departments as an assistant of someone whose qualifications are well below then mine and with no previous experience. The role was mundane and management idiotic. The manager would often call me on the last minute of the last working hour and start a discussion. No overtime rate was offered.

Pros

Petty cash.

Cons

Poor pay and job security, poor management.

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Academic

Office Manager (Former Employee) - Cambridge, Cambridgeshire - 21 April 2020

It's a typical academic workplace – average salary but good benefits, educated colleagues, generally relaxed workplace but moments of more stressful work.

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