Simon Fraser University
Simon Fraser University Employee Reviews
Found 124 reviews matching the search See all 126 reviews
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Good, bad, ugly
Faculty Associate/PDP Program (Current Employee) – Burnaby, BC – 21 November 2018
There are opportunities for great professional development with extremely well educated professionals. lYearly, I lose pay compared to working as a full time teacher as it is not year round salary,. There is also little job stability
Great with flaws
TEACHING ASSISTANT (Former Employee) – Burnaby, BC – 13 November 2018
working for SFU was a great learning experience. The amount of access to materials and resources is highly admirable. I'd like to see further compensation within different sectors that need it most.
Pros
Resources and access
Cons
pay
Exciting
Research Participant (Current Employee) – Toronto, ON – 17 August 2018
Volunteering in a thesis project as a research participant was exciting, as the topic of the thesis was relevant to my life. Participants were provided with gift cards as compensation for their time.
Great positions and excellent pay
Graduate Research Assistant (Former Employee) – Burnaby, BC – 21 January 2019
Lots of room for advancement and the pay is great. It is a little hard to get in and you may end up trying many times. It is best to start off in the temporary pool and work your way upwards. Persistence is key in getting in.
The workload depends on the project and the supervisor. If you plan on being in the research field, this is a great way to start
The workload depends on the project and the supervisor. If you plan on being in the research field, this is a great way to start
Being a TA was great, otherwise SFU doesn't seem to hire their own grads
Teaching Assistant (TA) (Former Employee) – Burnaby, BC – 10 December 2018
Teaching students was great. The pay as TA is not outstanding and it is a good amount of work. The university seems to pay some staff very well but I am not sure what one has to do to get one of those jobs, apparently getting a graduate degree plus tons of relevant work experience is not enough. A lot of the full-time, permanent staff members are unapproachable and a bit entitled.
time spent
Community Investigator (Current Employee) – Vancouver, BC – 10 January 2019
I am thankful that they are flexible and very accommodating. The times I have attended numerous meetings. The staff of the University were extremely helpful in guiding me to the right room.
Pros
very inclusive of marginalized populations
Cons
really don't have any
Interesting work with rich job duties
Teaching Assistant (Former Employee) – Burnaby, BC – 7 November 2018
I have run two tutorials and held office hour each week to address students' course-related questions. Besides teaching, I also marked students' exams and presentation.
The work is heavy, but very fun and challenging to do. I have learned excellent multi-task and communication skills from this job.
The work is heavy, but very fun and challenging to do. I have learned excellent multi-task and communication skills from this job.
Great place to work
Teaching Assistant (TA) (Former Employee) – Burnaby, BC – 21 November 2018
This is a great place to work; departments differ but the biology department is for the most part a great environment to work in. Sessional teaching positions and research assistantships are often available, faculty position also come up occasionally as well.
good working place
Academic Tutor - Academic First Program (Former Employee) – Burnaby, BC – 19 October 2018
A good working atmosphere here, people are friendly and you will learn a lot. The working culture here are also good, as your colleagues will teach you a lot.
SFU review
Research Assistant (Former Employee) – Burnaby, BC – 22 July 2018
Typical day was ok. I learned about genetic sequence analysis, scripting, cluster computing. Management was ok, could be improved. The workplace culture was different as is a university rather than a conventional environment .
This place could kill your light
Tutor Marker, Education Dept (Former Employee) – Burnaby, BC – 21 April 2018
SFU is a place of anxiety and pain. Do yourself a favour and get out instead of getting involved.
Management is oppressive, oversight of how your immediate superiors treat you is anything from lax to nonexistent and the system seems to rely on whoever the present lowest employee level is working extra hours unpaid. If you care about the overall health of the school then you'll be crying trying to alter things, but if you only care about your own butt then you might enjoy life under some one of SFU's many rocks of nonsense.
Management is oppressive, oversight of how your immediate superiors treat you is anything from lax to nonexistent and the system seems to rely on whoever the present lowest employee level is working extra hours unpaid. If you care about the overall health of the school then you'll be crying trying to alter things, but if you only care about your own butt then you might enjoy life under some one of SFU's many rocks of nonsense.
Pros
There are some cool people here
Cons
Miasma of fear and oppression, devious management, wage calculated to make life so hard you go into debt
Educational and Productive environment to grow in.
Graduate Teaching Assistant (Former Employee) – Burnaby, BC – 15 August 2018
Our lab allowed for an amazing growth opportunity, with a supervisor who ensured that we gained skills that would server us outside academia. Working as a teaching assistant provided a chance to improve public speaking abilities as well as the critical thinking needed to convey material to students.
Enjoyable and helped develop my interpersonal skills
Recreation Sports Manager, Part time, 8hrs/wk (Former Employee) – Burnaby, BC – 19 May 2015
My position as a Recreation Manager for SFU Recreation required versatility, a team mentality and excellent interpersonal skills. I was a fitting representative for SFU Recreation, where they promote active living and personal health in student life. I have received the Recreational Promotion and Leadership Awards multiple times in my time with this organization. This position required multitasking through managing multiple sport leagues with diverse teams of students, who differ in majors and years of study. In every semester, I am responsible for upwards of 200 participants and 10 staff members, of which I am the main point of communication. In my evaluation meetings, I am praised for my ability to form positive relationships with many participants.
Sometimes lots of work
Economics Department Teacher's Assistant (Former Employee) – Burnaby, BC – 13 October 2018
I was a teaching assistant while I was a student at Simon Fraser University. Sometimes there was lots of work and it was a hard to stay on top of my own school work
productive and fun
Rec Sports Senior Manager (Former Employee) – Burnaby, BC – 9 October 2018
Provided opportunities for students to grow. A typical day at work includes customer service, interacting with participants and supervising the rec center.
Pros
flexible hours
Great atmosphere to work in, a bit difficult to deal with so many different departments
President of the SIAT Student Union (Former Employee) – Burnaby, BC – 4 April 2018
My position often varied from week to week due to the diverse amount of projects and the different requests from different departments. This really helped me get exposed to a lot of different jobs and skills.I did not like dealing with waiting for different people to e-mail me back through the processes of the projects. I was always quite busy and it slowed me down a lot when clients would take longer than a week to respond about projects they asked me to do. However, my coworkers made up for any annoyances I had. I worked with a lot of SFU students so we got along quite well. Since they were senior students, I learned a lot from them as well.
Pros
Great work culture
Cons
A lot of busy clients to wait on
Fulfilling
Research Assistant (Current Employee) – Burnaby, BC – 20 June 2018
Kick-started my career as a research assistant there. Learned a lot about employment systems in Canada and in the Academic field.
There are lots of options and opportunities, one needs to know what they want and go for it.
There are lots of options and opportunities, one needs to know what they want and go for it.
Welcome to the boys Club
Project Lead (Current Employee) – SFU Burnaby – 23 June 2015
This is a great place to work, even more so if you are a guy. I have worked here for almost 2 years and I have only ever seen 1 non-male employee. Which is the biggest drawback to working here, I can't confirm if my managers are actually sexist or if they just don't have any female applicants but regardless it is very weird to have 0 women on staff. Other then that these guys are great, they work with you about your schedule and they are always willing to train you up to make sure you know what you are doing. The salary could be better but I understand why it is what it is.
Pros
learn new stuff, make friends, have fun
Cons
potentially sexist managers.