Memorial Sloan-Kettering Employee Review

Current Employee – been working at Memorial Sloan-Kettering

Pros – -Great reputation among the academic community
-Competitive pay and benefits compared to other regional counterparts (i.e. Mt Sinai, NY-Presby, Columbia, NYU, etc.)
-Not a great place to retire at, but a great career ladder

Cons – They get what they pay for and then some. Although pay and benefits are very competitive compared to other large NON-PROFIT academic communities, MSKCC has a very corporate attitude (heavy-handed bureaucracy, very political, etc). They are purportedly non-profit. However, there is high focus on production, publication, cost-cutting, etc. This translates into obscene work hours (50-60+ hrs/wk) for non-exempt employees that make having a work-life balance difficult. You may be making more than your medical/academic counterparts, but if you are treated like a corporate cog, you should receive pay equitable to the hamsters spinning the wheels of large pharmaceutical companies, consulting firms, etc. The great reputation of the place lies in the blood, sweat, and tears of non-tenure track research support staff, coordinators, interns, residents, fellows, scientists, scholars, and researchers. If you working directly for a drug company or contract research organization, you would be making significantly more for the hours you put in.

Advice to Senior Management – Recognize great talent from outside hires who have different perspectives on how other companies or academic institutions are run. Leverage this knowledge. Promote based on objective performance metrics, not just tenure. Seems like a lot of people are promoted internally not because they are the best performers, but because they kept their cubicle seats warm the longest and whine the loudest about how "I've been here for "x" years, therefore I should get a raise/promotion." It's good to reward "loyalty," but always remember: what you perceive as loyalty could actually be complacency and the signs of a stagnant, self-entitled employee that doesn't have much to contribute. Outside hires can encourage competition and bring fresh ideas. Since they go through the trouble of finding new work and "earning" a job offer, they are also more likely to be more motivated than internal hires who simply complain or badger about not getting raises/promotions.