Pros
The University is great. The campus is beautiful. CSU is good. Benefits are great. The library is amazing and your breaks can be amazing in such a great environment. Please note, some departments are way better than others.
Cons
While the university is good overall, the HR department is not. Therefore, this review is intended to help those looking to work in the HR department: AVOID IT AT ALL COSTS. I've worked in many different organizations and this was BY FAR my worst experience. This department is unfair and toxic. - Managers in the dept. are incompetent and have never worked outside of the UC/CSU system. They have no real life experience. -It will be common to have a boss who spends all day shopping in the internet and you, with a lower pay will end up doing their job. It will also be common that there is no consequences to them. -If you speak up and raise an issue, you will be seen as a complainer. As a result, you will be blacklisted and your career growth will be blocked. It doesn't matter how great of an employee you are, a single true complain will roadblock you. So you either agree with management or forget about your growth. -Units are divided and it is all because of the management's incompetence. -The current VP is shady. A family friend was hired at above everybody's average, with an Assistant Manager position and he had NO experience and NO degree. That is as close as it gets to nepotism. -The VP has favorites and the entire department knows it. -Do not trust the welcoming feel of the vp. it's nothing but fake. Lying is highly tolerable here so managers get away with stuff. -There is a reason there are about 10 vacancies out of 40-50 positions and such a huge turnover. The turnover shows how horrible it is to work here. -You will NOT be appreciated. You will find that units hate each other and there is no collaboration and/or teamwork. Some little groups will bully others and management allows this, actually some of them even back them up. -The department has been so badly run in these last few years that you will end up FIXING people's HR needs. The employees are pissed at HR so every call, email and in-person contact you make with faculty and staff will very likely be a tough one. They hate every person in HR and it is for a good reason. The bad management has led to them being screwed up in every HR way possible (from overpay to underpay and lapse in benefit coverage) -You will learn how to troubleshoot and while that is a great skill to have, you will NOT learn how to do REAL HR work. Please do not take this lighlty, if you are looking to grow in HR, please please don't work here. -There are way better paid jobs in the Bay area. You can make 20k above what State pays for the same job and without any toxic environment.