I will say that things move very slow. I have been had 2 different positions here at State.

My first job on campus - I applied to in February. I didn't hear a thing until July. When I got a phone call for the interview, I didn't know what job they were even referring to, I had forgotten. A week later I had the interview, 2 weeks later I got the job offer, started 2 weeks after that.

Things move slow. You just have to be patient and wait it out.

As far as finding out more info, most of the wait is just bureaucracy, and out of the control of the hiring officials/office. In my experience, I would say reaching out for a 'status update' does more harm than then good, as you can come across as impatient, and gives the notion that you may not do well in a high bureaucracy environment. So I tell my friends unless you have a close relationship with someone in the office, don't reach out to them to 'check on the status of your application'.

[Edited on January 27, 2017 at 8:23 AM. Reason : ]

1/27/2017 8:20:17 AM

^ I agree, it was like 1.5 months before I heard anything back about my current position. Employer even told me he was trying to hire someone "quickly" and I was like ???

Quote :

"Honest question for you all. 1. How hard is it to even get a response on an application? (for me it seems REAL HARD) 2. Do any of you have any openings coming up in the next month or so?"

I have had 4 jobs around state. If you are looking for jobs at state I would keep checking the job board every 3 days. There will be an onslaught of temp jobs for field work in the coming month or so.

Just be aware, permanent technicians have been eliminated almost across the board. Most things are part time and/or temporary and you are employed for the season. Best case scenario as a temporary position is that you take a solid month off at the end of the year so that you maintain temp status, and they rehire after the month is up, I have only seen one PT job operate this way. It used to be standard that profs involved in research had FT perm technicians, freeing them up for grant writing and more advanced analytics, however giving parts of campus a makeover seems to be more important. The only techs left are on their way out, once retired they close the position. I only know about CALS, so maybe engineering or other "high profit" departments operate differently

You won't get benefits unless you are a FT prof

[Edited on January 27, 2017 at 9:14 AM. Reason : .]

1/27/2017 9:12:41 AM

You get benefits for any full FTE position.

In my experience, techs are paid by researchers via grant funds. Grants across all disciplines are smaller and harder to get. Thus, the permanent tech position is going away. They just don't fit in University research budget model anymore. Some departments will hire techs out of department funds with the expectation that they'll support multiple research groups. Those are rare. Departments these days tend to have budget problems if their own. My department can barely afford bare bones admin staff.

As for hiring timelines, it depends on who is doing the hiring. If the unit in question wants someone quick, they'll respond to applications the same day they come in. Other units will just sit on applications for a few months until they feel they have a big enough pool. YMMV.

1/27/2017 10:13:11 AM

^I think what you're saying applies more for faculty/research type of positions. We are hiring administrative positions constantly. As you can imagine, turnover in CALS is pretty high but we aren't unique in that regard either.

Quote :

"Honest question for you all. 1. How hard is it to even get a response on an application? (for me it seems REAL HARD) 2. Do any of you have any openings coming up in the next month or so? "

A few things worth noting:

1. It isn't advertised but a lot of times when jobs are posted, there is somebody in mind internally. We are required to advertise jobs to the public since we are a public institution and most of the jobs are state of NC jobs. Therefore, the unfortunate side effect of this is that you may even get an interview but your chances are slim to none unless you just blow everyone away. Even other NC State employees trying to make a lateral move run into this.

2. If there isn't somebody internal, there are other hiring preferences in place. For example, if a State of NC employee is laid off (or even fired in some cases) they are eligible for preference to get reinstated. I believe there are also veteran preferences (I know there were in the Federal government) and maybe others.

3. Once your name makes it down to the review pile you'll find yourself there with a lot of other people. The lower on the organizational chart the job you're applying to, the more applications you'll be competing with (and by extension more people with preference). So maybe you get through all that and maybe you get a call back or even an interview. The job may be posted preemptive of funding. So this job you got your hopes up for never ends up getting funded, or other things happen and they pull the posting. Sorry. It happens all the time in the public sector.

I worked for State as a contracted graduate student and stayed on contract for 1.5 years thereafter. They could never get me fully converted to permanent so I left for three years and went Federal (that was a nightmare too where I had to fight between contracts until I could find a loophole to get hired permanent).

I applied to over 50 jobs at State in that three year time period. I was brought in to interview for three positions including the job that I currently have. One I didn't like the fit, one they didn't like the fit, and one that fit great.

If you're applying to something in CALS shoot me a PM.

Also, you'll tend to see more jobs opening up in April / May / June because it's getting closer to the end of the state fiscal year (ends June 30) and departments need to spend down funds.

Good luck

[Edited on January 27, 2017 at 10:29 AM. Reason : .]

1/27/2017 10:18:22 AM

Quote :

"In my experience, techs are paid by researchers via grant funds. Grants across all disciplines are smaller and harder to get. Thus, the permanent tech position is going away. They just don't fit in University research budget model anymore. Some departments will hire techs out of department funds with the expectation that they'll support multiple research groups. Those are rare. Departments these days tend to have budget problems if their own. My department can barely afford bare bones admin staff."

yes techs are typically funded by research grants, as I currently am.... and I get weekly updates on how long my funding will last. Last month it was expected to dry up in Jan, then 2 weeks later it was Feb, then last week I found out June.

I have only held grant funded positions, in my limited CALS they have been getting more unstable over the last 3 years. I will say I was in a position from 2008-2009 and then prematurely let go because CALS decided to take the remainder of the funds ($15,000) to "balance a deficit", which is legal for them to do despite the college and department overhead already paid. It immediately killed my position and paused all projects that prof was working on. That was not a good year for NCSU, and since I haven't heard of that, hopefully those instances were isolated to the economic crash. Perhaps I am cynical, but these tech positions wreak havoc on my anxiety I am grateful for the mentorships I have received over the years, I have always really enjoyed the research I am apart of, I have always had great supervisors and hard working supporting staff, and working for NCSU always looks good on a resume. Just beware of where your funding comes from and just know it might not work out the way you were told when you interviewed. Even if you love the work, and your supervisor loves your work, you might not get to stay around long. I hope that this is not your experience and I wish you luck. I might even suggest keeping to the admin type jobs, they are more secure.

1/27/2017 12:09:10 PM

Are you telling me that the department just reallocated 5-account money away from the PI's control?!

1/27/2017 4:46:12 PM

I'm not sure what kind of account it was, I was hired... worked for 3 weeks and promptly let go.

The professor was almost in tears explaining that CALS or perhaps it was the University, I am not entirely sure of these details.... anyway they froze the money from the prof and took enough out of it to end what we were working on. He may have picked it back up again, they may have reimbursed him later, I really have no clue.

1/31/2017 4:50:04 PM

Also CALS (maybe this is more university wide policy, I'm not sure) chased away a google grant, we (my prof) were in the final money talk. University would not budge on the 50% overhead charge. It was a $500K grant total, and they wanted their cut which is typically 50%, so you have to work that into the contract. 50% of $500 pushes the grand total up to 750K and google was considering it, but they were hesistant with the huge price tag and the university wouldn't budge on the number. The nail that killed the entire deal was the tech transfer stuff, NCSU wanted to maintain all patent rights. The profs involved were not concerned by the patent rights, so they agreed NCSU would not let that go so the deal died and no one got funded. Google in all likelihood took their grant to another university or private company.

I understand most of why that stuff is there, but are you trying to tell me that you would give up all that investment over something like that. Obviously google would never invest in something they had no rights to and couldn't make money on. The university should be concerned with attracting these big private investors and keeping their employees busy with new and intriguing research that will reflect well on the department and the school as a whole. This is essentially why I have to move on from my current position. The federal grants are an annual thing with no guarantee. My prof/supervisor was hoping this google grant would keep my position open for 3 years, whereas now my position is open until June. Any thoughts? (keep in mind my knowledge of the details is pretty limited)

2/1/2017 3:12:06 PM

Quote :

"Oh damn I miss IP3 Wednesdays. The 2 slice and a drink combo for $5.50 was on point. The bschool had Banditos instead of Captain Ponchos, but I never really ate anything besides IP3."

Shawna, they updated the rotation at The Beach. Nobody liked Captain Poncho's, so they booted them and replaced them with Bandido's! It makes Friday so much better. Went last week and one of the guys that works at the Hillsborough restaurant recognized me.

2/1/2017 5:55:13 PM

^^^so I looked into this. apparently during that time there were university-wide reductions and furloughs. basically the State wanted cutbacks and the university actually absorbed/sheltered us from the brunt of it but they did kick back a 7% reduction to the colleges so it's likely since you weren't a permanent employee you were hurt by that.

[Edited on February 2, 2017 at 9:38 AM. Reason : .]

2/2/2017 9:20:36 AM

yes, there were a lot of furloughs I remember that. At first the prof I was working for felt that we were secure bc I was in a grant funded position, but the account freeze (or whatever it was) meant no mo money for any of his workers, there were 2.

2/2/2017 1:21:45 PM

The 51% overhead and all the tech transfer stuff is consistent with the terms of all grants with the federal government. Those details can be deviated from, but not without a lot of prior planning and negotiation. The university runs "service centers" more tailored for that sort of thing. If it was a large grant ($1+ million) the University would likely have been more interested in negotiating.

2/2/2017 1:22:07 PM

^ yea I know it's standard. I just thought it was interesting that they didn't do anything to secure the contract. Also thought it would be weird for any private entity to give up patent rights, but maybe there is a reason?

also I know 750K is no big thing for NCSU, but it was going to be pretty big deal for the department.

2/2/2017 2:10:24 PM

Considering that the situation involved google, I can see the university being more inflexible than usual. The University really wants exploitable patents. It gives them a revenue stream independent of the state.

I'd kind of expect that any patentable work would be jointly shared between google, the PI(s), and the University. If google wouldn't agree to that, they shouldn't be funding academics. Though.... I guess they didn't.

[Edited on February 2, 2017 at 3:41 PM. Reason : can't type]

2/2/2017 3:39:15 PM

I don't know the finer details, so I can't elaborate if there were talks about shared patent rights. Interesting

2/3/2017 1:22:47 PM

glad I'm exempt but feel bad for those who aren't. this system is nuts.

7/25/2017 9:20:12 AM

Yeeep. Everyone i've talked to that's non-exempt hates it.

One of the big confusing things in the rounding. It rounds your time to the nearest 15 minutes...but apparently doesn't round until after the end of the week when your supervisor approves the time. So after rounding, you could be under 40 hours for the week, so you'd have to take vacation time since the rounding happens after the week ends.

It's nuts.

7/25/2017 9:39:57 AM

I haven't heard a single person say they like it. The ones who were on the fence who thought "maybe it won't be that bad" have long since decided it's trash.

7/26/2017 7:13:25 AM

What changed for y'all? Your time card system get messed up?

7/26/2017 8:15:58 AM

Prior to Wolftime, there was no time card system. Folks filled out a manual excel time sheet monthly, which was sent to somewhere in HR (I guess?). HR showed some ridiculous one-off example of a jacked up timesheet during a presentation/powerpoint as the need for a switch to this new system. So instead of filling out a simple excel file that showed 8a-5p with an hour for lunch everyday more or less, they now have to clock in at a time clock (which I'm sure some department is profiting off the sale of) or clock in from a computer. I have yet to speak to anyone who likes having to physically clock in/out twice a day over filling out a spreadsheet once a month. Prior to the installation of a time clock, everyone was forced to clock in from their computer. If it took you 10 minutes to get to your desk, boot up your machine, get the page to load, and clock in - then tough shit, you didn't get credit for those 10 minutes.

The rounding issue mentioned above is just a part of the reason the system is garbage. It's possible to work over 40 hours during the week, but because of how the system rounds your time on a daily basis to get credit for less than 40 hours. I'm sure most bosses would see you worked over 40 and be fine with adjusting your time before they submit their stuff to ensure you get credit for a full 40, but it is possible to work 40 hours and have to take leave because the system thinks you worked less than 40.

[Edited on July 26, 2017 at 9:28 AM. Reason : foo]

7/26/2017 9:25:40 AM

Wow that is seriously fucked. UNC uses Kronos from Workforce Central. Its basically an online time card/spreadsheet thing. It is nice because it automatically tallies your hours, can tell you how much leave you have, etc. In my department we just fill it out and approve it at the end of our two week pay cycle on Friday. Bosses approve them on the following Monday, which my boss just rubber stamps them all without a glance, as long as we don't go over 80 hours for the two-week period. It works quite well, and we don't get nickel-and-dimed over stupid bullshit like you mentioned.

7/26/2017 12:54:32 PM

it's crazy. we've had to tell employees to take 2 hours lunches to come up on time. our department doesn't allow much/any flexibility. You have set hours with set lunch hours (required 30 minutes at least) and the system is very hard to manage from the supervisor/timekeeping end too. if you get here early you pretty much have to just sit in your car - but not too long! - because if you're not within 7 minutes before or after, it rounds up.

7/26/2017 1:08:59 PM

^^ That sounds more along the lines of what was in place, other than the automated system. A spreadsheet you fill in with your times and send it off weekly/monthly/whatever, not physically clocking in/out twice per day.

It's micro-management, and it's pissing people off because:
a. the system is trash, and clocking in/out is fucking stupid for salaried employees
b. of course it doesn't apply to all employees, just certain ones who aren't lucky enough to be considered exempt

As seen here, even those exempt hate it. It's pretty much universally reviled by all employees.

7/26/2017 1:30:49 PM

Yea the biggest complaint we had about Kronos was that the original system used Java, which is obviously going away and blocked by default in some browsers. People had issues with that, but it has since been resolved. We had to do some similar shit (time clock system) when I worked at RRGSD. It was a bit of a pain in the ass, but the best part was, I was an admin as I was half the IT department. So I could clock in at my desk, but more importantly I could adjust the time if I went to a room to work at first, or whatever. Still was a bit of a PITA.

7/26/2017 1:36:58 PM

I'm also exempt (EHRA/Director Level). But let me tell you. Wolftime is the devil.

7/27/2017 3:33:40 PM

This thread just made me really glad to be exempt.

7/31/2017 4:13:05 PM

I just wanted to come back here and hate on fucking Wolftime.

8/16/2017 11:54:23 AM

Seem innocuous to me. What's your beef?

8/16/2017 4:49:04 PM

I still hate it, a lot.

8/30/2017 9:45:20 AM

Yea sounds like ridiculous bullshit to me as somebody who has a much "better" system on the other side of the Triangle at a state university.

8/30/2017 11:47:39 AM

it actually has a bunch of shitty features even if you are exempt, like when you request leave and need to edit it - it won't let you cancel/change the request until your supervisor logs in and approves/denies the original.

everyone keeps forgetting to sign out and it's creating a ton of extra work on supervisors or coordinators to go in and edit the time cards, document it, etc.

8/30/2017 12:00:08 PM

^Our time off requests are still a bit fucked up, but nothing like that.

8/30/2017 12:25:47 PM

MY GOD WHY IS MY EMPLOYEES' TIME NOT SUBMITTING

AND THE LAAAAGGGGGGGGGGGGGG

8/30/2017 3:19:49 PM

Quote :

"a. the system is trash, and clocking in/out is fucking stupid for salaried employees b. of course it doesn't apply to all employees, just certain ones who aren't lucky enough to be considered exempt As seen here, even those exempt hate it. It's pretty much universally reviled by all employees. "

Not to get too political, but this was the GOP gov/legislators idea on how to try and save money... state level legislators will listen to a state employee if you write them with your specific qualms and what can be done to fix it.

8/30/2017 8:33:04 PM

Quote :

"Not to get too political, but this was the GOP gov/legislators idea on how to try and save money... state level legislators will listen to a state employee if you write them with your specific qualms and what can be done to fix it."

Not exactly. The GOP basically said that they need to get better on tracking worked time, but gave no specifics (thats why all the UNC System schools have their own, different systems). It was NC State HR that came in and decided this is how we would do it. Someone specially asked the AVC over HR why this system was chosen over one like UNC does, and basically she said they didn't event consider UNC's system, as they didn't think it's accurate enough.

She also said that the system had been successful, and they had received basically no negative comments about the system (for real, she said this).

8/31/2017 8:08:11 AM

Quote :

"She also said that the system had been successful, and they had received basically no negative comments about the system (for real, she said this)."

Jesus fucking Christ. She's obviously never ventured outside of the department and spoken to literally anyone else on campus. I'm praying they do a "post-rollout" survey in the coming months. My comments are going to be hotter than the sun.

9/5/2017 9:21:48 AM

DIE

WOLFTIME

DIE

Good lord, managing my people's time is like being nibbled to death by ducks.

11/30/2017 3:52:58 PM

Marko, one thing is not clear from your posts on this page, are you or are you not a manager?

11/30/2017 4:49:59 PM

Sounds like a supervisor to me.

11/30/2017 5:04:12 PM

My favorite thing about wolftime is we get the approval alert email every week when it's only needed biweekly. This sets of a lovely chain of events when one of our admin staff is on vacation and the other thinks 30+ biweekly staff won't get paid if every supervisor doesn't log in and approve it RIGHT NOW.

11/30/2017 10:30:29 PM

Wolftime is the epitome of state shit.

11/30/2017 11:38:16 PM

Quote :

"Marko, one thing is not clear from your posts on this page, are you or are you not a manager?"

ARE YOU KIDDING ME?

Quote :

"I'm also exempt (EHRA/Director Level)"

Quote :

"MY GOD WHY IS MY EMPLOYEES' TIME NOT SUBMITTING"

Quote :

"managing my people's time is like being nibbled to death by ducks."

12/1/2017 1:00:40 AM

pretty sure he was being sarcastic

12/3/2017 5:54:01 PM