While Stanford University purports to have a work-life balance and foster a safe environment in which you can learn and grow, the Graduate School of Business operates like your average bureaucratic organization.
The Marketing department in particular has notoriously inept leadership and high turnover. Management promotes alumni under the table and then allow said alumni to operate however they want; bullying and micromanaging run rampant. In fact, Stanford caters so broadly to their alumni that they’ll actually repurpose or recycle bad employees, shuffling them around from one job to the other instead of actually getting rid of them. So you’ve got incompetent people in leadership roles that are groomed to believe they are invincible and act accordingly.
Stanford has a 12-month probation period during which they can get rid of you for any reason—or none at all. This is unusual for an organization even by today's draconian at-will employment standards.
You'll be paid below market rate; however, it's fair to note that there are decent opportunities for advancement in some roles.
Job seekers beware: Hiring managers at the GSB have a very difficult time defining roles and tasks. It’s not at all unusual to have a position very quickly morph into something completely different than what you were hired to do. And if you push back in any way or ask for help, you pretty much put yourself on the chopping block. A good rule of thumb is that if the job seems more involved than the pay and/or title reflect, it's a safe bet that you're being taken advantage of for the sake of budget constraints.
Overall, Stanford definitely has its perks but it can also be more hassle than it’s worth; it all just depends on whom you report to. If you’re considering a position at the GSB—especially if you’re leaving a comfortable job to do so—think long and hard before taking that plunge.
