If you are seeking a staff (non-faculty, non-research) position, look elsewhere
Pros
I was profoundly inspired and excited to land a role at Stanford, and believed I was becoming a part of something important. I even thought I would sunset my career here. One of the major benefits was doing new things in my field and becoming more of an expert in my industry than I was prior to working here.
Cons
The other side of my experience was grossly negative. It was disillusioning to discover Stanford is just as archaic as every other university if not much more due to the "Stanford Bubble" effect. The thing that caught me most by surprise was the motivation of women in senior leadership positions to actively bully and mistreat other women with high potential, and leaders who were happy to look the other way as long as the status quo was maintained. The environment isn't toxic for everyone, but if you have any sense of confidence, ambition, or rightly assume that you have something to contribute, you should anticipate these qualities becoming a problem. It's interesting that many of the HR people migrate between the university and the hospitals. Essentially, you get the same people floating in and out of different parts of of the Stanford system and I can't help but wonder if that maintains the dysfunction that Stanford is known for. The best advice I could give anyone is to document every single remotely toxic situation you find yourself in. Don't bother sending anything to Labor and Relations. Send it to the EEOC. As for salary, "Exceeds Expectations" on annual reviews yielded a 2.7-2.8% salary increase to a salary range already categorized as "moderately low income" for the Bay Area.
