[speaker001:] so um are you working right now
[speaker002:] uh yes I am I'm working in the computer science department here uh at CMU
[speaker001:] uh what kind of what kind of work do you do
[speaker002:] uh I'm doing basically system system design work and uh implementation work for the speech
[speaker001:] um-hum
[speaker002:] for the speech group uh here
[speaker001:] ah what is that how you heard about this thing
[speaker002:] yeah actually through electronic mail
[speaker001:] uh uh-huh me too I work at uh the Georgia Tech Research Institute
[speaker002:] um-hum
[speaker001:] um I'm a co-op student so I work and go to school about halftime and uh I really don't have any job benefits to speak of we're kind of um I don't know they just kind of forget us on that end we don't really have any vacation or you know sick days or health care or anything really so
[speaker002:] right so your pretty they're they've got you slaving away at at this point yeah well um
[speaker001:] exactly exactly what about you
[speaker002:] I'm research staff here now so what they they have uh um okay benefits package it's not quite as good as industry but one of the significant um benefits here is that you can take uh up to two courses a semester um and they pay for you know pay for the classes so for Carnegie Mellon that works out to be um a reasonable a reasonable benefit
[speaker001:] hm yeah uh they do that I think if you're uh research title staff here then I know of some of the people that have gotten their masters and I think that um they might you know pay for that pay for the classes and stuff but I know they let you they'll let you decrease how many hours you work by any kind of percentage you know they'll let you work halftime if you want to if you wanna finish you wanna
[speaker002:] um-hum if you wanted to do it quickly
[speaker001:] yeah if they'll let you work decrease your number of hours by any percentage just just about so if if you wanna get your masters and then I think of course you get like a with your extra degrees you get a pay raise due so
[speaker002:] um-hum um-hum
[speaker001:] that'll probably help out but
[speaker002:] yeah yeah so I I don't know in in terms of other things other benefits other than sort of monetary I'd you know I
[speaker001:] do you get any kind of health care type stuff
[speaker002:] yeah we we do we have to contribute a certain amount uh to it
[speaker001:] uh-huh
[speaker002:] and it's kind of split between CMU and and you know the employee
[speaker001:] yeah yeah I think I mean that's pretty important that's a pretty important uh part of it there because that that can be really expensive if you ever have any health problems my dad I think my I'm still covered on with my dad's uh health plan at his where he works but
[speaker002:] right
[speaker001:] it definitely be something to look into I guess once I get my own
[speaker002:] yeah yeah and it's also right now it's uh the like everywhere else uh here in Pittsburgh the health care uh rates are are going up pretty quickly
[speaker001:] uh-huh
[speaker002:] that's a whole nother topic
[speaker001:] yes
[speaker002:] to begin with too but yeah but it's you're right I I I really agree that that that's pretty important
[speaker001:] the only I think the I guess the only real um benefit I guess you could say working for me working here besides I mean I'm learning and stuff because I'm at you know in school but
[speaker002:] right right
[speaker001:] there's there's some weird law where um um student employees working for the government don't have to pay Social Security tax
[speaker002:] um-hum  oh now that's a big win
[speaker001:] though that's about five percent right there so
[speaker002:] yeah yeah uh that's
[speaker001:] that's about the only real bonus
[speaker002:] yeah
[speaker001:] I have so I have to take that into consideration when I evaluate like how much I get paid relative you know because if I was working somewhere else I'd have to you know pay an extra five percent or so
[speaker002:] yeah I figured for and they've just raised the um income caps on Social Security to the point where you have to be pretty you have to be pretty well off before you stop paying
[speaker001:] hm yeah
[speaker002:] paying that as well yeah well if you could call it a benefit that CMU I mean the the other thing that they allow you to do here while you are working is is consult for um you know other companies
[speaker001:] oh yeah
[speaker002:] um so that's that kind of helps out in terms of you know keeping up-to-date with contacts in industry
[speaker001:] um-hum yeah I imagine that'd help a lot
[speaker002:] you know in case you know in case you ever need to bail out
[speaker001:] yeah see around around here it's like uh we pretty much work from project to project on well you know with different sponsors
[speaker002:] um-hum
[speaker001:] a there's not there's not a whole lot of you know funded research from