system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
What is the faculty environment like at non-R1 institutions? Seeking career advice...

Over the past few months I've increasingly recognized that my chances of getting a tenure track position at a R1 institution are practically zero. I'm hoping that I can stay in academia if possible (background later in the post), so I wanted to get a feel for what the faculty environments are like at non-R1 institutions so I can get a sense of what would fit my interests best. For those who are faculty at non-R1 institutions, I'd like to get a sense for the following topics. For the record, I've experienced that R1 institutions have aspects that I like and also aspects that I dislike on each of these topics, so just wanted to see how different places compare.

1) What is the research environment like if your institution has a research component? What are your views about the support infrastructure for research, available time, integration of students in research, and the difficulty of obtaining extramural funding? 

2) What do you think about the students you get to teach / work with? Not just talking about grades or whatnot, but also about attitude in learning and the involvement of the students.

3) How would you describe your work/department culture? Are other faculty good to work with, authority structure, etc...?

4) What is the experience of progressing towards tenure at your institution? What kinds of pressures and criteria weight more heavily on how you're evaluated and your day-to-day activities?

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Background on why I'm asking these things: 

I'm a full-time non-TT assistant professor at an R1. For the record, I am under no illusions that being tenure track and eventually getting tenure is some sort of magical threshold after which everything will be awesome. But I do enjoy what I do - I like the research I do, the students I work with, most of the people I work with directly have been great, and I've enjoyed teaching (although only 2 classes/year) so far. I'm paid on the same salary scale as the tenure-track professors, which in my field is fairly decent. But at the end of the day: I am 100% extramurally grant funded and this position will not last in the long term. While I've been able to obtain a good amount of funding so far, I've been around long enough to know that funding goes up and down and eventually there will be a time when I won't be able to obtain the funding necessary to support my position.

So if possible, I'd like to move into a more permanent position for the long term. I don't have any specific preference for trying to be at an R1. I don't see it as "higher" or whatnot than other institution types, but I've mostly applied to openings at R1s because I had it in my head for some reason that only those institutions would provide the positive aspects similar to what I have now, and I've slowly started to recognize that that premise isn't true.

The job search at R1 institutions has been frustrating and I'm starting to question whether I really fit in at these kinds of institutions. I've been a finalist (on-campus interviewee) multiple times for openings at R1s but never been selected. When I've gotten feedback on their decision it's often some variation of that my academic record is good and much of the faculty likes me, but I don't have the reputation to attract the "caliber" of students and level of resources that they want to move the department towards meeting their goals. 

Personally, I don't really believe in what a lot of people (especially at R1s) make of weird academic metrics and the emphasis on academic reputation along with the attached politics/social dynamics. I just want to focus on doing good useful work, educating students, building good working relationships, saying something when I have something substantial to say, and try to stay out of all of the reputation dynamics. I had always thought that this approach would build a reputation as a byproduct and be enough for me to get a TT position at an R1. But I'm seeing that because of how reputation works in my field and type of institution, I'm always going to be behind the leading up and coming names when it comes to the strength of my academic reputation as it's defined in these contexts. That's a subject for another post.
gpt
Im just going to be very straight about this.  Reputation matters.

Very few Universities provide a positive and fulfilling work environment, and the division isn't R1 vs non-R1.  R1 is about mission, not quality.  There are a number of R1s that are absolute nightmare work environments.

Many R1s are R1 in name only, carried by a few well funded departments (usually tied to big medical programs, like Wayne State).

Many R2s, and SLACs provide excellent work environments, and are quite fulfilling places to people whose values align well with their missions.

But most Universities are terrifying places to make a career.  Most have awful staff, bitter infighting and politics, corrupt administrators, and lack-luster academics.