Pros
ASAE was an amazing place to work while I was there. I would have stayed longer, but it lacked the upward mobility that I was looking for. Your experience there is largely determined by the leadership and their expectations of their teams. The team I was in had extremely high expectations, but also incredibly supportive supervisors who were willing to listen and respect staff feedback and opinions. Instead of being micro-managed or dictated to, we were respected as a part of the team. That isn't the case in all silos at ASAE. There are a few core teams that are phenomenal and others that are toxic and bring the rest of the organization down. The meetings and exposition and marketing teams at ASAE are incredibly professional and have all-star staff that are excellent to work with. Like any organization, if you're deemed a "favorite" then many more opportunities at ASAE seem to open to you to keep you happy and engaged in the work. It is a great benefit if you're one of the chosen few, but can be a moral kill if you aren't. The work ASAE does is very beneficial to the association community and is diverse so that you're constantly working on different projects. It is a great way to foster creativity. ASAE is also very business and data driven, which allows for strategic thinking and gives you tools that smaller associations typically can't afford or manage. ASAE has a great work-life balance and work after regular 9-5 hours rarely happens. They also have good benefits, like their 401K matching program. The healthcare is good, but has gotten worse in recent years.
Cons
ASAE has very little upward mobility. If you're good, supervisors will try to find ways to engage you, but there is almost no way to get promoted unless someone else leaves. This is challenging once you hit a certain point in your career when you're ready to move forward. Also, the senior teams and executive teams are all in their later careers and not likely to turn over their positions. Such a tenured team means that there are areas of low turnover for those looking for growth and lots of stale thinking. The executive team has always been part of the problem for ASAE's culture and growth. They don't set an example for the rest of the organization and use politics and manipulation to get what they want accomplished. This trickles down to other staff and creates a lot of flighting between teams and tension. ASAE works their staff too hard. The organization constantly comes up with new products and services without sunsetting others and without growing the staff, which leads to overworked staffed or projects that don't get the love and attention they deserve because staff are spread too thin. ASAE does not pay their employees well. Despite publishing a compensation and benefits report, ASAE salaries often don't hit the range they publish and if they do, it is the bottom of the range. Because promotions are hard to get unless someone leaves, many people leave and come back or leave in general to get a better salary. This creates high turnover. Lastly, the HR department at ASAE isn't an advocate for its employees. Apart from one of their newer highers, they don't function well. They are there to push paperwork and that's about it. There have been extremely toxic employees that had numerous reports and nothing was done to address the situation. Additionally, the culture at ASAE got so bad this past year that a whole committee was created just to address the issues that were coming up. It should never have got to that point and HR should have been addressing those issues from the very start.
