Acumen reviews

3.1

30% would recommend to a friend

(394 total reviews)

Thomas MaCurdy

5% approve of CEO

22% positive business outlook

Acumen has an employee rating of 3.1 out of 5 stars, based on 394 company reviews on Glassdoor which indicates that most employees have a good working experience there. The Acumen employee rating is in line with the average (within 1 standard deviation) for employers within the Government & Public Administration industry (3.6 stars).

Reviews by job title

394 reviews
1.0
May 18, 2016
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Acumen hires people from a wide variety of backgrounds and the hiring bar is really low as well. Almost all of the openings are at entry level. If you are looking to transition to a data analysis, research, or policy field, Acumen is a decent place to get that initial experience.

Cons

Don't stay at Acumen for more than a year or two. It is an extremely mismanaged company. Depending on who your manager is, you will either be underworked and bored or so overworked that working on weekends and late nights becomes the norm. The pay is low and Acumen has been coming up with new ways and excuses (such as delaying annual promotions and bonuses, etc) for not giving employees a raise/bonus. As people reach higher positions, Acumen will overwork employees to the point of quitting so that they can be replaced with cheaper fresh out of school graduates. Bonuses range from 0 to 2% of salary which is pretty much the same as non existent. Benefits suck.

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Acumen Response
9y
We are sincerely sorry that you have such an impression. We feel that it does not represent who we are as a company. Despite your perception, we are taking the comments left here into consideration and constantly striving for improvement.
1.0
Apr 19, 2016
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

nice view decent place to start your career right after college

Cons

salary is just ok; no work/life balance; people are leaving at a rapid rate; many people are stuck at Acumen because the H1B visa Acumen sponsors is a non-profit H1B. and it is hard to ask them to sponsor green card for you even though you have been working there for more than three years!

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Acumen Response
10y
Please feel free to reach out to our HR department or stop by during their open hours to discuss this in person.
2.0
Apr 11, 2016

Long way to go...

Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

There have been notable improvements in the last couple of years among the support groups such as IT, Admin and Facilities. They seem to communicate much better amongst themselves as well as with the office as a whole. There is a lagoon and walking path nearby the Burlingame office. Very smart people. For a company with a limited budget they try to put on fun events and provide some lunches and snacks.

Cons

Beware that not everyone gets a performance review. Therefore a lack of merit increase or promotion goes unexplained and opportunities for professional development or kudos for jobs well done are completely unrecognized. The ties between privilege and being an extended part of the Managing Director’s family is evident. There is a very uneven “good ‘ole boys club” that in this case doesn’t mean just the men but if you are somewhere around 1 to 3 degrees removed from the family you will be shown definite favor. If you’re not in that group you are at a clear disadvantage. The HR team is very much a clique and can often end up treating those not in that family club as “less than.” It’s very high school-like. It’s difficult to impossible to report the issue when they make up a large part of the problem. Providing salary bands for employees would help to set some standards. However, if you don’t receive a performance review the point is moot. The company is young in general. While there are a few “old heads” in their mid-30’s or older, the majority of staff are in the early to mid-20’s which leads to a social immaturity as well as lack of other professional and managerial experience. Though it’s an attempt, the 1 annual manager training isn’t going to do the trick. There is a high turn-over rate so those who stick around for a couple of years “qualify” as managers. Sometimes there is a depressing lack of challenging work in that your day to day activities become rote.

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Acumen Response
10y
Thanks for taking the time to leave this review. Honest feedback is important to us. Please include this information in the annual survey that is out right now as well.
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Glassdoor has 432 Acumen reviews submitted anonymously by Acumen employees. Read employee reviews and ratings on Glassdoor to decide if Acumen is right for you.