Acumen reviews

If you’re applying here expecting to do the labor or social policy work advertised on the company’s website, don’t bother because those projects are long gone. There’s not a whole lot of mobility between teams/departments—except if you’re underperforming and the company won’t fire you so they just make you someone else’s problem—so you’ll likely be stuck working on the same thing the entire time you stay. Even if the project is interesting, it will undoubtedly get old after a while. Career growth for Acumen’s longer term employees, or those that come in with some work experience or an advanced degree under their belts, is non-existent. The company seems to assume at this point that most people will stay for one to two years max and move on, which has become a self-fulfilling prophecy. If you do end up staying longer than that, best of luck to you, as inertia can be a mighty powerful thing (see note about about salaries). They don't really think about what they're going to do with people before they hire them, so a lot of PhDs end up doing the same work as those with just a bachelors, just on marginally more interesting projects. These people rarely stay very long either. HR and the "directors" or "group leads" or whatever they're calling them this week (seriously, these titles are what they decide to spend time on?) are, with a few exceptions, pretty out of touch with what happens on a day-to-day basis around the company and what employees really care about and need to be and stay happy. There is a lot of gossiping and secret keeping that goes on, particularly surrounding merit increases and promotions. Nearly all company wide announcements tout continued efforts to "increase transparency" after a company wide survey revealed that everyone had caught on to the shadiness that was going on, but they're selectively transparent about things that don't really matter (like shuttle times and vending machine options). People are generally quick to jump to conclusions about employees' competencies and performance based on hearsay, and rarely, if ever, take the time to do their research before making decisions. The CEO, while clearly brilliant, likes to involve himself in projects when he finds out that they're running just fine without him, and typically ends up doing more harm than good - alienating the clients, berating employees, and creating unnecessary work for already stretched resources.

Acumen seems to have slowly been finding its sea legs over the last several years as it's become less of a start-up and more of an established firm. It is evident that senior management has turned significant attention to longstanding problems of retention, work/life balance, transparency, performance recognition, and management training, but still has a good way to go. It is possible for analysts in the research group to be either (1) completely swamped all the time, working crazy hours, or (2) completely understaffed and underutilized, barely working an 8-hour day. This is a troubling disparity that needs to be addressed by the company's leadership. The structure of staffing in the research groups means that a new analyst is likely to be put on a specific research team (serving one client) and stay there. It can be the luck of the draw in terms of how well-functioning and well-managed your assigned team is. As Acumen works to improve managers' management skills and project management standards across the board, hopefully there will be less variability in peoples' experiences. Along similar lines, it can be very difficult to get any kind of mentorship from managers or other leadership in the firm, since managers are definitely busy and many don't commit time to regular one-on-one conversations to give feedback, never mind to discuss professional development or other concerns. The CEO is quite involved in certain projects and can be challenging to work with. However, the challenges can be well-managed by consistently, proactively, and effectively communicating with him about projects (rather than only in close proximity to a project deadline or in the midst of a crisis). This can require a learning curve, but it's certainly not impossible to do. There is a strong emphasis on "learning the data" that Acumen works with (Medicare and Medicaid claims) as one of the requirements for advancement, but there are very poor resources/tools for non-programmers and programmers alike to do so. Much of the knowledge sharing has historically been informal "so-and-so says x" and "this person says to do y" type of arrangement (i.e., it depends on who you know/what knowledge you have been privy to) rather than a repository of formal, well-maintained, written resources that allow for equal opportunity in learning. The latter arrangement is self-serving to those who have been at the company for some time, and strongly disadvantages newer hires, even if they have relevant work experience. The location of the company is very poor given that the vast majority of employees are between the age of 20-35. Its distance from the city of San Francisco basically guarantees that an employee residing in a city neighborhood will have a 25-45 minute driving commute each way. This issue is a major factor for many in considering whether to stay at the company long-term.