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
Apr 4, 2018
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

-Bagels on Friday. -Projects that ostensibly work towards a good thing for society (better and more informed public health systems). -SAS training if you want to be trained in that software. -Can be a very easy job, depending on your team. -Not a bad first policy job for those who want a more tech-oriented career.

Cons

-Antisocial work environment at best, hostile at worst. No one is friendly. -Lack of transferrable skills for employees. -Low pay and benefits. -Highly variable work schedule. If your team happens to be well-managed, you have a good work-life balance. If not, you're stuck with a horrible one. -Poor management. Like, really poor management, as in I didn't know if I would be working until 5 or 11 pm until late that afternoon. -Far from city areas, meaning virtually everyone has to commute. -Limited projects that depend almost fully on CMS. I have to be honest, I wouldn't recommend working here to anyone. There's awesome projects to be worked on; pub policy/econ/polisci grads have a great chance to increase tech skills, while policy-oriented tech workers have a great chance to enter policy. The problem is the workplace. It's highly inconvenient to get to, rabidly antisocial, lacks benefits or adequate salary, and is unpleasant to work at. The only person to whom i would wholeheartedly recommend this job would be a double public health/computer science major who hasn't learned SAS. If you aren't that ideal person, I would seriously look elsewhere. SAS is taught but is not that helpful in the broader work environment. Unless you get hired as upper management, you don't get a good sense of healthcare policy. And honestly, the work environment is really bad. I had never experienced such a negative and isolating experience until working here.

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Acumen Response
8y
We appreciate the review and are sorry you had such a negative experience while working here. Our HR department has an open door policy. We have also created a new internal recruiting system so it's easy to transfer to a different team if you aren't happy with the one you got hired on to work with.
2.0
Mar 29, 2018

Meh.

Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Don't have many pros for this place.

Cons

Not a great place to work.

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Acumen Response
8y
Hello- thanks for the review.
4.0
Mar 16, 2018
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

– Intelligent coworkers – Potentially interesting work – The first two weeks of work are SAS training, so no experience with SAS is needed – Visa sponsorship (anecdotally, 1/3 or more of the employees are non-citizens) – I seldom work more than 40 hours/week. This varies by team though.

Cons

– Low pay and minimal benefits – SAS isn't used almost anywhere else – Low retention (Also a pro! Employees move on to better, higher-paying jobs after 2 years on average) – Not a social workplace at all. It feels like being in an elevator with strangers, except for 40 hours/week. It's downright awkward. – Since seniority is prized and retention low, management is a motley crew of whoever sticks around. Two big groups: good programmers who make bad managers, and MaCurdys (the CEO hired ~4 family members for top leadership roles).

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Acumen Response
8y
Thanks for leaving us a review. Please feel free to stop by and speak to any members of our HR and/or Recruiting department at any time to discuss your concerns further. We don't want any of our employees to have a negative experience and would like to help you out.
Viewing 292 - 294 of 394 Reviews

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.