Personally a fine experience, but the company needs to treat its employees better and has a lot of room for improvement
Pros
If you love students and impacting their experience, this job can be very rewarding. I loved my property and the diverse population of students, parents, and coworkers we worked with. Also, there was lots of opportunity for upward mobility. I began as an student staff member and myself and 5 others from my hired student staff group became management after 12-18 months (thanks to high management turnover however). If in an on-call position, some sort of extra benefit or subsidized housing is generally provided (expected given the demanding responsibility of being on-call). The company also provides a quick promotion path if the management member is nominated for "Inside Track". The program emphasizes hiring from within and is a highly reputable and considered a prestigious nomination/title.
Cons
It's the nature of all student housing management, but the "turn" time between the exodus of old residents and influx of new residents requires 2-3 weeks of 12+ hour days. Compensation is not adequate for this type of work and doesn't really promote long-term employment. In the three years I worked for the company, I witnessed at least 8 management departures between our sister properties so no continuity in knowledge and policy was ever really achieved. Training was grossly inadequate and information from upper management/corporate was inconsistent. Compensation/benefits to the student staff whom are incredibly important is actually abysmal and at some properties worsens each year as market rates increase. The values set out by corporate felt really shallow. It seems like the company wanted to jump on the "culture" train and didn't truly reflect and evaluate what the company actually aims to achieve other than profitability.
