Art of Problem Solving reviews

My biggest issue with this job was how much it pulled a bait-and-switch on me. I felt like I was hired for my qualifications, my abilities, and my experience, but then all of those things were under-valued or discouraged. The entire structure of the company has seemed to change three or four times during my two years, each time adding more managers and not actually making my job or position clearer. When I tried to focus on the creative work that I was so excited by when I was hired, I would be hampered by restrictions that seemed based on passing whims rather than evidence or logic. Those restrictions would frequently be changed without my being informed, often at the very last minute. This meant that instead of having creative freedom, it often felt like I was jumping through hoops on an obstacle course that was always changing under my feet. I was also not supported by my immediate managers to the point where I felt paranoid about speaking at all. Management seemed paradoxically to be both overbearing and indecisive. Tiny, unimportant affairs seemed to get weeks of debate, while big, substantial issues would remain undiscussed and undecided. Trying to fix a problem before it became an issue seemed to be especially antithetical to this company. It also seemed to me that gender played a role in who was listened to and who was considered insubordinate. There were many times when a male colleague would repeat something I had already said and receive an entirely different reaction.

The other negative review (with the title "Run Away") is spot on. This company is poorly managed. As an instructor, your job is to go through the pre-written scripts. While technically, the instructors are told not to edit scripts without informing the curriculum team, the curriculum team is in fact very difficult to get a hold of. That means that a lot of instructors add material to scripts without checking in with anyone, resulting in complicated, disorganized scripts. In the years I've worked for Art of Problem Solving, no one has gone through the scripts and made sure they hang together. The added instructor comments aren't incorporated or streamlined. Dead-end questions don't get taken out, despite the fact that the transcripts clearly show which approaches work in class and which approaches do not. All of these issues put together mean that you wind up running scripts over and over again despite knowing from last time that the scripts will not communicate the concepts clearly. Given how strong and motivated the students are, this is a frustrating experience. It is also very difficult to get in touch with anyone about any substantial issues, like the script issues I mentioned above, but also many others. The management structure of the company is very flat, which means that there aren't built-in structures for dealing with commonplace problems. The company is much more interested in expanding than in making sure it's producing a good product.