CoStar Group reviews

Management is horrible and incompetent. You will be micromanaged to the utmost degree, I worked at CoStar for several years and I witnessed managers hovering over employees shoulders as they did their work, require employees to turn in their cell phones in which employees could get them back at lunch and at the end of they day (As you can see, they think you're still in middle school), managers are very immature and gossip about employees and sometimes even start rumors about employees that are complete lies. Your manager is a glorified babysitter, they hate to offer help or guidance on projects and tasks, they sit at their desks and yell at you if you're caught on your phone or on any other website other than Enterprise (company software platform). Any time you need help or advice, you need to figure it out yourself. Office politics are at an all-time high, the hard workers don't get raises or promotions, the people who suck up to their managers the most do. I withnessed a guy with three kids get laid off once (and was a phenomenal researcher) but people who are BFF's with their managers and suck at the job get to stay. Management serves no purpose other than being puppets of the CEO and senior management. The company over the past year has set unattainable and unrealistic standards of their researchers, and those get more and more unreachable each quarter. They simply do not care about their employees- there used to be career paths and employee events to boost morale (company night at a Nats game, ice cream socials etc) and none of that exists anymore. You can find a much better job somewhere else, unless you want to work at CoStar and have the only good part of the day is when you leave at 5:00.

Petty Petty Petty. Upper management is really crazy. They monitor everything you do. Clock in, clock out when you go to bathroom, clock in. Calls Calls Calls. The biggest issue is that the structure is set up so you are beneath people in the industry. Upper Management is so obsessed with their numbers they have lost sight of what they actually mean. Really just quantity over quality. And managers do not care since they are under the same pressure you as a researcher are under. Upper management needs to understand the amount of 2 minute calls you get does not represent what type of work you are doing. For example, I was doing market reports for 3 different markets since the turnover is so high (My manager and 3 teammates have left in one quarter), I was on an "inactivity list" because I was doing other people's work for two weeks and not making as many calls as humanely possible. The next week to just prove a point I called non stop from 9-5 and got over 20 calls and only found out a couple things and I was praised as a "researcher of the month." It is really, really alarming to see people get rewarded for data entry and making the numbers look good but not actually do good work. Also this place really feels like high school when it comes to gossip. Managers talk behind your back all the time while they are nice to your face (confirmed by other researchers who have overheard them). I also had a manager tell me to my face that he/she "was not that really interested in commercial real estate anyways". How am I suppose to be motivated to do my job if my manager does not even like the industry that we are in?! Overall this job is better than accepting a part time, minimum wage job. DC is crazy expensive and I will give them credit they are at least trying to do better (quarterly bonuses which are not that much anyways and faster promotions). However, a promotion from RA I to RA II to SRA really means you are doing the same work just with a few extra dollars added to the end of your paycheck. However, the powers at be are obsessed with apartments.com and all the money they are making there so they do not really care about research that is not in NYC, Washington, or Toronto. Overall suggestion to someone who just came in: Work one year, be quiet because you will get talked about if you say one negative thing, average over 7 calls a day, get a manager to like you and apply to new jobs after your one year is up. I can never look at a 1 miunte and 59 second call the same ever again. I get mad just thinking about that number now. Do not be fooled by the building, snack, location or "benefits". However, if you are out of college with no other options than this might be your only choice.