Pros
I've been with AST for over 5 years. This company has provided me with superior training and opportunities to move forward into advancing job positions. I started with the company as a Behavior Interventionist, and over the years earned my MA and attained my BCBA, and have been a program supervisor for the past 2.5 years. I have a huge sense of loyalty to AST because I feel they have always taken good care of me, and I feel the owners of the company truly care about enriching the lives of individuals on the autism spectrum. The salaries are better than any other agency I've seen, and I love having a company structure with so many Ph.D's and other individuals rich with experience to turn to whenever I have a new situation come up that I may not have a solution for. One aspect I am most proud of in working with AST is the fact that we only use methods and procedures that are empirically validated. Our work is based on a hard science, and isn't caught up with all the trends and quick fix tricks to "cure" autism.
Cons
The reality of the situation for AST is exactly the same as all other NPA's out there right now, in trying to survive in a economic landscape that has been slowly deteriorating over the past several years. My sole complaint comes as a result of this. As funding for our industry has decreased, AST has had to increase supervisor caseloads to compensate for this decrease in revenue. These large caseloads do create a great deal of stress as I feel at times that I'm not giving my Interventionists or clients the attention they deserve. In light of this, the executive staff is completely sympathetic to the high level of stress that supervisors are under, and are actively pursuing a solution. As stated in my comments in the section above, this company takes good care of their employees, and I believe that they will resolve this issue as soon as they possibly can.
