Pros
The students and a few kind staff were the only bright spots in my time here.
Cons
Year Up is not interested in your intelligence, your creativity, or your unique perspective. They are primarily interested in indoctrinating you into their bizarre culture and sucking all the joy out of you with 8 hours of pointless Zoom meetings every day. This bizarre culture consists of a cultish reverence for the CEO, who has somehow convinced a predominately BIPOC staff that the only path to economic equality is to train young disadvantaged people how to look, talk, and act (white) so they can assimilate into (white) corporate culture. It also consists of constant, unsolicited feedback that can come at you from any person, at any level, at any time. The short time I was at YU felt like an ongoing amygdala hijack; impromptu meetings could be called to give feedback and my brain was constantly in fight, flight, or freeze mode. My cortisol levels are so high after 4 months here that it’ll probably take 2 months to recover. Additionally, I received very little support from my manager, who failed to prepare me for this “feedback culture” barrage. Five different coworkers shared their own stories of being hazed with unwanted feedback during their first two weeks at YU. Oddly, they seemed to have tolerated and accepted it, instead of pushing back. Currently, 48% of all staff are new (tenure < 1 year). It appears that those who stay and succeed at YU are people who are fully bought into the model, work their tails off (50+ hours a week), and do not question the higher-ups. If you think outside the box, make strategic decisions based on data (not hearsay), and ask difficult questions like me, this place is not for you.