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General Assembly

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General Assembly reviews

3.5

34% would recommend to a friend

(77 total reviews)

Daniele Grassi

43% approve of CEO

25% positive business outlook

Reviews by job title

77 reviews

Reviews about "Compensation"

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2.0
Mar 16, 2018

Just don't do it.

Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Good health care Nice, smart coworkers Free classes

Cons

No career growth, especially at local levels - and to make matters worse management who doesn't care. At least pretend there is room for career advancement. Poor managers who aren't trained to develop their team but instead simply add more and more tasks onto high performer's plates. Low pay. Bonuses are negotiated as part of the salaries yet haven't been given out in 2+ years to employees. Transfers are considered 'promotions' yet titles and salaries remain the same. Metrics are unrealistic and lead to low team morale. Poor management. Here's an example: management emailed the company saying everyone HAD to write a review on a Course Report, and they'd be keeping track to make sure everyone did. Since GA owns part of Course Report, this is unethical and an immature way of handling negative reviews. This is just one example of what the management team is like. Low outcomes rates for students makes it feel like you're tricking people into spending a large amount of $ with no guaranteed pay off. GA has helped a lot of people, but it's also not helped a lot of people. Own up to that. The fact that this company values revenue over its people is so apparent. Instructors are hired, and then opps - didn't fill the class, and let go without clear messaging. They just don't show up one day and no one knows what happened. The same with employees - if ones position is no longer needed, they're just gone, and you're constantly left wondering' does this person still work here?' when you're trying to find them on slack. Excessive reliability on email acquisition as the only marketing channel. People constantly tell you how annoying the amount of emails they receive is. It's embarrassing.

3.0
Mar 2, 2018
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

- Working with students is very fulfilling and I truly love to see their success - Coworkers are very enjoyable, close-knit group on campus - Since the campus size is so small, it is clear to see the positive impact of my actions - I have a lot of autonomy over the curriculum and schedule, which has allowed me to improve student experience - I get a lot of appreciation from students and staff for the hard work I put into the program - When one person wants to do something, other staff get on-board quickly and enthusiastically

Cons

- As an instructor, you should expect 50+ hour weeks. You're always on. There's zero separation between your life and your work. - Extremely high turnover in all departments at local level. Person with the most tenure has been here less than 2 years. - No career path at all for an instructor or opportunities for growth within the company. - Low pay compared to what you'd get in the industry for the same experience level. - Many instructional staff are contractors which is good for the bottom line and nothing else. Contractors come in, teach the material, and leave. This does nothing to ensure up-to-date curriculum or long-term quality. Despite the fact that the ITC is helpful, it simply takes more than two weeks to get good at teaching. - It seems like resources that are working well are constantly being taken away from instructors. I feel I have to fight for TA hours, IA support, and even my own wage/raises. - It gets hinted at me that I'm overpaid, so I often feel like I have to defend the fact that I provide a lot of value and increase the quality of the program. - Insufficient enrollment leads to students being shoehorned into hybrid and remote classes (not what they signed up for), and it can leave contractors suddenly and unexpectedly out of work on very short notice. - There have been a lot of issues around contractors getting paid on time if they've been on multiple contracts. - It seems that global management gives local management some very high expectations on margins/budget/enrollment, which can (and has in the past) led to resource slashing. - The building is old and musty and often insufficiently heated. (bring your coat!)

3.0
Feb 11, 2018

A good place to work that makes it hard to stay

Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

My coworkers are very smart and generally lovely to talk to. We do interesting work and I’ve learned a ton on the job. The offices are in a great location and are nice and sunny. The culture is casual and young. It’s a good mission and you can feel good about the work you do. Dogs in the office and occasional free lunch.

Cons

If you look around on LinkedIn you’ll find the average tenure is maybe a year or 18 months? If you stick around longer than average, you’ll see your friends leave and find yourself rehashing the same problems over and over again with new faces. The work in almost any role can be extremely stressful due to rapidly changing priorities, team departures, being under resourced, financial instability and junior managers. There are so few growth opportunities that management now only reports one figure that lumps lateral moves in with promotions. They negotiate bonuses when signing people on, but haven’t paid them in years. I have also heard about phantom shares. Prepare to fight like hell for raises and promotions, and prepare for them not to come through.

Viewing 52 - 54 of 77 Reviews

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