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General Assembly

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General Assembly reviews

3.5

34% would recommend to a friend

(624 total reviews)

Daniele Grassi

43% approve of CEO

25% positive business outlook

General Assembly has an employee rating of 3.5 out of 5 stars, based on 624 company reviews on Glassdoor which indicates that most employees have a good working experience there. The General Assembly employee rating is in line with the average (within 1 standard deviation) for employers within the Education industry (3.7 stars).

Reviews by job title

624 reviews
1.0
Apr 11, 2020

Straight Up Dumpster Fire

Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Flatiron location is near good lunch spots.

Cons

The company is totally disorganized. There are no systems or processes for doing anything. The company is 10 years old, but it operates like a 1-year-old startup. None of the leadership staff is qualified. People have simply been promoted since they haven’t left the company. Due to all these issues, there is constant turnover. In the 2nd half of 2019, we lost 10% of the corporate headcount. I imagine in 2020 we will lose another 10%.

1.0
Feb 19, 2020

Don't work here

Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

If you have the right connections or are politically savvy, you can climb the ranks. Students and instructors are great and for what it's worth, you're positively impacting people's lives through your work.

Cons

Many smart people have left honest and accurate reviews before me. My experience at GA was more or less the same. If you can avoid it, save yourself the heartache and do not take a job at GA. - HR is dysfunctional. HR departments in general exists to protect companies, I am realistic about my expectations. This team in particular works to uphold the unfair and discriminatory practices that make up the company’s DNA. They’re aware of company wide pay gaps and the barriers that exist for advancement for some groups and they do nothing to solve them. If you talk to them about your concerns, they’ll either act surprised (Oscar-worthy performances!) or explain it away. If you want to be actively gaslit or given baseless explanations for why you’re being discriminated against or underpaid - schedule a meeting with HR. Otherwise, save your time and look for another job outside the company instead. - Diversity and inclusion efforts are a joke. GA does the bare minimum to continuously recruit diverse candidates at the entry level to middle management layers of the organization - rarely does GA hire candidates at the leadership level that are POC. These team members are brought on board, quickly spot glaring diversity issues, are tapped to join "task forces" and "committees" to help "solve" longstanding structural issues, are given no budget or resources to fund those committee's initiatives, and are forced to leave when they realize it was all a farce. GA has figured out the biggest scam of all time - you never have to commit to actually solving your diversity issues if you never retain diverse talent. - Poor leadership at the highest levels of the company. I’ll echo everyone below and confirm that most people in the company dislike the company CEO. There’s a general mistrust of the executive team and rightfully so, the majority of them are simply not qualified to be decision makers for a multimillion dollar enterprise. See below. - Financial performance is scary. GA rarely hits their revenue targets. Execs set annual goals sky high despite pushback from their teams and every year the panic sets in between March-July, when they realize they’re not only in jeopardy of missing their goals but would need the help of a supernatural power in order to come close. I still have no idea how they’ve managed to keep the lights on, but be prepared to suffer whiplash from all of the extra work you'll be tasked with when the company is scrambling to soften the blow of a major revenue miss.

1.0
Jun 18, 2019

Don't Work Here

Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

There is a surface level attempt to be inclusive and do good things, but the execution and follow thru is a giant issue felt throughout the corporation.

Cons

Issues with HR, I had a problem with discrimination when brought up seem to go nowhere even though it was acknowledged in person that the issue exists. CEO made public racist and offensive comments at team lunches, that is documented and he had to publicly apologize for. When brought up workers spoke up about the inaction and systematic structure that for months now has had no follow up. Freelancers were not paid on time, done in net60 and not compensated fairly for work. Diversity issues while marketed were not funded, but instead called "grassroots movements." Creative team has no leadership therefore no direction, which is pretty upsetting from a school which teaches design.

Viewing 7 - 9 of 624 Reviews

Glassdoor has 904 General Assembly reviews submitted anonymously by General Assembly employees. Read employee reviews and ratings on Glassdoor to decide if General Assembly is right for you.