Good summer/short-term job, but I wouldn't make it a career
Pros
- Effective programs. Most students get noticeably better within weeks to months! The exceptions are "challenge students" - those with severe diagnoses that take years to show improvement, if they do at all. -Most kids are fun to work with or at least are willing to learn and do the work with a little motivation. (About 5-10% are really difficult.) -Great coworkers! I have met so many inspiring, dedicated people working here. -Hour long lunch -Flexible hours, especially if you're working part time
Cons
-EXTREMELY expensive. Parents are charged about $130/hr (!) and while the programs are valuable they're not worth NEARLY that much. As a result, most kids that go here are from rich families, unless their parents got the school district to pay for instruction. No scholarships or tuition breaks for less privileged families whose kids need help. -Low pay and expensive benefits. Clinicians start at $18/hr at a center in a high-cost-of-living area, probably less elsewhere. Employees pay 50% of the cost of medical insurance compared with the corporate standard of 20%, and the 401k match is laughable. Pay and benefit ratios need to be quite a bit better given what the company charges parents. Basically it's a cheap company. -Upper management is often completely disconnected from day-to-day center functioning, and cares only about maximizing profit (see: Academy rollout. It went terribly.). Favoritism and nepotism are big factors in who's in upper management and who gets promoted in centers (promotion process feels arbitrary and it's never mentioned why certain people are promoted and others aren't). -It often sucks to work with those 5-10% of kids I mentioned who are really difficult, behaviorally and otherwise. -Terrible fiscal management. Corporate is focused on expanding the company nationally and globally rather than marketing to areas where it could get a lot more revenue already. For example I live in a pretty big city and the SLC there had 2-4 kids, who were either repeat students from last summer or only heard about it by word of mouth.