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Project Lead The Way

Engaged Employer

Project Lead The Way reviews

2.7

32% would recommend to a friend

(84 total reviews)

Dr. David Dimmett

45% approve of CEO

36% positive business outlook

Project Lead The Way has an employee rating of 2.7 out of 5 stars, based on 84 company reviews on Glassdoor which indicates that most employees have an average working experience there. The Project Lead The Way employee rating is 28% below average for employers within the Education industry (3.7 stars).

Reviews by job title

84 reviews
1.0
Oct 10, 2017
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Benefits are competitive. The CEO seems very nice and personable.

Cons

Projects are managed terribly. They give you large tasks and randomly choose a tight deadline and it's up to you to break up the task and learn whatever technologies you need to and still make it on time. Requirements are constantly changing and they rush releases and make unrealistic deadlines. The software there has plenty of bugs that could be avoided if they gave people time to write things properly. They treat IT people as expendable assets. If something is wrong, they don't talk to you like a human. They will send you angry e-mails with other people cc'd to make themselves look good. A lot of your time is not spent coding. It's either spent in meetings listening to business people talk about irrelevant things like the text on a button for a long time or it's spent doing application support. One example is; if a user can't log in to the buggy application, then you have to look at their records in various places and update them. A lot of time is wasted on this. Also, they have a team of people that they outsource to but you never really talk to them. It's like working on the same software as someone else but never communicating with them. It's a strange way to work. If you try to work with someone else then they think you must be wasting time. They measure productivity by how many hours your butt is sitting in a seat in a cold room in the office. An incredible amount of time is wasted here on micromanaging things that don't matter while more important things are frequently rushed. It was a terrible waste of my time to work here over other places that offered me. I'm so happy to be gone. They think local developers are all just lazy and don't want to work instead of looking into how they run the department. How is it that developers are productive before and after PLTW but are somehow lazy and bad while they are there? How is it they have almost 100% turnover in IT right now? It's how the department and projects are managed. Don't listen to what they tell you during the interview. Have a chat with a current or former developer to find out what's it like to work there. They try to entice people with benefits but it's not worth the headache and stress. There are plenty of other better places to work as a software developer.

2.0
Jul 5, 2017
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Insurance, retirement and PTO are hard to beat.

Cons

1/1/2017 - 20 full-time staff (6 App Devs, 1 UI/UX) 6/30/2017 - 12 full-time staff (1 App Dev) In that time 1 staff member was added, and 9 departed. That is just one department. I usually don't usually buy into those "Best Places to Work" surveys, but when I started at PLTW we were #1, the next year we were #7 and then we fell off the list entirely. PLTW was a great place to work, but they fell off the list for a reason. I echo the sentiments of the others recently departed. From what I have been told, two new App Devs are supposed to start this week. I apologize to them for not getting this out there sooner. Seriously, please don't work here. This isn't just about IT. Almost no one there cares about the mission anymore. PLTW just just a stepping stone to the ascending, a feel-good pit-stop on their resume.

3.0
Jun 21, 2025
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

The individual contributes that work with you on your team are great people committed to helping schools have favorable outcomes and drive student impact. Company benefits are the best I’ve had in my professional career.

Cons

• In the past month alone, over 25 employees were laid off without transparency or clear criteria around who was impacted or why. • Leadership continues to say the organization is financially strong, which contradicts recent layoffs and ongoing instability. • The engagement team is led by toxic leadership—cliquish, exclusionary, and hostile to feedback. • Sales lacks basic tools to be successful: no lead generation strategy, reps can’t create their own quotes, and revenue goals are avoided because leadership believes schools “aren’t ready” to talk about money. • There’s a deep identity crisis—are we focused on revenue or on mission? The lack of clarity is hurting both. • The org is extremely top-heavy. Leadership teams meet constantly but rarely communicate decisions or direction to the rest of the staff. • Despite the CEO’s claims that the org is progressive and innovative, it’s resistant to change and clings to outdated systems and thinking. • Promotions and visibility are limited to those within a small Indianapolis-based network. If you’re not part of the inner circle, you’re overlooked. • Employees don’t feel safe reaching out to HR, as feedback often leads to retaliation. • New ideas are not welcomed. If you raise concerns or suggest improvements, you’re labeled “difficult” and shut out.

Viewing 10 - 12 of 84 Reviews

Glassdoor has 90 Project Lead The Way reviews submitted anonymously by Project Lead The Way employees. Read employee reviews and ratings on Glassdoor to decide if Project Lead The Way is right for you.