Universal Technical Institute reviews

I loved almost everyone I worked with. Great pay.

Anyone considering a position with UTI needs to understand that this is a dying industry that has no long term potential. Externally, the events within the for-profit industry have weighed heavily on UTI and continue to degrade at its foundation. Student enrollment is a challenge and long are the days in which the halls have been packed with almost an overflow of new technicians preparing for a career. Coupled with continual investigations of the industry and the push by the government to provide free community college for all students, the future of UTI is in question. Internally, UTI is plagued by a culture of favoritism, outdated practices, and an inability to become financially viable. Over the past few years, reductions in force have become common place and some positions at the Lisle campus have remained vacant or have been eliminated. The benefit package has also been pillaged in an effort to balance the books. 401K matching has been eliminated. Tuition reimbursement has been discontinued. Employees were required to burn vacation time within a short period to get it “off the books”. Leadership will claim that the benefits offered are competitive for the industry, but that is a scripted illusion intended to entice new employees who fail to do their research. The financial challenges of the company may be acceptable if the culture of the campus was a positive and productive one. Infighting between departments and clichés is a constant. Negativity runs rampant across the halls and is a daily point of conversation at the water coolers. What makes this worse is that UTI likes to preach the word accountability, but in reality what they practice is a form of bullying. Employees who feed information to leadership are retained regardless of performance. Speaking of leadership, if one does accept a position with UTI Lisle, expect to quickly be warned about who not to cross. Staff lives in constant fear of certain leaders and will regularly play on that fear when dealing with other team members. What may be viewed as an insignificant occurrence by most organizations becomes a full blown fiasco at the Lisle campus. Lastly, one must understand the nature of the students who attend the school. While many of them face challenges outside of their control, this tends to result in an exceedingly high number of behavioral issues. Couple these issues with a company that is desperate to retain every student and the results are a formula for a very unpleasant work environment.