Education Management Reviews

Current Employee – been working at Education Management full-time for more than 3 years

Pros – there are none to speak of

Cons – Constant change of expectations, no real direction

Advice to Senior Management – Quit choosing the flavor of the month and stick with a plan all the way through

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend – I'm not optimistic about the outlook for this company

Former Employee – worked at Education Management full-time for more than 10 years

Pros – The people who work in the schools, not corporate.

Cons – The corporate management does not work in the best interest of the student, only the stock price.

Advice to Senior Management – Sell.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend – I'm not optimistic about the outlook for this company

Former Employee – worked at Education Management full-time for more than a year

Pros – You get good sales training constantly. You'll really learn how to sell. My team was very close knit, the pay was decent, and there are advancement opportunities if you're "in" with the right people.

Cons – There were so many shady things going on it was like a soap opera. Managers got fired for inappropriate behavior, recruiters got fired for bad practices, good people who met goals got let go because they weren't liked by management. Quite a circus!

Advice to Senior Management – I don't know what to say since management is such a big part of the problem.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at Education Management full-time for less than a year

Pros – The employees are good people trying to make an honest living.
Some co-workers are very intellegent and passionate about technology
Benefits are about average
Pay is slightly above average for the Phoenix market

Cons – Managers have no clue what they are doing
Stock price dropping fast, each quarterly meeting is more and more depressing
Very high attrition rate. I have seen managers quit in less than 2 weeks
Lots of layoffs
Poor reputation in the industry
Also, if you are taking a signing bonus, know that you are locked in for 2 years or you owe it back.

Advice to Senior Management – Pay attention to your employees needs
Put for effort into your hiring process
Stop using "body shop" recruiting firms and contractors

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend – I'm not optimistic about the outlook for this company

Former Employee – worked at Education Management full-time for more than a year

Pros – Prelude:
One of the only reasons why this review received a 2 star rating is that it provided me an idea of what I do not want to see myself doing as a professional very early on in my career. If you are a young professional much like myself, this position will provide you a much needed understanding of the innerworkings of corporate America. You will understand what it takes to remain a number, and you will learn what it takes to climb the corporate ladder.

Pros:
As an ADA I was lucky enough to enroll a handful of students that genuinely needed to attend the college. It is wonderful to know that you have helped a student who is passionate about art find a program that could potentially help them start a career that is appropriate for them.

Base compensation is also fair for the nature of the work. Work/life balance is comfortable unless you have a family; you will work Saturdays.

Seeing student work is amazing. This was one of my biggest motivators in working at the Art Institute.

And of course, coworkers. Some are wonderful, down to Earth and share the struggle.

Cons – Cons:

The position of ADA is simple. You will be a telemarketer and salesperson. You will be expected to make at least 80 calls per day. Your goal will be to set up "interviews", (aka sales pitches) to potential students and their families. One of your biggest tasks will be to actually get students to start college. They will have financial issues, logistic issues, and sometimes, personal issues. Your director will expect you to "trouble shoot" these problems to "help" your student make their start date. Every three months their is a quarterly review consisting of qualitative and quantitative performance issues. It all comes down to how big of a suck up you are and if you were lucky enough to make your numbers.

The mass majority of your prospects will be unemployed individuals seeking any type of college to "improve their life". I did feel guilty enrolling students who I knew were not prepared for college classes. It wasn't fair for the teachers and it wasn't fair for the students who are able to keep up with the work. This is what drags down the quality of education at EDMC's schools.

Management's biggest role is to continuously train new hires being that it is a revolving door.

Advice to Senior Management – EDMC you've become a franchise. The American consumer is not stupid. They do not want to attend a school that has 48 other locations.

Reevaluate your target market, maybe that'll affect your retention

Reform your recruiting model. Promote veteran ADAs who actually have a passion for helping students.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend – I'm not optimistic about the outlook for this company

Former Employee – worked at Education Management full-time

Pros – The Human Resource team is helpful and the employee benefits are great. If you are self motivated, they have a lot of great internal training. The company mission and overall goal is easy to commit to.

Cons – The management in the location that I worked in is extremely inconsistent. While growing quickly, they promoted to many people to management who were not qualified, but were simply in the right place at the right time. Now they lose good people all the time because of it.

Advice to Senior Management – Take a good hard look at what your managers actually contribute at your Phoenix office.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at Education Management full-time for more than 7 years

Pros – Wonderful administration, staff, and faculty

Cons – One size fits all mentality . Interested in profit more than quality of education

Advice to Senior Management – Allow for more decisions to be made at local level

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Former Employee – worked at Education Management full-time for less than a year

Pros – met some nice people while working at EDMC. employees encourage themselves and try to keep it light eventhough we all knew of the big dark management cloud watching

Cons – the training seems to be HELP the students get an Education oriented while once you actually are out of the training it is al about the numbers. you are always worried to not meet the numbers because that means that you will be losing your job. its a constant stress of enroll students on the phone "cold call " style, some are weird some didnt even wanna go to school some are just cursing at you for calling in the first place. you need to get two students a week else well you might be next on the fired list. huge layoffs and huge lack of trust in management... spend the whole day on a phone was not worth it at all

Advice to Senior Management – management needs to grow up they act like they are still in high school and all are out there to get you. there is no career opp. unless ur friends and buddies with management very high schoolish

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend – I'm not optimistic about the outlook for this company

Current Employee – been working at Education Management full-time for more than 7 years

Pros – Health benefits and education benefits.

Cons – Corporate culture is disappointing, politics impedes progress or recourse against management who are paranoid of their own job security

Advice to Senior Management – You hire some of the best talent out there, allow them the intellectual and creative freedom to do their job without being micromanaged or without being put in their place by managers who seem paranoid of protecting their own position...

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at Education Management full-time for more than 3 years

Pros – OK health benefits, Paid holiday time, decent office environment.

Cons – High turnover, constant shifting in department needs, large layoffs recently.

Advice to Senior Management – Micromanagement creates a hostile atmosphere. When employees do not feel trusted to do their job they become unmotivated and unhappy.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend