Lack of Leadership in NYC - Career Coach App Academy Employee Review

2.0
16 May 2018
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Benefits were good like unlimited PTO. Nice making good connections with wonderfully driven and talented alumni. Fantastic working with the students and making a huge difference in these students lives in celebrating with them when they landed a position out of the bootcamp. Extremely satisfying to that end.

Cons

The leadership in NYC was somehow so poor and full of bad attitudes. You were told that work-from-home days were possible, but management explicitly stated "You should just take the day off and not even work if that's the case." in a negative tone. I realized two weeks in to the job that it was a poor decision, when the first words from my manager given to me were, "You were hired because i don't want to be doing this work anymore." Great to hear from the person directly above you. Additionally, there felt like a real separation between the instructors and coaches. Communication wasn't clear, and would make for awkward interactions between the staff, certain people being invited to team events and not others. I had also signed a 1 year retention bonus and when I left the company, I was expected to pay it back. This is fine, but they threatened legal action towards me before even sending me an official invoice. What sort of professionalism is that? Overall, very negative outlook on this company. I believe it was an issue in NYC and not as much in San Francisco, as it seems it's just a satellite office and somewhat neglected (as it regards to culture) compared to HQ in California.

Explore other reviews about App Academy

5.0
19 Apr 2024
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

- Inclusive and diverse - fun to work

Cons

I did not have any bad experience with them

1.0
8 May 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Team was great before layoffs

Cons

Poor leadership that ultimately ended in its downfall. Focused too much on trying to keep up with trendy AI tools over focusing on fundamentals needed to be competitive for interviews.

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