Nice Co-workers, Terrible Company - Anonymous employee CI Radar Employee Review

2.0
14 May 2016
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Probably the best perk of working at CI Radar are work-from-home days. Because the work can be done entirely online, every full time employee gets a certain number of days each year when they don't have to come into the office. This allows you to save your PTO days for when you truly need them. Another positive aspect is that any college degree can qualify you for the position. If you are looking to change career fields, you probably know the frustration of being eliminated as a candidate simply because you lack the desired educational background. CI Radar can train just about anyone to do the research analyst position. The final positive I experienced is that most of my co-workers were nice, fun people. Admittedly the majority of people were in their 20s or early 30s, so people outside of this age group may not feel the same way.

Cons

My biggest frustration with this company is that during my interview, I was promised opportunities for career growth and professional development. That was never realized. You may receive additional responsibilities with the company, but you will receive no training so that you may do it in accordance to industry standards. Also, do not expect an increase in compensation or a noticeable decrease in previously assigned responsibilities. I felt I was working two jobs for no additional pay. Salary wise, if you are not upper management, do not expect to make more than $40,000 a year, even if you stay with the company for several years. The salary is low for the amount of hours required to complete your client load. Plan to spend anywhere between 9 and 11 hours working a day, depending on whether you have additional responsibilities outside of the basic research analyst realm. Management will say that they don't won't you to work more than 8 hours, but personal experience has shown that talking to them about your workload doesn't do anything of value. Instead of following business standards of planning employee capacity to 7 hours or less, they are determined to plan for 8 full hours a day. This means that time lost to transitions, communicating with team members, using the bathroom, and eating lunch comes out of your own time. This argument was brought to management multiple times while I was employed with CI Radar, but they would not plan capacity for anything less than 8 full hours. Despite all the hard work I put in at CI Radar, it was still difficult to build my resume in a meaningful way. I had a difficult time finding a new job because I did not receive any training on my more marketable CI Radar responsibilities. Because the turnover rate is also extremely high (most people burn out and are expected to leave after a year or two), I did not have any mentors to learn about various business aspects (marketing, project management, finance, etc.)

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CI Radar Response
10y
First, we would like to thank you for you for taking the time to review our company and provide us feedback. We are sorry that you did not have the great experience we intend on providing for our employees. While we are a small company that cannot provide the compensation packages that larger companies can, we have implemented other benefits to reward our employees including increased work from home time for all employees, work from home Fridays, office get togethers to increase engagement, flexible work schedules, and an open door policy so that any employee can speak with management at any time. If you would like to share more with us, please feel free to email hr@ciradar.com. Thank you again for providing your review so that we can make CI Radar a wonderful place to work and provide all employees with the best experience possible!

Explore other reviews about CI Radar

5.0
7 Apr 2023
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Work from home Flexibility No micromanaging

Cons

Limits on career growth Non-transferable skills

5.0
25 May 2016
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

The Business Research Analyst position is definitely entry level. All it requires is a little business common sense to understand the articles that you will be processing. The daily work is primarily news classification, and while sometimes it can be tedious, it can also be really interesting to understand new markets. You receive plenty of training on how to classify, and any questions you have are welcomed. In addition to analyst work, most employees get other jobs as well. I, personally, am involved in hiring, and I love it. Other analysts have gone other ways and genuinely seem to enjoy it too. This company is a great place to start (or continue) a career, and I really hope that I get to stay for a while. I feel that concerns are addressed in a manor that you would never find in a large company. People actually care about people here. The salary starts low, but it is a small business, so that is expected. And they compensate for it in a major way, including work from home Fridays, a hefty vacation package, and a flexible work schedule. The CEO is easy to talk to, and seems to appreciate being talked to directly. The culture is awesome and being social with your coworkers is encouraged. I like working here, it has been a great experience, and I hope to continue to grow with the company.

Cons

Salary is a little low, but as mentioned above, they make up for it in other ways.

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