Pros
- "Flexible" work schedule
- Fully Remote
- A relatively young company (demographically) that leads to natural community-building. Everyone is an Ivy+ / Top 20 grad, so you'll meet many people from similar backgrounds who are in a similar stage of life.
- If you want to break into education, have hands-on experience working with high-net worth clientele, and need a relatively easy job to secure after freshly graduating, then this might be the job for you. It's great as a stop-gap or as something in between endeavors.
- You'll have two company funded trips every year. These used to be fun, with a focus on connection and collaboration. Nowadays... Remember when elementary school teachers would give out a sliver of pizza to everyone at the end of the year from lack of school funding? It's that. Maybe this will get better, who knows.
- Annual bonus every year, 10-20% of your base salary. If you do well enough, you'll usually get the 20%. If you get paid out a large commission, though, then expect closer to 10% (conveniently).
- The students often come in with significant academic challenges that you can make an actionable impact in. Think about who would be willing to pay the price of Command for mentoring. They're the families with struggling kids who definitely need help -- super fulfilling when it goes well.
Cons
- "Flexible" work schedule is not actually flexible at all. Expect to work nights and weekends, since that's when students are free. Sometimes you will work 80-100 hours a week. The tradeoff is that during slow seasons (when college application deadlines aren't knocking) you'll have more free time.
- They say they are open to feedback. They are not, and expect push back / consequences for sticking out, including being ID'ed on "anonymous" surveys. In fact, they may chase after me for posting this review. Be warned.
- People will get "disappeared," usually conveniently before bonuses are paid out.
- High turnover rate.
- They play favorites. Either you're a star player, and you get pounded with work, or you don't do well, and you get pounded with work to give them a reason to fire you. If you're somewhere in the middle, you'll cruise.
- Do not expect a raise. Ever. Unless you're chosen among the few who receive a promotion. Even then, do not expect a large raise.
- Healthcare not fully covered. Stipend leaves about $200 a month, even with the cheapest plan.
- A parent got angry? Expect all the blame to fall on you, regardless of how ridiculous the situation is.
- Do not expect to be able to share any of your achievements from this company when you leave. They claim that any awards, scholarships, or fellowships you help students get are under jurisdiction of their non-compete and NDA clauses. Testimonials are also not allowed to be shared, even when anonymized. Speaking of which, the non-compete is 3 years long and covers the whole US. (Flee the country if you want to keep doing this, I guess.)
