Pros
The lack of structure, boundaries, and rules provides a lot of free-flowing ability to basically run things the way that you want to do it, spend time working the way you want to work it with little demand. I was even able to go to school full time and build a family business while working at ISE as a Regional Manager. This is GREAT until you need boundaries or structure. After 5.5 years there I'm still waiting on that policy and procedure manual. I even offered to write one! lol. The compliance team is AMAZING!! (They have rules the Department of State makes them follow... it's a structure!) The Facilitators are AMAZING, they have rules too . See! Rules can really help. The facilitators and Regional Managers work respectfully together and it's a well-oiled machine, at least it was for me with over 5 years there. I have never had one issue with a facilitator, who facilitates communication between the regional managers and the overseas partners. I LOVE the international trips because there is no hierarchy of whos who. You can truly relax and be yourself and not have to put on a show, consider it a "work trip" and work the whole time you are there, and guests can be brought along with no hassle. ISE really does make placing kids as a AR super easy, nice and with lots of ability to do the job and do it well. AND THE GRAND FINALE is the EXIT system or software that they have. It should win a Nobel Peace prize. Seriously, Milos who developed it is so smart. It's the Royals Royce and the envy of all placement organizations. I can't say enough about that. Kudos ISE!
Cons
The lack of accountability, boundaries, checks, and balances with everything from job descriptions (everyone's job descriptions) to operational procedures create an absolute mess when trying to implement a structure or to plan your growth and development as a regional manager. Everyone places everywhere so there is no claim to state, to region to time or space and all is subject to whoever happens to review your complaint. Very haphazard. Very chaotic system to try to work in. It's a loose system of made-up rules from year to year that no one will write down. It comes out as "good ideas" but the follow-through becomes subjective to whoever is working there at the time or whoever was there to hear what was said at that last manager meeting... the once a year manager meeting. Another thing about the placing part for ARs, or LCs, because of the lack of consistency with boundaries it has bred a culture of underhanded, sneaky, competitive, cut-throat crazy's out of everyone... why??? Because that's what happens when you don't have boundaries. It's a literal free-for-all. AND, again, because there is no one rule for all, then when something happens or a lead comes in, there is no safety net for anyone, not even managers. Everyone is out for themselves so you can't trust anyone to really work for you or with you. It The last topic is salaries. ISE historically has paid all of it's "Managers" meaning Regional Managers, as contractor, however, is the last 5 or 6 years, the upper management has tried to attract the quality trained managers from larger organizations like CIEE etc.. so they have begun to offer matched or bigger salaries to get them in the door. However, because there really is no regional structure at ISE, then the manager quickly sees that this is not an APPLES to APPLES comparison. It's difficult to control growth or plan growth when you aren't sure where your leads are coming from or where new leads are going. To you, or one of 5 other regional managers who are operating in your area. Can you imagine??? Well, it's not fully disclosed. At least it wasn't told to me when I accepted 40K my first year there with a nice sign-on bonus. I had NO IDEA that as a regional manager that I would have one of possible 33 other regional managers in the US placing in and area my home state of Ohio. The goals are arbitrary, the rules and boundaries are subject to the mood of whoever is in charge at that time, and date. It's a bummer to be a top-notch manager and treated as if my efforts, my training, my intellect, my contribution, just was not important. Little by little, over a course of five years, my salary was whittled down from 40K salary with benefits to 15K contractor pay for the same job, the same goal and the same infrastructure within which to work. No controls. I posted this post when I saw the post that the CFO made just a few weeks ago saying that the salary rumors were never true of medium-sized companies. I think people at least need to understand that the motive at ISE is not really to keep salaries big and inflated but to reduce them down to contractor contracts as they have historically done in the past. If you accept a contract, no matter what it's for, demand structure, demand full disclosure and ask a LOT of questions. You don't want to be sideswiped and surprised like I was thinking I was going into a company with lots of structure and integrity. I don't believe operating like this, without full disclosure, shows integrity or honesty. I don't believe that is the intent, but that is what is being shown, in my opinion. Managers at ISE don't equal some managers in other organizations doing the same thing.. After all, they don't have anything to manage. Everyone is just placing kids, some happen to bring in a little more money than others, but there is no rhyme or reason.