Working at The CE Shop has been a poor career move.
If you’re interested in a job as an ID there, you’ll be a good fit if you’re motivated by producing quantity rather than quality and if you’re happy being an order-taker even when the orders you must follow violate learning design principles. These are the characteristics needed for “success” as an ID on the curriculum team.
If instead you’re interested in authentic respect from your managers, application of valid design that follows learning science research, and opportunities to grow your career, this isn’t the place to be.
The CE Shop fails as an employer because of its “leadership team” as they like to call themselves. You must be willing to deal with a combination of ignorance and arrogance from the leadership which precludes any suggestions or ideas for improvement from individual contributors, since those are seen as challenges to authority. You must be able to handle the conflicting messages between the company’s “core values” (we respect each other, we do what we say, committed to improving, etc.) and the actual decisions and behavior from the leadership team. They don’t respect individual contributors, they don’t do what they say, and they aren’t committed to improving their product. They’re committed to keeping their product good enough to make money. By refusing to recognize that they make poor design and process decisions that negatively affect the student experience, they also show disrespect for their customers.
Overall, if you value your professional integrity or your dignity as a human being, my advice is to stay away from The CE Shop. I’m sad to have to give the company such a poor review. It was once a place I thought I could work at forever, but as time went by it changed for the worse. It’s clear that the “leadership team” doesn’t understand its own product and sees the talented people on its workforce as mere drones who must bow to the commands of their betters. Don’t waste your time here.
