Bridgepoint Education Reviews

Former Employee – worked at Bridgepoint Education

Pros – salary was very competitive, fairly young employees

Cons – unethical behavior abound, management is completely clueless and do not care about providing a quality education. it's a complete numbers game to get people through the door.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Former Employee – worked at Bridgepoint Education

Pros – Pros
Lots of internal promoting.
Good pay for professional/corporate level positions.
Most of upper management with education background or higher degrees are trying to do the right thing for students.
Fulfilling because American workers who didn't have the privilege of going to college right after high school can now go thanks to online education.
If you are in the right department, you can have a good balance between work and personal life.
Emphasis on giving back to the community.

Cons – Cons
Internal promoting means people not qualified to lead are in management positions.
Managers and higher receive bonuses but front-line employees(Admissions Counselors) are not paid sufficiently. (I am not an Admissions Counselor)
In some departments, expectations are unclear.
More and more, company is becoming more like a typical corporation--who you know takes you farther than what you know.
No working from home or part-time hours.
Vacation and sick time is minimal compared to market standard (until you get to your 3rd year, when vacation hours bump up)
Closest parking is given to members of association for salaried employees (who pay the membership fee) only, which makes life harder for Admissions Counselors--some have to take a shuttle from a remote parking lot.
Advice to Senior Management
Focus more on quality before investing prematurely in innovation. Once you have satisfied students who recommend our institutions to others, retention rates and reputation will improve. Number of enrollments might not increase as quickly, but that loss will be compensated by retention rate.
Have HR require peer evaluations as part of performance reviews.
Have people being promoted to management roles demonstrate their management skills first. Just because someone is good at their job doesn't mean they'll be a good manager.

Advice to Senior Management – Do peer reviews and upward reviews--far too many employees get promoted because they do things to "look good", while truly talented employees don't get rewarded for being both innovative and smart with processes. A quick win with a mess to clean up afterward is not as effective as a well-thought-out and executed plan that may take longer to implement but requires little to no fire-fighting after the project is over.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Former Employee – worked at Bridgepoint Education

Pros – Good starting compensation, that is about it.

Cons – Reference check process is an online survey, rather than just calling
Recruiters/hiring managers are incompetent
You are hounded to attract people who are already in poor situations
The management level believe they have earned their way into a noteworthy position
The advancement depends on how many suckers you can get to sign on and stay on.

Advice to Senior Management – Grow up.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Former Employee – worked at Bridgepoint Education

Pros – Lots of intelligent, driven and focused engineers.
Fairly exciting product line to work in with regards to the online/continuing education market
Company spends money on hardware/software as needed
Engineers get to pick Mac's or PC's as their workstations
Fast paced work environment

Cons – Complete lack of enterprise standards
Lots of interdepartmental politics
A lot of arrogant engineers that are extremely difficult to work with
Bizarre management layers - certain individuals are deemed as supervisors with 1 or 2 direct reports.
Incompetent upper management tier
Fast paced work environment

Advice to Senior Management – Hire engineers that understand what it means to work at an enterprise and take the company to the next level.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at Bridgepoint Education

Pros – If you are fresh out of college, it is a great place to work. Or.. if you are older and seeking some extra income for the family.. it is a great place to work. Since they did away with the matrix, the atmosphere has completely changed. It is a LOT of fun.. not kidding.. a ton of fun. We work hard but we play games, listen to loud musich, throw balls all around, and are caring on the phone with students and each other. Truly never worked in such a fun place where they want to make it fun for you.

Cons – If you have only B to B experience and are used to making money and having incentives for closing more deals.. it will be VERY frustrating. But if you really need a job, want to learn a new industry... and do not mind the pay.. it is a good place to work till you get a real job. The frustrating part is seeing kids on my team.. making 103K per year and are locked in at that rate. Crazy.. and so not worth it. Good for them though.

Advice to Senior Management – I think they are doing a fine job. I really think you need to stop feeding floor and OAP unassigned to your vets as most of them sit on their rears and wait for hand outs. Give those to the performers of the month, make them work for their money as I see a lot of them getting lazy. So what if they performed for 1-3 yrs, now they are not and are just taking hand outs. I know this is true as I sit with them all day. Nuts and unfair.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at Bridgepoint Education

Pros – The pay is good, the benefits are good, and you get a free college education. There are plenty of departments to move into if you hate your job.

Cons – When you're new its like being a freshmen in college. Cliques are already formed, the managers and directors dont really acknowledge your presence, they train you on the same stuff for hours, and they expect you to fail. If you succeed when you are new, people are surprised. If you want to get through the new phase your only choice is to put up and shut up. Expect to hear 7 different people telling you how to do your job and being totally confused as to what the right way is.

Advice to Senior Management – Hey Directors how about you come out of your office once just to get know your staff and not to be a hall monitor? All the directors claim they understand the job but yet they are so unfriendly. My director has had 1 conversation with me. She's only nice to the people who have been there for awhile and are top producers. Bridgepoint preaches caring but I have not met a single manager or director that has made me feel like they care. They talk the talk but they don't walk the walk.

Former Employee – worked at Bridgepoint Education

Pros – Great talented co-workers (most of whom are going to leave), not a lot of on-call work, decent benefits, large environment, free education, for what it's worth.

Cons – There's a great deal of "good ol boy club" stuff going on within the IT organization. Most of the truly talented and seasoned Engineers have left the company after performing miracles only to recieve no credit or support from management. The internally coded software is mostly crap, but you are going to have to support it because the people that create it 'can do no wrong'--all executive level support and backing is to the developers, IT Engineers and admins are treated like custodial workers and are expected to be ready with their mops when the golden children release bad code and break systems. Most of the 'opportunities' within the organization are given to buddies and people that fluff the right people, not the people with the most experience or greatest skill set. The current director of IT was from a company called Active Networks--an organization that saw 100% IT attrition and it's clear that he's taking Bridgepoint Education down the same path.

Advice to Senior Management – Senior management needs to open their eyes, when all of your Senior level staff in an IT organization get up and leave in short order there is a big problem that needs to be addressed. The Director of IT should be walked out the door as quickly as possible and the VP should follow for not having addressed the problems within that department as they've played out.

Current Employee – been working at Bridgepoint Education

Pros – Friendly co-workers, good initial compensation, good equipment.

Cons – High-pressure sales environment, blatant favoritsm, deliberate sabatoge, ineffective marketing/lead generation.

Advice to Senior Management – Change company culture. There needs to be a change from the high pressure sales element to a concern for quality.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at Bridgepoint Education

Pros – There is a lot of room for growth as this is a growing company. Many positions are open and the people who work here are generally fun and smart.

Cons – The main point of my job is to "sell" education which they constantly tell you it's not a sales job. Your job is based on pure #'s and if you don't meet or exceed these goals you will either be given a paycut or eventually let go. you have 6 months to prove yourself but by month 2 or 3 if you are not "lucky" then you will start getting warnings and written up due to performance. Resources are distributed unfairly. If you are doing well, you will be helped to do better. If you are struggling, just expect to be pushed down further. This job is very stressful and not worth the pay. Nothing in my life has made me felt more worthless and low than this job.

Advice to Senior Management – Get more realistic expectations.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at Bridgepoint Education

Pros – Lots of wonderful, smart people. The company has the resources of a large corporation, but is still growing. There many opportunities for those willing to step up. Pay is above average for San Diego. It's easy to make a name for yourself. It can be just a job, 9-5, or you can build a career here.

Cons – Poor communication between departments. Some technical groups are completely incompetent. If you know who to make friends with, it's easy to do your job, but there are difficult people in key positions

Advice to Senior Management – Establish better communication and clear, precise goals. Better review of internal procedures to figure out what's needed and what's not.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend