DeVry Reviews

Former Employee – worked at DeVry full-time for more than 7 years

Pros – good culture, people. fun to work there. flexible.

Cons – management often chosen for wrong reasons. us vs them mentality.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend – I'm not optimistic about the outlook for this company

Former Employee – worked at DeVry part-time for more than a year

Pros – Nice building, parking was easy.

Cons – I think the students were so unprepared for college, or did not belong to college. Some were boorish, rude and had bad conduct. $40/hr in 2004 was the salary. You get paid only for the lecture hours. No benefits. Worst career for an educated person. The administration did not support their faculty, and seemed interested only in collecting tuition fees.

Advice to Senior Management – Why should I waste my time advising them? They have no intention to improve.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend – I'm not optimistic about the outlook for this company

Current Employee – been working at DeVry full-time for more than 3 years

Pros – Pay is better than state and not-for-profit schools. But pay is less than other large for-profit corporations. Part time work from home program for most non-faculty positions. But again many large companies do this now and have been for some time.

Cons – If you can pass a background check, drug test, have an IQ less than 90 and have no desire to accomplish anything, DeVry IT is for you. You do need a college degree, but luckily for you DeVry is a degree mill and for the right cost one can be yours! IT Management has no clue about technology. They exist to play billionaire boys club games and build empires. Don't expect ANY training, EVER! That's because all new technology is purchased or build externally for DeVry. Employees exist to handle all the screw ups that management caused by having so many different vendors and being cheap. High turnover rate and a bad reputation in the Chicago IT community puts DeVry at the bottom of the pile.

Advice to Senior Management – Fire yourselves and commit suicide - it's the only answer.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend – I'm not optimistic about the outlook for this company

Current Employee – been working at DeVry full-time for more than 7 years

Pros – Great co-workers, in all departments. Good benefits, especially tuition assistance. 7 sick/personal days and 10 days of vacation for the first 5 years, and will increase from there. Working with the students was awesome; it was fun to see them grow and graduate. Most professors cared and pushed the students to succeed. They were generally interested in teaching so that the students would learn and retain the information. Depending on locations, lots of employee engagement events - health fairs, walks, food drives, etc. I really enjoyed my past positions and my past supervisors at the company.

Cons – High turnover. Below industry average pay. They expanded so much, they do not know where to focus their energies. Poor middle and upper management. They cannot communicate information, and do not want to. When new benefit options were rolled out, such as tele-commuting, management said that no one would qualify for it, even though employees plainly did. Policy changes went into effect without communication. No one wants to take responsibility for bad results. Very political. You are shunned if you bring up questions or offer suggestions. I was repremanded several times for suggesting alternate solutions during meetings, that were proven to work, due to my experience working in several of DeVry's divisions. Lots of work - 60-80 hours of work are expected. Merit increases are very small, even with stellar performance results. This is if you actually obtain one. I had amazing supervisors for 4 years here, but my current boss is not effective. Brought up concerns to senior level management and was ignored repeatedly. The company has had lots of layoffs in the past few years (with no end in sight) and campuses are very "bare bones", with little support staff.
It's sad; I used to enjoy coming to work. With all the layoffs, extra work and no support, I don't enjoy it at all. Policies and procedures constantly change, with no notification. Espeically proprietary documents. There is also no training - I was thrown into several positions with no training. I also had five supervisors in one year (layoff, quit, fired, transfered and the fifth eventually quit).
Lots of corporate-speak, certain words like "for-profit education" are forbidden.
The company does not like to put things in writing as well. Especially relating to sensitive issues.
Also, many managers were thrown into their roles as the company expanded, and they have no training. Or were put in place by politics. Most can't manage and have bizarre expectations about what they want in their employees.

Advice to Senior Management – Communication is key. Stop bragging about your bonuses, when most employees barely receive a merit increase. Transparancy is also key. Employ training for new and current employees. Think about what is causing the turnover - low salary and managers who do not have the experience to be in their roles. The company has done well with the negative focus on market-funded education, so it does have the capability to succeed and retain good employees as it has in the past. Use HR to talk about problem employees. Stop with the poitics. Pay attention to exit interviews. Look at employee satisfaction results. Let employees ask questions and offer suggestions without being threatened. Let the company go back to what it was a few years ago and it will succeed.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend – I'm not optimistic about the outlook for this company

Current Employee – been working at DeVry full-time for more than 8 years

Pros – Work from home program is great, if your manager approves it.

Cons – Many managers and a few directors are unqualified for their positions.
Communication need improvement.
Too many organizational changes that don't make sense.
A few players in senior management have a bully mentality .

Advice to Senior Management – Try communicating with your employees and be honest with them, they're adults and can handle the truth. Start taking a deep look at some of your management, see if they are still qualified for their positions.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend – I'm not optimistic about the outlook for this company

Current Employee – been working at DeVry full-time

Pros – Fun place to work, people believe in the business. Was a time when people wanted to work here.

Cons – Bad management who don't listen. They make all the money and we do the work.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend – I'm not optimistic about the outlook for this company

Former Employee – worked at DeVry full-time for less than a year

Pros – You get a FREE Devry education aka waste of time !

Cons – Waste of time working at Devry

Advice to Senior Management – Look into hiring grown adults, not kids!!

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend – I'm not optimistic about the outlook for this company

Former Employee – worked at DeVry full-time for more than 3 years

Pros – I learned a lot about myself and my goals, and I now know what kind of company culture I want a future with. However, I learned these through my difficult experiences at DeVry and not through it's nurturing treatment or positive development.

Cons – Far too many dissatisfied employees, they sabotage themselves and conspire to do their worst after only a few months on the job. The leaders are not setting the right example either. I actually had an HR rep who hired her family members without disclosing the relationship. Made evaluating or defending your evaluation of an employee much more difficult when their family member was also their HR rep.

Advice to Senior Management – Your Directors and Assistant Directors of Admissions managers are often too inexperienced and too poorly trained in how to develop employee talent. They are thrown right into the job of making numbers work, but never taught how to do so, and everyone seems surprised when a target is missed or if a team is completely dissatisfied. No manager should hit the floor without an intense management training that lasts a month. Also, you make it too hard for the real talent to ascend or stick around.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend – I'm not optimistic about the outlook for this company

Current Employee – been working at DeVry part-time for more than a year

Pros – DeVry is aggressively focused on growth, even in the face of recession. They have high standards for their staff, professors, and administration. There is room to grow with the company, especially if one is open to relocation. DeVry is partnered with other learning institutions, offering Associate's, Bachelor's, and Master's degrees in fields ranging from Business/Management to Nursing and IT. They recruit from the top levels of management in many sectors and industries, providing students with real-live experiences to gain a great understanding of today's business world.

Cons – DeVry's expansion program leads to some cuts and hiring freezes at the administrative level. There is a minimum of support staff and the Deans have an extremely heavy workload.

Advice to Senior Management – DeVry wants active visible managers. They have the potential for rapid movement upward, and lateral shifts to other locations. Be prepared for hard-work. DeVry has standards for continuing education for senior staff, has generous benefits for vacation and health, and dependent's education.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

Former Employee – worked at DeVry full-time for more than a year

Pros – Fantastic company to work for. great culture. Everyone wants to help each other and grow the company.

Cons – IT group is difficult to work with, there is always this tug of war between business and IT.

Advice to Senior Management – IT needs to mellow down and work with business.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend – I'm optimistic about the outlook for this company