Education Management Reviews

I have been working at Education Management full-time for more than 3 years

Pros – The money, because I got in before they got rid of the matrix. What they pay now is not worth it unless you are DESPERATE!

Cons – Where to begin? The management team has 2 plans for success, potlucks or layoffs. I have been here 4 years and have seen about an equal number of both. Not surprisingly, neither are effective against a imploding for-profit education market. Goals are unrealistic and unattainable ( I say this having hit the goals before through little more than sheer luck and circumstance) the punishments far out weigh the rewards. Did I mention they cut rasies for 2 years and the stock is below 4$ as of this posting? Not exatly what i had imagined during my 4 years of business school.

Advice to Senior Management – Find a cliff....then jump off it.

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

I worked at Education Management full-time for more than 3 years

Pros – Collegiate type atmosphere. Team oriented. Beautiful facility in Chandler, AZ. Pay is average. Benefits are good, better than many. Very generous with paid holidays and time off. They are funding many,many projects to better their technology and enhance client experience.

Cons – Chaotic environment. Executive management seems distant and disconnected with reality.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

I have been working at Education Management full-time for more than 7 years

Pros – Health benefits and education benefits.

Cons – Corporate culture is disappointing, politics impedes progress or recourse against management who are paranoid of their own job security

Advice to Senior Management – You hire some of the best talent out there, allow them the intellectual and creative freedom to do their job without being micromanaged or without being put in their place by managers who seem paranoid of protecting their own position...

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

I have been working at Education Management full-time for more than 3 years

Pros – OK health benefits, Paid holiday time, decent office environment.

Cons – High turnover, constant shifting in department needs, large layoffs recently.

Advice to Senior Management – Micromanagement creates a hostile atmosphere. When employees do not feel trusted to do their job they become unmotivated and unhappy.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

I have been working at Education Management full-time for more than 7 years

Pros – Growing, fast paced, always changing.

Cons – Growing too fast at times.

Advice to Senior Management – Continue to listen to employees, making progress.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

I worked at Education Management full-time for more than 10 years

Pros – Sadly, Not much good these days.

Cons – Way too expensive. Not good value education for your dollar. CEO gets huge million dollar salary while laying off 800 employees. Too corporate. Most faculty don't have highly credentialed professional track records. The company is not interested in delivering quality education but profits for its share holders on the backs of the poorly paid faculty (work 75% more than a regular professor at a "real" college), tax payers educational loans and students expensive tuition.

Advice to Senior Management – Sell these schools back to owners that are passionate about education and care about the students and staff.

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

I worked at Education Management full-time for more than a year

Pros – free education if you have time

Cons – Reviews (called Success factors) are given every quarter. If you do not meet the high application or student start rate imposed by corp., you receive a negative rating. You do have the chance (if only) to redeem yourself with an "exceeds expectation" rating on a series of other factors such as professionalism but have been told by management that these are next to impossible to achieve. Goals are changed mid quarters by corp. and DOA's dangle good reviews over your head like carrots. If you receive two unfavorable reviews you are fired. Success factors AKA failure factors (as coined but one of the DOA’s) is a way of weeding people out of admissions.
 If you make your phone time you are told you don't have enough dials and vise versa. There is always something to find wrong. Nothing is ever good enough. At time of application you are told to have the students write the essays (which are only 150 words long). Most of the students that apply have no grammar or spelling skills so hoping that they can write an essay worthy of a "real" acceptance in thirty minutes is ridiculous, yet upper management wants it this way so they don't look bad during corp. meetings. Never mind that the student will be rejected or fail his way into student debt.
If you don't take at least one application a week you are sent to the president's office, which feels like being sent to the principals office for punishment. DOA's do not help the ADA's with improvement and spend much of their time gossiping about their team members or divulging confidential information to ADAs about other ADAs. Applications that are received online are handed out to those favored by management like treats or rewards.
There are so many blackout dates that it is next to impossible to take PTO. When you do take PTO you are still responsible for not having applications or phone time and you can get so far behind in your numbers it’s not worth taking the time off anyway. Open Houses are held almost every other weekend where prospective students are herded into the student union after a tour and pressured to apply.
There is a horrible disconnect between management, senior management and employees. Employees are lied to; rules and procedures are changed from one week to the next. It is a truly toxic, unhealthy and unethical environment.
The ADA’s have been told that they do not sell the school to the students; they sell themselves instead. Sorry but I don’t make enough money to have to bare that kind of responsibility.
If we need more students to make a class start we are told to enroll ourselves in school or our dependants even if we are not comfortable with the idea.
The list goes on….

Advice to Senior Management – Nothing that will be heard. Employee 2% cost of living increase was frozen nationwide so the CEO could collect his millions in bonus money. What advise would you give?

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

I worked at Education Management full-time for more than 10 years

Pros – Tuition is covered for employees

Cons – Not student focused to much emphasis on bottom line, no work life balance.

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

I have been working at Education Management full-time for more than a year

Pros – Good pay and decent benefits.

Cons – The management team needs to learn how to work with their employees.

Advice to Senior Management – A lot more interaction needs to occur.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

I worked at Education Management full-time for less than a year

Pros – Co workers are great, supportive, and without them it would be tough to bare through an entire day. Pays well, decent benefits, paid time off.

Cons – Where to start. They preach the importance of your students success when really all that matters are numbers. You'll be making roughly 200-500 cold calls to "prospective students" each day. Most of those you have a conversation with are not a right fit for going to school. Even if you've obtained your goals, management will continue to push you for more and more and more. Student success doesn't even count towards you if the student isn't financially packaged, which really means the company isn't making money therefore you failed them and this wont count for you.
They will let you go just shy of your 90 days in order to avoid paying you a raise in salary and benefits.
Their failed efforts to get you to be more productive are proven to not work, yet they continue to use them and the responsibility falls on the reps and not the management implementing these failed tactics.
Though this is not considered a "sales" job, it completely is. The sell is an online degree and the cost is the financial aid these students cant even afford. It's a total scam and a huge shame this company will not change its practices.
Wont be long before it runs itself into the ground.

Advice to Senior Management – If you want this company to make money in an ethical way then actually worry about student success and not obtaining unreasonable numbers. The majority of your applications will be canceled because ultimately the reps know right off the bat these prospective students cannot afford a college degree. Those who ACTUALLY want to go to college and have the means to do so should be a main priority. They aren't the priority, and you cant keep lying to yourselves that it is.

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