CoStar Group Reviews

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Top Review Highlights by Sentiment
Excerpts from user reviews, not authored by Glassdoor
- "They were great people because they were in the same boat as many others... (Read: not sure of where they wanted to go in life.)" (in 106 reviews)
- "They use these surveys to judge good managers based on questions that do not reflect their management." (in 132 reviews)
- "Upper management is completely out of touch with researchers day to day and implement changes without any consultation with researchers." (in 100 reviews)
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Found 2,146 of over 2K reviews
Updated Sep 19, 2023
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- 5.0Sep 17, 2023Software EngineerCurrent Employee, more than 1 yearNorfolk, VA
Pros
Chance to learn a a variety of technologies in the software engineering stack.
Cons
I can’t think of any at the moment
- 2.0Sep 7, 2023Tenant Research AssociateFormer Employee, more than 5 yearsRichmond, VA
Pros
-Costar does have growth opportunities, competitive salary, and great benefits. --Colleagues that you work with can be awesome and supportive. -Casual business attire
Cons
-Unless you are passionate about being a bootlicker and growing in Real Estate, you will not enjoy this experience. - Glorified call-center. -Micromanagement is a huge issue. Most managers(in my experience) are not happy. There are some great managers, but eventually, they are bullied into micromanaging their team because of Leadership's unrealistic expectations. Management is very messy and disorganized. -Change happens so often, which is understandable due to the industry they are in and the # of acquisitions that occur. It is inevitable, but they expect their employees to pivot without any errors. -Quantity over quality - they glorify the amount of work done, rather than it being right. you are constantly trying to juggle being quick vs. being prompt. -The constant gaslighting and stress of this environment is not worth it. Very up and down, emotionally. they seem to constantly welcome your ideas and suggestions, but belittle you when you mention them. -Can potentially have growth within salary and title after a yr, but even more confused on a personal and professional level because of the tone of the environment. - They do not instill any trust. treat their employees like children. -Without any explaination, apply policies that don't make sense. -They track everything you do
3 - 2.0Sep 16, 2023Mid Market Account ExecutiveFormer Employee, less than 1 yearNorfolk, VA
Pros
-good pay -yearly sales conference -new hire training -bonus incentives
Cons
-their motto is “work hard party harder” which is all fun but they expect you to work outside of hours and do whatever you possible can to meet quota -I only worked in the Apartments.com department and was miserable. I enjoy new hire training and still talk to the people I trained with but as soon as that was over it’s like your dreams are murdered. They don’t care about you at all you’re just a number and expected to work like a robot. -there’s absolutely no training after being newly hired. It’s like getting thrown into the lions den. Very energy draining and depressing work environment. Very cooperate America.
2 - 3.0Sep 19, 2023Marketing Email CoordinatorFormer Employee, more than 3 years
Pros
they had good snacks in office
Cons
very cold cold cold environment
1 - 4.0Sep 19, 2023Research AssistantCurrent Employee, less than 1 yearRichmond, VA
Pros
Good pay, manageable 9 to 5 hours
Cons
Heavy workload, super metrics driven
- 2.0Sep 11, 2023Account ExecutiveFormer Employee, more than 3 years
Pros
Most of your experience will depend on your manager and your team. I lucked out on both and had a manager and team that were really great to work with. The training is intense, but I think it adequately prepares you for the job. It honestly was one of the better training programs that I have come across in corporate sales. You are selling a product that has no competition. People involved in real estate NEED this product. People in the CRE space do not like CoStar, but they need it which ultimately makes it an easier sell. I always felt like I was well compensated for what I sold. Each comp plan has its quirks, but if you are smart you can figure out what you need to do to maximize it. There are definitely pros to CoStar. I am not someone who just craps all over something. There are benefits to working there, but at the same time I feel like the cons outweigh the pros.
Cons
The account manager job is really like four jobs in one. I have worked for four pretty substantial tech companies and I have never seen a role that incorporates more tasks into one. If someone in your book of business has a billing issue, you are coordinating it. You are responsible for all renewal conversations. You are responsible for training your clients on all of the features of CoStar. This is all on top of trying to bring in new accounts. You always feel like you are drowning. Each day you'll walk in and open up your email with client complaints all over your email while trying to prepare for a massive prospect presentation later that day. These are issues that in my career I have only experienced at CoStar. The is a sense that big brother is watching you at CoStar. This comes from the top with Andy. I'm not here to say that the guy isn't talented and driven. Of course he is to have done what he has done with the company. He is; however, extremely insecure and paranoid. All hands calls are basically a shrine to Andy. You have to block off basically your entire day for them and Andy basically talks about how great he is for hours at a time. If you have a prospect that can only meet at that time, too bad. Like I said earlier, I have worked for multiple large companies and I have never seen a CEO act like he acted. There is also a sense of hero worship around him throughout the org which makes sense because if you don't worship the ground he walks on, you'll probably look for the first chance to leave. To the big brother is watching you point, they record all outgoing calls. They say it is for coaching purposes....yeah right. The problem is if you are in the field and want to prospect you have to use your cell. At one point I had hit quota 5 months straight and was performing really well. I am not saying that I am above coaching, but I am obviously doing something right. In some time between appointments, I made some prospecting calls from a parking lot on my cell, set a couple of appointments, only to get reprimanded because I was not recording my calls. It honestly made me livid. I could tell my manager thought it was ridiculous, but what could she do? This stuff all comes from the top.
4 - 1.0Aug 10, 2023RecruiterFormer Employee, less than 1 yearRichmond, VA
Pros
some teams will have happy hours and you get leave the office right at 5pm
Cons
- they own the building and make you pay for parking - no growth, promotions promised and not followed up on. - micromanagement: they track your location via your computer, audit your email/teams messaging, track when you use the restroom and for how long, - data is fake, quotas are enforced so hard people make things up to keep their jobs - they pay a ton of money to get awards like "great employer" from random lists - general lying and sweep it under the rug attitude. All the above is just the tip of the iceberg. The company will say it's not true and this was just a crazy unhappy ex-employee. However, there was an community of 1k+ who got together and shared their own horror stories not only to feel less alone, but also to show that places like Glassdoor didn't show the full picture. When CoStar found out, they sued the organizer for defamation and made sure nothing could be found.
11 - 4.0Sep 12, 2023Associate Security EngineerFormer EmployeeWashington, DC
Pros
Good cyber team and IT team, everyone is friendly and helpful
Cons
salaries and promotions don't seem to keep up in pace with other companies, though it does seem to be improving
- 3.0Jul 26, 2021Financial AnalystFormer Employee, more than 5 yearsWashington, DC
Pros
It’s no secret CoStar creates some great products. While the majority of the brands come from acquisitions the company is incredibly efficient at integrating, marketing, and selling these products. Quarterly earnings speak for themselves. Pretty good place to start you career out of college. You learn how to work in a large corporation. Learn to sell SaaS products, or various IT fields Pay is ok at best, benefits are pretty good Attacks competition, there is a lot of job security (unless you are being forced to another office) I actually respect the vaccine mandate to come into the office. Made the workplace a safe environment
Cons
The main con I have really comes down the lack of respect the company has shown to its employees. For years, employees have asked for the ability to be able to work from home (not every day just the occasional one when needed), by almost every metric that costar loves to track the pandemic proved we could do that, and after a half hearted vaccination incentive program (where the winners were high ranking members of the company) the company said everyone needed to be in the office 5X a week after Memorial Day weekend. If you needed an exemption you had two weeks to figure it out. There was a lot of jaw dropping when we were told this. Respect also comes from making sure your teams are fully staffed. It’s a constantly growing company with way too many objectives it tries to accomplish at once. For example, I received a different role late last year, and was told my old position would be backfilled. I spent more than half a year simultaneously working both roles. Unless you have been at the company a decade or more its very hard to progress in your career at CoStar. Yes you might get a lateral promotion here and there, but when it comes to one day managing and leading people expect the company to go outside the firm to find them. Once they are hired very rarely will their “best practices” be implemented because the costar way is the only way.
187 - 2.0Sep 15, 2023Research AssociateCurrent Employee, more than 1 yearRichmond, VA
Pros
Good benefits, including transportation stipend, free gym, 401k match
Cons
Metric based performance. No incentive to exceed expectations. Fear tactics used by management to drive performance. Constant change in metrics and what goals were.
CoStar Group Reviews FAQs
CoStar Group has an overall rating of 2.9 out of 5, based on over 2,195 reviews left anonymously by employees. 41% of employees would recommend working at CoStar Group to a friend and 44% have a positive outlook for the business. This rating has decreased by -1% over the last 12 months.
41% of CoStar Group employees would recommend working there to a friend based on Glassdoor reviews. Employees also rated CoStar Group 3.0 out of 5 for work life balance, 2.6 for culture and values and 2.9 for career opportunities.
According to reviews on Glassdoor, employees commonly mention the pros of working at CoStar Group to be coworkers, compensation, benefits and the cons to be career development, senior leadership, management.