Pros
LearnVest is a great place to come and work if you want to see a company that is in the midst of a period of rapid growth and change. As other reviewers have noted, the recent move to a new office has given the company headquarters in New York a much-needed facelift. The acquisition by Northwestern Mutual has brought with it an infusion of capital, enabling the company to hire more employees in almost every area of the business, as well as to devote resources to previously overlooked projects. Compensation at LearnVest can be excellent (at least as far as engineering is concerned), but it should be noted that you will need to ask for raises if you expect to receive them. The culture here is extremely positive, with an exceptionally upbeat workforce, kind and outgoing coworkers, and no shortage of company-sponsored events. Monthly catered lunches and happy-hours give you a chance to rub elbows with your colleagues and engage in the lighter side of working at a startup in NYC. Negative reviews have made note of long work weeks and a lack of vision on the part of management and operations. While there is a certain degree of truth to the latter claim, from what I have seen, the former is largely erroneous. Claims of 70-hour work weeks are largely exaggerated, especially given that the office itself is closed and locked after 7pm during the week and entirely on weekends (unless special access is approved for specific individuals). As an added bonus, for those who wish to indulge their workaholic side, the company is still a widely open environment of cross-departmental promotion. CFP not really doing it for you? Work hard and you can transfer into project management, business development, or even engineering with proper study and a good attitude. One of our best project owners worked as office manager and receptionist when I started working at LearnVest; there's absolutely no reason you can't pivot your career if you express an interest in doing so and put in the work to get there. Perhaps the greatest praise I can give to the company as a whole has been the response I have seen to negative feedback on glassdoor. Rumors abound that many of the reviews posted have been either written or solicited by HR (no doubt this review will suffer similar aspersions), however I have seen little evidence to support this hypothesis. Moreover, the running joke around the office these days is along the lines of "if you want something done, complain about it on glassdoor." Management is clearly very focused on hiring new talent, and negative reviews have been a bane to that process; from what I have observed, there is a clear focus on addressing criticism quickly so as to offset the damage caused by these critical testimonials. There are certainly issues here, as is the case at all companies (more on that in a moment), but as far as I can tell, review padding is not among them.
Cons
Now for the downsides; LearnVest, as has been accurately noted in previous reviews, is no longer a startup, and it shows. While the influence of Northwestern Mutual has largely been a passive one, there is a definite undertone of increasing rigidity and corporate hierarchy that was far less pervasive a year ago. Contrary to the rhetoric, this has never been a tech company first, but rather a product-driven startup with a large technical component. Negative reviews from 18 months ago make liberal mention of the product-first, tech-second mindset, and that continues to a certain extent to this day. That being said, the upper management seems to be grappling with the hard truth that there is no company (and certainly no acquisition) without the tech team, so this is less pronounced than it once was. A never-ending source of frustration at LearnVest has been resource constraints, especially as far as tech is concerned. For as long as I have worked here, a combination of managerial grappling and limited technical personnel has prevented big projects from being realized and hindered crucial overhauls to our technical infrastructure from being undertaken. This has been exacerbated by hiring troubles across the company, in no small part (if the rumors are to be believed) due to negative reviews on glassdoor. While this is a definite source of frustration, you can rest assured that you will be an integral part of the solution should you choose to work at LearnVest. As a final note, I feel compelled to briefly discuss the "mission" and its surrounding rhetoric. While I seem to be in the minority of people who take umbrage with the liberal dose of Kool-Aid served at LearnVest, you should be ready and willing to endure a certain degree of proselytizing regarding the goal to "help ordinary people make (#)progress on their money." While I am in complete agreement that this is an admirable aspiration, never forget that this is a company whose primary interests are to sell life insurance and turn a profit. If you can endure a little contradiction vis-à-vis the mission statement and the business agenda, then this will likely not be an issue for you, but if you gag at the first hint of hypocrisy and double-talk, you may find these inconsistencies (and corresponding self-righteousness) somewhat irksome.