Khan Academy Reviews

Pros

Talented Engineers working with passion Leading edge work in education Work-life balance Always so inspiring to hear and talk to Sal Khan

Cons

None I can think of anything

Pros

- Incredible people, culture, and mission - Remote-first but still have an HQ in Mountain View, CA we get to visit occasionally - Get to wear multiple hats like in any start-up environment, while having a huge impact on the world of education and especially the under-resourced - Competitive pay, especially for a non-profit - Amazing benefits. 100% employee premium coverage, lots of mental health benefits, and more.

Cons

- Can be higher pressure at times (like any start-up really), because of the impact we have but we're a smaller company. A bit of an odd situation - Process between teams is lacking, and a lot of times product designers need to do typical "PM" type of work, adding to potential stress and energy being used.

Pros

Great work atmosphere for companies

Cons

Not great for not having company

Pros

Environment Friendly Professional Variable Perfection

Cons

Low pay Over work Low wage Over time Extra hours

Pros

Khan Academy is the company that saved US parents during the pandemic--it's a well-loved brand. And the idea that the work you're doing could help kids keeps a lot of people around.

Cons

The CEO, and what remains of the rapidly-departing senior management, are stuck in the mindset of Silicon Valley techno-libertarianism, rather than listening to actual teachers and education researchers. The CEO in particular has that peculiar techno-libertarian notion of freedom where "free speech" is encouraged, but questioning or criticism is not. This lead to a situation a few months back where he started manually removing people from an alumni communication channel after criticism of his participation in an NFT wash trade. He's a much nicer person than many of the other tech CEOs with this problem, and the mission seems worthy, so it's easy to give him a pass... ... for people who are already privileged, and thus safe from retribution. Which means the company has grown steadily whiter and male-er over the past couple years or so, as people with valid concerns either opt out or are ushered out.

Pros

The most talented team of passionate individuals I've ever worked with. The compensation is competitive for a company of its size, with 401k and bonus plan, which is amazing for non profit. It is remarkably rewarding and inspiring to work alongside people driven by the compelling mission. This was especially true during the height of the pandemic when users doubled and you could feel the impact that Khan Academy was having as a result of all the school closures. Khan Academy has become stronger during my tenure with a competent management team who really have empathy for the work-life balance of the employees and the mission. Highly recommended for someone who wants to do something meaningful in their careers, with plenty of technical challenges and creative problem solving with really smart people.

Cons

The DEI dimension of Khan Academy has been questioned recently. I do not understand this sentiment. Whilst the company is working hard to diversify the ethnicity of its employees - something that is often a challenge in high tech, it has the largest proportion of minority representation anywhere in my career or other companies I have been involved with. Khan Academy supports and nurtures these affinity groups and celebrates their inclusion. Strangely a small group of them seem to have "unionized" and have attempted to co-op the mission of the company. Fortunately most have left and the company is back on course "to provide a free, world‑class education for anyone, anywhere”

Pros

The mission is a good one.

Cons

Sal (the CEO) is a raging narcissist. If you try to correct or challenge him, you are fired or pushed out. His public image has made him virtually untouchable thus far but it is time for that to change. The organization is not a safe haven for people from marginalized groups. There are tons of stories emerging that show how toxic the culture is at KA. Instances of sexism, racism, and homophobia run rampant. Go search on Twitter to see threads of how poorly folks have been treated as well as KA's blatant attempts to silence those who are speaking out. KA hides these posts and tries to blast other stories to drown them out. It's disgusting but it is all true. Alumni were booted out of the alumni Slack group for raising legitimate concerns about the recent sketchy NFT/Parallel situation. Then we all got some shady email telling us that we can't be trusted but "please donate to KA". Give me a break.

Pros

*Pro: Amazing People* Some of the most talented and passionate people I’ve met in my career to date have been from Khan Academy. The company on the whole is able to attract incredibly high quality talent. *Pro: Potential* The product has a huge amount of potential to change the lives of students who don’t typically have access to high quality schools, teachers, or support structures. The brand is strong and well positioned to drive real impact because of that.

Cons

*Con: Vision* In my time at the organization the company strategy and vision shifted a number of times. Often with dramatic shifts on who the target user was, business model, and product feature sets. This came through with a product vision and strategy that no one from the top was able to articulate a clear and understandable elevator speech version of, let alone get into the nitty gritty of what it actually meant for students in underserved classrooms. In education, where change happens slowly, this lack of vision made it incredibly hard to understand if we were actually making any true progress towards helping students. Or if their time, district money, and energy would have been better spent on any number of the other high quality products or services out there. *Con: Taking a Stand* The org had a terrible ethos around education not being political and that taking a neutral path would allow us to stay friends (and donors) with everyone. By committing to taking a stand on nothing, we would embrace everything. Those in the organization who see education as political and desire to push the organization to be more progressive (e.g., content with two mothers) are seen as pushing things too far. They were given the direction that kind of content will add too much “cognitive load to students” who come from cultures where they never encountered that concept. Many of the staff who have actually spent time in education, inherently know how political education is – and that this mythical middle ground doesn’t exist. They are often in low to mid-level roles and unable to get the ear of leadership levels who tend to come from traditional tech. The tenure of former educators at the org is often quite short. *Con: Leadership* Sal is highly skilled and adept at online instruction and ideation. But where he has some weaknesses (hey, we all do) are in organization management, strategy, and communication. He’s the driver of the org very much in the mold of a founder/CEO who has an idea in his head, and everyone is running around trying to divinate what’s going on in there. What flows from that is a leadership style that is very subservient to that one point of contact, rather than a more democratized org structure that welcomes and values ideas from across the org. There is little tolerance for hard questions, potential deviations, and critique to help sharpen the internal thinking. These actions can be met with disinterest at best to retaliation at worst. *Summary* Khan Academy has so much potential but unfortunately the day to day is stifling, incoherent, and disappointing. If you are passionate about mission driven organizations, please continue your research and join any number of other quality organizations that are focused on making the world a better place. They exist! Some are non-profits, some are for profits. But they exist and you’ll likely have a more engaging, productive, and happy experience at them than you will at Khan Academy.

Pros

People care about one another and the mission

Cons

Group think in an increasingly corporate culture Product updates that would truly benefit educators are largely ignored Lip service is given to DEI efforts; ICs are expected to carry on this work on 'magic time' and senior leadership does not prioritize this work Lack of clear career growth opportunities

Pros

Fun place to work with a powerful mission

Cons

Team sizes can be larger than expected