Pros
-- The teams senior leaders have built across the company (particularly in the United States) are unbelievably talented and all aligned against the company mission and vision
-- Culture. I've worked at two previous startups, and the culture, particularly around how company values (Positive Attitude, Integrity, Excellence, Peace of Mind and Passion) should affect day to day actions and output is incredibly strong at Student.com. There are countless stories -- from pretty much anyone in externally facing roles to support this...times where teams have gone above and beyond to deliver on our brand promise of Peace of Mind for students. Anecdotes like hopping in taxis with students who mistakenly showed up at our office instead of at their accommodation, going with international students to help interpret get at the property and checked in and helping them go to Walmart to get new bedding and sheets for when they check in. Many companies promise to do the small things to "surprise and delight" their users; Student.com actually executes against this vision and lives and breathes it every day
-- Fundamentals. The company has a fundamentally strong and elegant business model that solves a real problem. Overall university enrollment is growing globally as is enrollment by foreign students, and landlords / real estate partners are beginning to rely heavily on Student.com as a source channel and diverting marketing spend on other platforms towards us
-- Highly international company with opportunity to learn a ton about the future of global education. It's an exciting business model that touches online & offline and affects a highly important demographic with endless potential to expand into other verticals (student finance, cell phones, local merchant loyalty programs etc)
-- Buy-in from Line Managers to Executive leadership and mission / vision. Yep -- there were layoffs recently, and that truly sucks. It's never an easy experience but Line managers really stepped up to reassure their teams and keep the mission and vision aligned so we can keep executing day in and day out. Not many companies have this level of mission buy in to push through painful times like layoffs in the way Student.com has, and it's a huge asset
Cons
-- Focus and communication across teams and geographies. This is a tough problem for any company, but with teams across 17 time zones and many cultures with different business standard operating procedure, it's even more important to get right. The 100% transparency in company huddles of late is an excellent step in this direction!
-- I will agree entirely with another reviewer about the ever present Advisor / Investor.
This person's presence is antithetical to our "Positive Attitude" value and their continued presence actually sucks value and productivity out of the company, and confuses people as to their actual level of influence and role.
