Pros
In the summer we work 9 hour days Mon-Thurs and 3 hour days on Fridays. Most people who work here are politically progressive and do believe in international education as a positive thing for the world. My team was full of caring, great people.
Kontras
The turnover here is extremely high. People do not stay in low level positions for more than a year – max for a coordinator or senior coordinator would be like 2 years and that is if you either a) are sticking it out for some particular reason like to stay until you finish grad school or something, or b) you just cannot find another job for some reason. I was here for less than a year and couldn’t wait to leave after about 2 months. The upper management does not care about the lower level workers and do not create effective ways for them to move up, gain professional development or make any kind of impact at all. On my first day, I was told point blank by a superior that “there is no room for upward mobility in your position” – extra shocking because a) why would you say that to someone on their first day?! and b) I specifically asked about that in my interview and was told the exact opposite. There are some bad eggs in the upper management who really color your experience, oftentimes no matter where you sit in the organization. There is little understanding of collaboration between departments – particular departments are worse than others. You will definitely be thrown into something random, with no training and be expected to succeed and keep face for the members immediately upon arrival. Much of the organizational knowledge is in people’s heads rather than recorded anywhere where it can be useful to future employees. This is particularly alarming when many long-time staff are beginning to leave. Since the new CEO started about 2 years ago, a lot of things have gone wrong and many long-time staff are leaving… since I started already 3 people who have worked here 10+ years have quit. Employees here bond by talking about how much they hate their job and cannot wait to find something else and get out of here. For low level staff, it is almost a race to see who can leave the soonest. The environment in the office tends to be very negative and even toxic at times. Some people are completely overworked while others sit around and twiddle their thumbs all day. The spread of work is incredibly uneven – around conference time, everyone is pedal to the metal and then, for many people, the work stops. This is a show of very poor management. Overall, I am really excited to move on with my life.