EF (Education First) reviews

From my first day at EF, I felt like I was at college freshman orientation. You are strongly encouraged to socialize at their bar downstairs after work or participate in activities like the EF games. If you are someone who wants to come to work, do your work and then go home and live your own life, this is not the place for you. I think that EF manages to succeed because they promote the "lifers" - people who have never worked anywhere else and don't question any of the processes (or lack thereof - they like to say this is because they are young and fun and not corporate). They aren't retaining new external talent because their current management is not receptive to any changes. In fact, they don't even care enough to give you an exit interview. Instead, they focus on surface level things to make their entry level workers believe that they are a cool, modern place to work and hope that some of them turn into lifers who know nothing about how an organization should run, because they have only ever worked at EF. Additionally, for a modern company who prides themselves on being global, their resistance to WFH and their terrible maternity leave policies are frankly embarrassing.

After about 2-3 years, the excitement wears off. The free travel is wonderful, but if you have a family or are serious about career growth, that becomes less of a sticking-point. There is extremely little room to grow, get promoted, and make more money. I worked at EF for almost 4 years, consistently hit sales goals, brought in over $1 million revenue y/y, and never made more than $60k/yr. Do not take this job if you're used to working commission-based sales, or at least be very aware of what your salary will be. Whatever they tell you you can expect in bonus, half it and that's more likely. Goals will never be less than 10% up y/y, even if you have a giant book of business. That means, the longer you stay and the better you do, the harder it is for you to make money. They also never let managers, or EF-lifer's, go (barring economic distress like covid). Managers are often shuffled around from office to office, department to department, even though they really don't contribute any longer, or are down-right terrible at their jobs and impact the company morale. If you can survive 7-10 years you're practically untouchable. If you're considering EF, and you're used to a typical Sales salary - look the other way. Or at the very least be prepared to take a large pay-cut. If you're recently out of college, looking to learn a lot, have a ton of fun, meet lots of interesting people, and make just enough to be $100 away from living paycheck to paycheck, this is the place for you!