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      EF (Education First)

      Engaged Employer

      EF (Education First) reviews

      3.4

      61% would recommend to a friend

      (4,609 total reviews)
      avatar

      Edward Hult, Ph.D

      61% approve of CEO

      47% positive business outlook

      Ratings by demographic groups

      EF (Education First) has an employee rating of 3.4 out of 5 stars, based on 4,609 company reviews on Glassdoor which indicates that most employees have a good working experience there. The EF (Education First) employee rating is in line with the average (within 1 standard deviation) for employers within the Educación industry (3.7 stars).

      Reviews by job title

      5K reviews
      2.0
      Feb 9, 2023

      Not a company I would return to

      Recruiter
      Recommend
      CEO approval
      Business Outlook

      Pros

      The mission was exciting in boosting international education and sending people on new adventures across the world.

      Cons

      Unfortunately, they're a company that's great at marketing a cool and hip culture when the reality is they're spending money on fancy parties instead of fair and equitable salaries. They bolster the bottom level of the company with overworked and underpaid entry-level employees with realistically few opportunities to actually progress. As an education company, they're completely money/business development focused and not people-centered. Profit over people at every angle, which, coming into the company from a service mindset and wanting to make positive impacts on the world was really disheartening. There is also an underlying culture of mistrust. They do a good job at gatekeeping employees from other departments. There's a lack of transparency and knowledge sharing of what goes on in the rest of the business. Teams are siloed so you don't know what's happening elsewhere. Finally, I was appalled by the initial treatment of our employees at the beginning of the COVID outbreak. The CEO sent out a massively guilting/bullying email for all employees to continue coming to the office. It was a sign of true colors - mistrust and business development over the health of its people. I would not work here again.

      avatar
      EF (Education First) Response
      3y
      Thank you for your review. We are sorry to hear that you did not enjoy your time working at EF and felt that salaries were not equitable. If you are comfortable sharing more about your experience, we encourage you to email hr@ef.com to provide additional feedback so the organization can continue to evolve.
      1.0
      May 16, 2022

      No Money, Lots of Problems

      Anonymous employee
      Recommend
      CEO approval
      Business Outlook

      Pros

      - Good colleagues - Easy place to start or restart a career - Cool office destinations around the world (if you can convince them to send you) - Cambridge office is in a super accessible location

      Cons

      A few days ago a leader at the company wrote a long LinkedIn post warning employers to be careful when granting an employee a raise because that employee might spend more money and then come back asking for another raise. In my time here, I heard multiple stories of employees' motivations being questioned when they asked for a raise. In successful years, the raises at annual reviews were the same percentage increase no matter how successful the company was that year, but as soon as a bad year came along the raises were eliminated. TLDR, unless you have a partner in a lucrative career or you are moving from a lucrative career, it is impossible to build financial security while being an employee at EF. They will probably comment on this post about how they are constantly looking at the market rate for salaries and are confident in their offer, but I know from all the phone screens I did with hiring managers for similar roles as the one I had at EF that this isn't even close to true. Companies are free to operate under any business model they wish. But the terrible salaries here mean that talented people leave all. the. time. and as a result, the people who are left behind are stuck holding the bag and burning themselves out while trying to cover for the people who are constantly leaving.

      avatar
      EF (Education First) Response
      4y
      Thank you for taking the time to write us a review. It is nice to hear you have enjoyed your colleagues, our offices, and the opportunities EF offers to team members to start (or restart) their careers. We strive to create a workplace where our team members feel valued, grow professionally and personally, and maintain a healthy work-life balance. While this unfortunately may not always be the case, it is our responsibility to acknowledge that so we can learn and better support our team members. We always want to improve, and feedback like yours is essential to this effort to enact change. We would like to connect further with you if you feel comfortable doing so. You can email us at HR@ef.com. We wish you all of the best and hope to hear from you soon.
      1.0
      Mar 24, 2020

      Leadership stuck in the past

      Applications engineer
      Recommend
      CEO approval
      Business Outlook

      Pros

      Most individual contributors are bright and easy to work with

      Cons

      Patriarchal, 1970's management style (if there is even one). Felt like The Stepford Wives. All looks good on the outside, but internally, there's nothing but high school triangulation/gossip, control freaks who need their hands in everything, and those who just refuse to learn new ways of managing people, products or time. It's toxic. When approximately 25% of staff are VP's, that should be an indicator something off. I could write a book.....

      avatar
      EF (Education First) Response
      6y
      I'm very sorry to hear about your experience at EF and appreciate your feedback. It's good to know you found your colleagues to be bright and easy to work with - that has certainly been my experience here, too - but clearly you did not have a good experience with your managers. At EF, over 60% of our managers are women, so we certainly don't identify with a patriarchal approach. We offer ongoing manager training and opportunities for staff to provide feedback about senior leaders so that we can continue to provide development for people at all levels of the organization. I'm sorry that you didn't feel this effort coming through in your experience. We do appreciate the feedback and, as always, will use this as a chance to improve.
      Viewing 70 - 72 of 4,609 Reviews
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      ReviewsEF (Education First) reviews

      Glassdoor has 6,454 EF (Education First) reviews submitted anonymously by EF (Education First) employees. Read employee reviews and ratings on Glassdoor to decide if EF (Education First) is right for you.