I guess I grew as a person? - Corp Member City Year Employee Review

2.0
Jun 1, 2015
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

You will be working with students 40+ hours a week. If this is the sort of thing you're looking for, you might consider this a plus. Daily calisthenics! Some of the middle management and fellow corp members were some of the greatest people I've ever met.

Cons

Exploitative pay: I was paid less than 200 a week for full time work, (which often turned into 50 hour+ work weeks.) Terrible Uniform: Uniform is an unprofessional hodgepodge of Timberland products and a fast food name tag. Lack of Training: Much of the time spent before being inserted into a school was spent playing "feelings" games (which, don't get me wrong, have their time and place). I was never taught how to tutor or teach or manage a classroom. This fact was complained about nearly constantly by all corp members, nothing was done to rectify it. "Diversity Decisions": Diversity in the workplace is essential, but asking black corp members to move to a different city and serve in a different, predominantly white corp in order to appear more diverse is just offensive. Statistics: The corp touts their total number of man hours served in schools as an indication of making a difference, regardless of the actual effect, positive or negative, our presence had. Dishonest Recruitment: That we were working in a school was downplayed during the recruitment process. I was told that corp members would spend upwards of 10 hours in the classroom each week, but class time was 90% of the job. Incompetent recruitment: Bearing in mind that this is an educational non-profit, I had co-workers who were illiterate, unfamiliar with basic math, completely incapable of communicating in a professional setting, and would inexplicably vomit without warning (that part was kind of weird). Creepy Culture: The office culture demanded the use of inane buzzwords, non-words, chants, songs, and other micro-cultural artifacts imported directly from a handbook written by corporate in Boston.

Explore other reviews about City Year

5.0
Apr 13, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Well-organized/structured Transportation, healthcare, and AmeriCorps benefits Lots of teambuilding

Cons

Long days Uniforms A lot of professional development

1.0
Feb 3, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

if you put up with a year of lies, burnout, empathy fatigue from working with kids you can’t save, below minimum wage, then you can get a lot of money at the end.

Cons

they use the fact that you care about these kids to get you to put up with any and everything. that 900 something dollar check is basically 10 dollars an hour while you have to be an english and math tutor to multiple students, emotionally support them. mind you majority of these kids are experiencing poverty, several grades behind their reading and math level, extremely syndications home lives. these kids go through more than the average adult and you didn’t sign up to be a therapist. they are vague during the interview about the task and what you’re actually doing for a reason. so many other task and responsibilities. mangement does not care about you at all. they won’t care if you get injured, they won’t try to defend you to outside sources. i won’t ever get over how my school had teachers telling them kids they would never amount to anything, wouldn’t graduate, got called slurs, yet we stayed there, basically had to “turn the other cheek” and “be the lights” in the school….. majority of the people you work with WILL QUIT because who would want to stay in an environment like this. but majority of the people that leave will be black. that’s very telling.

2
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