Pros
My time working at Chess4Life has been amazing!
The job is incredibly fulfilling. You get the opportunity to be a positive influence and role model for kids and help instill life-skills through the game of chess. Additionally, you get to be part of a community that is energized by the idea of personal and professional growth. It is a job where the customers (both kids and parents), management, and fellow staff members are all there for the shared goal of improvement! It is a wonderful environment to be a part of and contribute to. What other jobs out there reward you for being passionate about mentoring, self-improvement, AND playing chess!?
Furthermore, the management here is absolutely stellar. My entire time here has been full of nothing but support, guided growth, care, and empathy. The managers at the Bellevue and Issaquah location are the best bosses/managers that I’ve ever had the blessing to work with. At Chess4Life we seek to instill our students with a core set of life skills (Respect, Goal Setting, Always Improve, Better Together...etc) and the managers at the Bellevue and Issaquah centers clearly put effort into living out those life-skills themselves (I’ve only worked at those locations, but I assume the same goes for our other locations and online programs). They set a great example for our students and chess coaches; they extend help and training when it is needed or asked for, they are communicative and respectful, and they continually go out of their way to ensure their employees are set up for success. At both centers, the managers have worked with me to set up a schedule that fits my needs and availability. They dedicate time to help me improve my skills as a coach and chess player. And they both do all of this with professionalism, friendliness, and understanding.
As you can imagine… this type of positive leadership seems to trickle down from the top and infect all areas of the company. The area manager and the CEO both have been terrific to work with. Although I don’t have much opportunity to work with them directly, there still have been moments where I have made mistakes or performed beneath expectations, and they have taken that opportunity to turn it into a teaching moment (or sometimes even praising me for making calculated judgement calls in a situation that is new or uncomfortable for me) instead of merely reprimanding me. The culture here is genuinely one of growth, learning, and mutual respect.
In regards to our administrative team here: they are all so kind and wildly efficient. When teaching classes or when running tournaments, I occasionally need their support/help. Rather I need help adjusting a student’s class schedule, or assistance with adjusting tournament enrollment, or I need help answering a customer’s questions, or really… anything at all… they always respond quickly, react accurately, and are overwhelmingly friendly.
From all angles (immediate management, upper management, administrative support staff, and fellow chess coaches), this is a great place to work.
Cons
In my opinion, the only downsides of working here is our hours of operation, and that it is a small-ish company (these might not even be downsides for some).
Since we teach after-school chess lessons, the working hours are “prime time” family hours. So it does put some limits on the amount of time I can spend with my family after school. However, everyone here has been very understanding and gracious with allowing me time off, or covering my classes, or adjusting my schedule (and even my location of work!) to ensure that I can attend important events that my children are involved in, or just simply spend some more time with my family when I need it.
In terms of it being a smaller company… There isn’t a big ladder to climb here (again, this might not be a downside or a “con” for a lot of people). There are essentially just chess coaches, the center managers, the area manager… and then the CEO (there might be more that I’m not aware of). Despite there not being a bunch of space to jump up in a corporate hierarchy, (like I mentioned in the pro section) the management here put incredible efforts into investing in their employees. This job has provided me tremendous personal and professional growth.
And personally, I prefer working on a smaller, more unified team. So this isn’t really a “con” for me but it might be for others.
