Pros
Many employees that come to GreatSchools do so because they believe in the power of education and that they can do something to help America's families achieve a better future. They also come to learn and grow themselves professionally. Therefore, there is generally a friendly and helpful atmosphere among the staff. And as everyone else says, the work-life balance is good.
Cons
1. The productivity of the company is compromised due to the very high proportion of upper management vs. capable “doers.” For example nearly half of GreatSchools’ employees have the title of President, VP, or Director. While not everyone with those titles is without value of course, this is a case of a non-profit built more for organizational bloat and pretense rather than for making a useful technology product. 2. The company is unable to stand on its own monetarily. They come to rely on the crutch of a couple large grants from national donors, which are not always renewed. In the last 8 years there have been three major layoffs. In June of 2016 nearly half of all staff was let go while no one in upper management was. It was a consistent lack of focus, inability to make decisions among the braintrust, and a profound inability to become self-sustaining that brought the company to that point. 3. Lack of accountability among leadership, in place of that there is a highly political environment with tendencies to finger point. That will often include VPs throwing people in their department under the bus in order to save face or gain favor with other department heads.