I’m looking at Ed-tech companies in the bay, and IXL’s crazy negative Glassdoor reviews caught my eye.
What’s going on there? Should I avoid? Any insight, positive or negative would be appreciated.
Engineering/product FYI
TC: 140K, YOE: 4
I worked at IXL for a little over two years and left about a year ago. Overall I had a good experience but there were definitely things to look out for. I can give a fairly objective overview of things IXL does well and what it does not.
Pros:
- The people. I met some of the best people I have worked with at IXL. Almost everyone is motivated by a passion for education and improving the product for the students. It feels like the company self selects for patient people who enjoy teaching and learning.
- Great WLB. Unlimited PTO that you are actually encouraged to use.
Cons:
- Upper management feels questionable. There is not much transparency behind big decisions. Initiatives will be started and stopped seemingly on a whim, which tends to heavily affect what the engineers and PMs work on.
- Compensation is fairly low relative to other competitors. It feels like the company takes advantage of the employees’ genuine passion for ed-tech in this way.
- The company seems like it tends to cater towards some of the largest clients which happen to be school districts in conservative areas in the US. As a result, upper management feels a little more politically conservative. For example, there have been instances where course content was not made more ‘diverse’ in fear of losing some important districts. This naturally did not sit well with a lot of the employees.
Ultimately I ended up leaving because there was not much of a vision for the product I was working on. Upper management did not view it as a priority and as a result my work became much less interesting. That being said, other product lines may be different and perhaps things have changed in the last year. Like I said, I had a good experience overall but there are some pretty serious things you should consider before accepting an offer from them.
New
bananas55OPOct 18, 2021
Thank you, I appreciate this perspective.
Were you ever affected by / saw layoffs?
I was not personally affected my layoffs.
But there were two instances of layoffs that I saw during my time. The first was when upper management decided to start a sizable initiative, hired a bunch of engineers, decided that they didn’t want to do it anymore after a few months, and laid them off. Those who were laid off were given the option to stay but work on a different team, so not entirely bad. Another time was the same sort of story, but with curriculum designers instead of engineers.
I worked at IXL for a little over two years and left about a year ago. Overall I had a good experience but there were definitely things to look out for. I can give a fairly objective overview of things IXL does well and what it does not. Pros: - The people. I met some of the best people I have worked with at IXL. Almost everyone is motivated by a passion for education and improving the product for the students. It feels like the company self selects for patient people who enjoy teaching and learning. - Great WLB. Unlimited PTO that you are actually encouraged to use. Cons: - Upper management feels questionable. There is not much transparency behind big decisions. Initiatives will be started and stopped seemingly on a whim, which tends to heavily affect what the engineers and PMs work on. - Compensation is fairly low relative to other competitors. It feels like the company takes advantage of the employees’ genuine passion for ed-tech in this way. - The company seems like it tends to cater towards some of the largest clients which happen to be school districts in conservative areas in the US. As a result, upper management feels a little more politically conservative. For example, there have been instances where course content was not made more ‘diverse’ in fear of losing some important districts. This naturally did not sit well with a lot of the employees. Ultimately I ended up leaving because there was not much of a vision for the product I was working on. Upper management did not view it as a priority and as a result my work became much less interesting. That being said, other product lines may be different and perhaps things have changed in the last year. Like I said, I had a good experience overall but there are some pretty serious things you should consider before accepting an offer from them.
Thank you, I appreciate this perspective. Were you ever affected by / saw layoffs?
I was not personally affected my layoffs. But there were two instances of layoffs that I saw during my time. The first was when upper management decided to start a sizable initiative, hired a bunch of engineers, decided that they didn’t want to do it anymore after a few months, and laid them off. Those who were laid off were given the option to stay but work on a different team, so not entirely bad. Another time was the same sort of story, but with curriculum designers instead of engineers.