instructor

cosmetology instructor

admission representative

career services advisor

financial aid coordinator

Avalon Institute

Just like Maleficent said in the Disney movie, “Well, well.”

I worked here for less than 90 days as an enrollment representative. The job itself isn’t particularly difficult, and I genuinely enjoyed working with the students. I believe in the beauty industry and the opportunities it creates for people to build careers and change their lives. My Director was AMAZING, the Admissions Director, AMAZING, the Director of Education, AMAZING, and coworkers…LOVED THEM. We supported one another, respected each other, and built a positive team dynamic. That was easily the best part of my experience.
However, the larger operational structure and leadership approach created serious challenges.

The enrollment process feels outdated. The school is still using paper applications and does not appear to be fully utilizing modern enrollment technology that most institutions rely on today. That alone suggests a leadership mindset that hasn’t evolved with the realities of 2026.

Enrollment representatives are expected to make around 150-200 calls a day, often calling the same individuals repeatedly from lead lists that can date back years. New leads are limited, and many are not viable. Despite this, goals are set high and can increase quickly, even when the number or quality of leads stays the same. We were expected to “turn water into wine” with very limited resources. 
Oh…don’t miss a day, you are punished and you will not be given any leads to call.

I was ultimately let go after less than 90 days because the numbers weren’t where leadership expected them to be. There was no meaningful warning, no structured improvement plan, just a sudden termination. That type of approach creates a culture where employees feel disposable rather than supported. (I know this decision did not come from director, he was always supportive)

As new employees, we never had a proper introduction to the CEO during my time there, although he would sit in our training, listen and watch us.  I imagined him as Lord Farquaad in the movie Shrek, angry and throwing daily tantrums LOL. For a company of this size, it’s unusual not to see leadership take the time to welcome new employees or build connections with the teams doing the day-to-day work. 

Strong leaders empower their directors to run their campuses and focus on strategic growth rather than constant oversight and ruling with an iron fist.
From my perspective, the leadership style feels rooted in older management methods, heavy micromanagement, intense pressure for immediate numbers, and limited attention to the realities of the enrollment process. In modern workplaces, that approach often leads to burnout and high turnover.

If leadership allowed experienced directors to truly direct their campuses and trusted their teams, the results might look very different. Allow the directors to direct and go play golf! When organizations focus on doing right by their employees and students, the numbers tend to follow naturally. Sustainable success rarely comes from pressure alone.

What makes this even more disappointing is that the team I worked with was excellent. We respected each other, collaborated well, and genuinely enjoyed working together. That kind of team dynamic is rare, and with the right leadership support it could have been a very strong, successful group. He destroyed that (that part saddens me)

There are good people working here who care about the students and the industry. But I have learned, he doesn’t care. (the directors cared)  I hope leadership recognizes that retaining good employees requires trust, modern systems, realistic expectations, and respect.

When no enrollment representative lasts more than three months in the role… that’s a red flag. Pay attention.

For anyone considering employment here, I strongly recommend asking detailed questions during the interview process about:
*Lead generation and how current the leads are
*Realistic enrollment expectations and when will you be FIRED
*Technology systems used for enrollment
*Work-life balance and time off policies

 If you are looking for a career, keep looking, if you need a quick check, stress, unrealistic numbers…apply.

I’m grateful for the students I met and I wish them the best!  Ultimately, I’m relieved, I have my own dreams and goals and now…I’m living it and I don’t have to call 150 voicemails a day to do it. I really don’t care if he knows who I am, he didn’t have enough respect to introduce himself or to welcome us to Avalon, now, let's see who else gets fired from the campuses. 


I wouldn't make my worst enemy work at this place. There were so many days I left upset or crying or angry- and it wasn't like the pay or benefits were so good I HAD to stay. The people who already work there are just mean, the kind of people who purposefully go out of their way to make your job harder. Oh, and not to mention if you seem even slightly intelligence/attractive/skinny, you'll get bullied for it. It's why they go through employees so fast. In one year we went through FIVE directors and I honestly lost count of the number of instructors we went through. Someone would get promoted (like the whole two times it ever happened), and all the sudden one of the few amazing teachers we had would vanish, all because they weren't liked, usually for being intelligent/attractive/skinny.
I did front desk there for quite some time. Front desk relies on the teachers to do their jobs correctly, (for example, a student isn't allowed to get a service if they have a guest coming in early, common sense) and they rarely ever did that. We would have guests- paying customers!- waiting up to TWO HOURS to be seen because a teacher said a student could get a service done, knowing that student had a client. Might not sound too bad, but when that student came up to you and asked to get something done, and you do your job and say no, it's a bit aggravating. Not to mention, we dealt with all the upset clientele. This happened at least once a day.
The owners were just abusive. There were times they would be in visiting, and wouldn't let me go on break because they didn't want to pull a teacher to cover. Or cover themselves. For my ONE whopping 15 minute break. Not only were they also incredibly rude and inconsiderate, they'd curse at you as well. Uplifting, right?
I honestly just feel bad for the students. They'd pay so much money,  carpool across cities to get to school after finding someone to babysit, only to get to class and get at most a mediocre education from lazy teachers only there to gossip with each other. I've literally seen teachers there walk across the main floor and have to sit down because they started sweating. Profusely.
The pay was bad. I was there over a year and they wouldn't give me a raise- they actually wouldn't even give me a review, which I thought was pretty customary after a year. The owners themselves lied to myself and a coworker on multiple occasions, for more than six months, saying they never recieved our reviews. We went to our supervisor, and she showed us the email she sent to them. We went to the director, and she also showed us an email she had sent to the owners, but no response. The owners insisted they never recieved anything.

Please do yourself a favor and stay as far away from supporting this institution as possible. Unless you crave a hellish work enviornment, be my guest.

When i first started working at avalon school of cosmetology, i LOVED  it. i loved most of the employees, and my job. The director was excellent, the art director was amazing, and i felt I was doing a great job at being a front desk coordinator. I had positive comments from students and customers about the change in receptionists...until about 2 months after working, I started to hear about how bad the owner was. i didn't believe what i would hear because it sounded like they exaggerated, i couldn't really believe an owner of a business would act the way they said. then all of a sudden our director quit...and then our art director quit right after, and were without both for the remainder of my time there. We had two receptionists with all of the same duties, and we would always get our job done. Then the owner came into town since all the employees were quitting. I was dusting the product shelves, and the owner- told me i was doing it wrong. he then wanted every shelf moved down 4 notches from the 8 rows, with about 7 shelfs each. so i spend the entire day doing it and replacing ALL the products, and when i'm done , he tells me he wants it back the way it was. He would constantly bully me, and as strong of a person as i am, i'd leave in tears because he treated me so poorly. He called me into the office one day with papers and asked me what the stack of papers was. I said, i dont know, students papers that needed to be filed. he then said i'm doing my job terribly and its only MY job to do the filing and the other receptionists dont have to do it. he was constantly finding new parts of my job i was supposedly supposed to be doing, that weren't in the handbook of my job description, he said i wasn't allowed to talk to other employees in the break room, i could only speak to him a certain way. 

one day i was so sick, and since we didnt have a director , i didnt know who to call because there was no way i could work.  it was 3 am and i had been throwing up since i got home from work the day before so i texted one of the cosmetology instructors to let her know, because we weren't allowed to have the owners phone number. I didnt get any response so i tried driving to work and i had to pull over because i was going to pass out, so i didnt make it in. after 2 days i finally get back to work and the owner told me i should be fired. i asked how was i supposed to call in if there wasn't anyone to call into? and his response was "you should have crawled your a__  to work and told me to my face you couldn't make it"   and i finally had to leave and tell him off. by far the worst person i've ever worked for. there's bosses on the show " horrible bosses" that were nicer than this guy. please do not work for this lunatic, he's terrible!

What is the best part of working at the company?

In my experience, this organization had ongoing challenges with communication, consistency, and leadership support. Expectations for leadership roles were often unclear and appeared to change frequently, making it difficult to understand how performance was being evaluated.

Communication from upper management was often delayed or lacked clarity, and feedback did not consistently include actionable guidance. This created an environment that felt more reactive than supportive.

Workload expectations regularly exceeded what was initially presented, with limited support to meet those demands. Certain campuses were frequently relied upon to support others, which created additional strain on staff and contributed to burnout.

Morale across teams appeared to be low. In my experience, the overall environment felt negative and, at times, toxic, with limited recognition for performance and a heavy focus on criticism rather than support.

Compensation and role expectations did not appear aligned, and there were noticeable inconsistencies in pay across similar roles. Based on my experience, compensation did not reflect the scope of responsibilities required.

Additionally, it did not consistently appear that employee support or student experience were prioritized in daily operations.

**Overall:**
Based on my experience, I would strongly encourage prospective applicants to carefully consider these factors before accepting a role.


What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
Absolutely everything. The toxic culture is draining. 

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
Toxic toxic toxic. Negative and very blame oriented. 

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
I dreaded going to work every day

Pay is on the lower scale for my skill set and experience. It routinely feels like I’m micromanaged not able to help the company thrive like it potentially could. It’s disheartening to feel that I care about the students more than the CEO or seemingly anyone else within the management structure. Students are exploited as a free labor source. Students experience an environment similar to a non-paid internship, except they pay the school a large amount of money to have the experience, which is not the norm.

High turnover rate and antiquated business practices create a work environment that feels as if I’m trying to move boulders uphill while management is pushing them back down. The students have a lot of talent but they hit burnout due to being mined for all of their human resource. Management wants to expand without ensuring students and faculty are properly equipped to do so, wants top-tier quality without investing significant funds to create the environment needed to facilitate the demand on students and staff.

Would not recommend this company as an employer or as a prospective learning institution unless c-suite leadership updates their business model with one that is more honest, transparent, and progressive.

I have been with the company since 2013 and have experienced so much growth as a person and a professional by working here. I started out working at the Front desk and was then promoted to Office Manager after a year. The support I received while navigating through my new position was awesome! I was given the tools to be successful as Office Manager and then promoted to our Home Office after 7 years at the Campus. Moving to Home Office has made me love my job even more. I get to work with all of our campuses in every department, while working alongside the owners who have REAL passion for Education. I can honestly say we spend every waking moment of the work day trying to make sure we have the best Educators and Staff in place to provide our students with the best Education they can receive. 

Every campus I have visited makes you feel like you are coming home. You really develop a sense of belongingness while you are there and so quickly can see how happy the students are. I get the best of both worlds working for this company - Beauty Industry & Education! I know not everyone is perfect, but there is a constant strive to be better and always solution oriented. I am glad we are able to advocate for our students during the easy times and the difficult ones too!

I highly recommend checking us out if you are looking for a Career Path in either. I love that I am able to continue to grow and feel like I belong to something so BIG!

The best part of working here (besides the other emploees) is the curriculum.  Corporate provides a very comprehensive cohesive curriculum, and even lesson plans at times, so you can concentrate more on the students and teaching methodologies.  It leaves room for individualized instructruction.  The Prosper U culture is phenominal!  It assists in helping students understand how to build a clientelle and how to acheive gainful employment right out of school, and I liked being encouraged to share my successes and failures through this program with students.  Instructors rotate classes, so students learn multiple techniques to acheive the same end result (which also allowed me to grow in my techniques).  This also helps students feel support from all instructors, as well as helping the instructors feel like a team.  The School Director does a great job of communicating, showing appreciation, and support for students and instructors.  Clear expectations are set, and it's up to you to meet them!  As far as being the Director of Education, it's a big job.  For this company this position is both management and administrative.  I would have liked to do more with the actual curriculum, and assessing my campuses specific needs.  There was no time for that though.  The DOE expected hours are 45 per week, and the pay is salary.  I usually worked 45-50 hours per week depending on the campus needs, which I didn't think was unfair.  Overall, if you're a team player, I recommend Avalon Institute.

Starting with the training—it lasted about a week and honestly didn’t teach much of value. In the interview, they say the role isn’t a call center and that you won’t have to sell anything. In reality, the job is heavily focused on making 120+ calls a day and signing up students. At first they say you only need one enrollment per week, but after a couple of months they expect five sign-ups per week, which feels unrealistic.

The training also focuses a lot on sales tactics that felt more like convincing people to enroll regardless of whether it was the right fit. While trainers say they want you to succeed, the workplace culture felt very unprofessional. There was constant drama, gossip among staff, and even management participating in it.

Employees were written up for unclear reasons and frequently threatened with losing their jobs if they didn’t meet sales goals. Despite being presented differently during the hiring process, this role is absolutely a sales position.

I also heard many complaints from students during my time there, which made the situation even more uncomfortable because there was little I could do to help once they were enrolled.

Overall, I would not recommend working here. My experience was that the environment was unprofessional, the expectations were unrealistic, and the job was misrepresented during the hiring process.


I love working at Avalon Institute because we help change students’ lives for the better. It takes our entire Avalon team to make that happen. Its so rewarding to see students excited and successful in their chosen career, and know you are a part of that. I feel our education is always innovative, incorporating both modern techniques, business skills, and technology, helping us to provide a comprehensive education which allow our students to create a successful, rewarding and financially sound future. One of the best things about Avalon is there are many amazing individuals that work at Avalon, which creates a work environment that is positive and encourages teamwork. I have worked for Avalon for some time now and have always found the owners to be supportive and involved in the everyday operations, they know their employees and they know education, which is not that case in many companies. The individual Campus Directors, work very hard to support both students and staff alike. Avalon is a growing company which gives a lot of opportunities for growth if you are looking for a career and not just a job. If you want to enjoy going to work each day knowing that you are making a difference than Avalon is the place for you!

I've been with Avalon as an educator for ten years. I first came as a student instructor to get my license and had a great experience. After completing the program I was hired and first worked as a full time day instructor, then night instructor, substitute teacher and back to full time day instructor. This company is very successful, with multiple campuses but still maintains the "mom and pop" feel as it is family owned. 
There is room for growth and flexibility within this company, a strong support system and amazing benefits. I have made enduring friends out of the staff and had countless awesome experiences with the exceptional student body. In addition, Avalon provides the staff and students with the highest caliber of product lines to teach and learn with,  resulting in successful client services.  I would absolutely recommend  Avalon Institute to anyone considering getting an instructors license, looking for a new workplace or potential students who want a well rounded education. The curriculum, work environment, staff and students are fantastic. 

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Instructor 21 salaries reported	$22.40 per hour
Cosmetology instructor 21 salaries reported	$21.62 per hour
Admission representative 19 salaries reported	$50,000 per year
Career services advisor 3 salaries reported	$20.00 per hour
Financial aid coordinator 7 salaries reported	$18.79 per hour

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