administrator

academic coach

career coach

enrollment specialist

student coordinator

Graduation Alliance

Graduation Alliance (GA) signature "NoDropouts" program was a great opportunity that allowed me to expand my network of school officials from the HR/Finance departments, to the Superintendent and Academic decision makers in a school district. 

As a responsible and self motivated sales professional, I worked out of my home office and covered the entire state of Louisiana preaching the gospel of Dropout Recovery programs that Graduation Alliance provided. 

GA is a 5 year old "Start-up" company that grew from about 30 employees to 50+ in the 3 years that I worked there.  As with any startup company, growth doesn't come without some hiccups, mostly in the area of workload for different departments.  In the beginning, I was the sole account rep in charge of sales, contracts, implementation and service support.  After about 16 months, our growth demanded an additional support staff which I hired and led in our goal of maintaining customer satisfaction, and growing revenue.

The home office culture was relaxed and cohesive with everyone excelling at their individual role, and striving to help others around them as well as the sales staff in the field who were setting strong exceptions for each new client that came on board.

The hardest part of the job was losing good opportunities due to the "Politics" of education.  Policies in place by the State school board often interfered with decision makers choice of "doing the right thing", or doing the "safe thing", which was nothing.  As much as that was tough to swallow, knowing that kids could change their life just by returning to school and getting their diploma gave me all of the fuel to keep knocking on doors and having the candid heartfelt conversations which led to district adopting our program.   And we helped many kids get their diploma and move on to bigger and better things in their life.

My key role and responsibilities were to help design and consult with our marketing team on various sales collateral and messaging points that helped win opportunities.  I set up and attended conferences and expos many times per year to ensure our message was being heard at all ranks inside a school district. 

We began with just two districts in my territory,, and were at 19 (out of 60)  during the peak point in my career with GA.

This company truly cares for its employees as well as its clients. I had amazing management and an awesome team. I enjoyed being able to be remote. Management was flexible with my schedule when I had appointments or family emergencies.

My salary was nice and the benefits package was decent. (Paid maternity/paternity leave was awesome, the health insurance was not the greatest for my families needs)

I did notice the company department I was in has a high turnover rate. I had 5-6 different managers in my 2 years there. (5 quit and 1 switched to a different team) I will mention that they were all easy to work with and helped me become better.

The academic coach position it self was rewarding being able to assist students who dropped out of highschool. At times it did seem repetitive have to make outbound calls. 

A minor complaint is the goal metrics that were set. That would often define if your month was successful or not. When I feel that a lot is out of your control. 

I still highly recommend the company to everyone interested in education or a career change.

What is the best part of working at the company?
Upon starting employment, I felt very empowered, recognize, and supported. The management team that hired me, as well as my group of peers, provided immense support, were amazing to work with, and meshed well to provide exemplary services to students.  I had not work in such a cohesive and supportive environment. However, within a couple of months of starting the position, these managers moved, and the dynamics were not the same.

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
at times, the commitment/number of students to reach fluctuated. There were times when the numbers were higher than normal, and it was hard to meet guidelines and quotas with the intensity of the workloads.

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
Initially, working with my manager, and my peers, provided one of the best work experiences I’ve ever had.  Again, this changed with new management and the start of new measures and load changes.  

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
Quite busy.  Continual phone time and the need to ensure quota was met.

What is the best part of working at the company?
It is remote, convenient and the training process was smooth and simple.

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
People cannot move up unless you are related to the higher ups or know someone who is close to them, nepotism at its finest.  It is hard to accept that no matter how hard you work, you’ll always be overlooked. 

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
Negative, toxic and the academic success coaches were made to be like robots. The CEO of the company stated that his seven year old child was smarter than the coaches.  The higher ups are ruthless and using managers to do their dirty work.  Many people were scared to speak out because they were afraid to lose their jobs or get verbal/written warnings. 

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
Robotic: make 50+ calls with 2 hours of talk time, emails, messaging, attending to student needs, meetings (depending on calendar/schedule, feeling the constant pressure of being able to perform while being under a microscope.

This company, specifically the Attendance Recovery Department, practices cronyism which is exemplified in their leadership, which mostly all came from the same previous job- Independence University. This makes moving up in the department virtually impossible because everyone that gets hired into leadership position comes in as a friend and connection instead of hiring more qualified individuals from within. There is also a HIGH need for diversity and inclusion training as is exemplified in their reluctant acknowledgement of Black History Month. Leadership also is very disorganized as they are often changing policies every week. 

I WOULD NEVER RECOMMEND THIS POSITION TO ANYONE THAT HAS A BACHELORS DEGREE OR HIGHER. 

You deserve better.

I had a lot of great ideas when I started but the company was difficult to deal with. They have what they call town hall once a month which is the most pointless hour of your life. The pay was decent but the teams were so divided, if you weren't on top of like 50 people at one time you were constantly rattled that you need to do better, but a lot of it fell on the students at hand having them get their forms. Its hard to call another state and beg for them to get forms when they weren't interested in the first place to do it. My manager was awesome. He was a cool guy and honestly made it worth it. I liked who I worked with but i didn't like some of them which is normal for places. We had an office olympics and some other stuff but honestly it was a good in between job. It wasn't anything fancy.

I thought I was going to enjoy this job since I genuinely care about the work I do with students and youth. Turns out the numbers and meeting your quota is more important. My student caseload kept rising and it seemed unrealistic to reach your quota in a meaningful way. It felt more like a call center and I felt like a robot when I had to call parents and students. It doesn't matter if students graduate here. What matters the most is how many students you're able to contact. I was expected to learn how to navigate all the various portals in a short amount of time which was difficult because I had to prioritize quantity over quality. I don't believe I would have made a meaningful impact here if the core of the mission is reaching high numbers. 

I took this job to hopefully make a difference for the students I would be working with. Instead, I ended up feeling like the priority was on the number of calls I made in a day and not the quality of the calls with the students. Ultimately it just felt like a telemarketing job where I had to irritate people by calling them all the time.

Management became really micromanaging and very strict about taking any sort of bathroom break or getting up from your desk for any reason. They kept an eye on what you were doing at all times through their calling system and if you had even a couple minutes of unaccounted for time, you would be flagged and get in trouble.

When I stated the company was great and then new management got hired and everything got horrible. There are no benefits offered, when you are temporary. I found out that everyone except me was given permanent positions but I was not offered one because I was pregnant and going to be having a baby and they did not want me working there anymore. I was told I would be able to work from home and then when management changed that was taken away. They knew I had just had a baby 2 weeks before and would not be willing to come into the office everyday. When I discussed with them the fact I did not make enough to pay for daycare all they said is "we understand". They pushed me out the door.

All I have to say is...yikes. 
Management is going to be the downfall of this department. Graduation Alliance as a whole is great, but this department is lead by underqualified leaders. Management simply cares about numbers and numbers alone. Case loads are enormous and coaches are worked to the bone. Be careful with this department, they will eat you alive. Especially if you have diverse opinions. The gaslighting is real and very intense.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Administrator 67 salaries reported	$25.00 per hour
Academic coach 3 salaries reported	$21.97 per hour
Career coach 8 salaries reported	$21.64 per hour
Enrollment specialist 4 salaries reported	$15.33 per hour
Student coordinator 2 salaries reported	$23.43 per hour

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