behavioral specialist

direct support professional

career coach

recruiting coordinator

board certified behavior analyst

Institute for Applied Behavior Analysis

As a senior employment specialist, I start out my day out in the field working with a consumer for 6 hours. These 6 hours are spent in the community doing productive activities such as job development, reviewing emergency skills, volunteer work, or assisting consumers that have obtained paid employment. While providing services to a consumer, I also implement behavioral intervention adhering to IABA's philosophy of positive reinforcement and non aversive techniques. Presently, I work with the company's most challenging consumer as he displays extremely aggressive behavior towards staff. It is also challenging as he has limited communication and it is difficult to find the function of his behaviors. I've learned a lot by working with this specific client as I've learned to be much more patient, learned to pick up on little details when watching for things that might trigger a behavior, and also learned how to control certain environmental factors and being able to redirect or remove the consumer from the present situation to keep him and others out of harm. Working at IABA has been a blessing as my management provide wonderful support and feedback. My co-workers as well are amazing people. I've come to realize that others that have been in the field as long as I have and even longer, have a great heart to be in the field and love to serve the people that they do. The hardest part of this job would be when the consumer is having a rough day and is displaying challenging behaviors while out in the community. It makes it worse when police are involved and the situation creates a major disruption in the community. On the contrary, the most enjoyable part of the job is when you have a great day with the consumer you serve, and you can see that all the hard work you put in is paying off.

What is the best part of working at the company?
I was not here long enough to see anything positive.

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
The people running this company know behavior analysis but fail completely at guiding employees. The first week was filled with silence after a brief virtual orientation, leaving me waiting with no schedule and no clear plan. It was maddening to sit there with no income, trying to figure out what was happening. Training was nearly nonexistent. A few short sessions ended quickly, and I was thrown into client work with zero preparation. Expectations were ever explained, no case overviews were provided, and guidance was absent. I often arrived at client visits hoping I was doing things correctly because no one took the time to show me. The lack of communication made everything worse. Managers barely checked in, and getting answers felt impossible. Even basic tasks like logging hours or handling documentation were never explained, leaving everything to trial and error. The situation was already stressful, and this made it unbearable. It was shocking to learn that my superior caseload would not even start for months, something never mentioned before accepting the role. Hours were far from full time, and pay was lower than promised. Instead of advancing, it felt like I had taken a step backward. By far the worst company I have ever worked for.

Great place to work! They really support your learning when you first begin and are flexible with your caseload. I also like that you can get bcba or RBT supervision on any of the cases. There are lots of options and levels for supervision so you always have someone to go to for questions. One of the things I love the most about working for IABA is that they make sure the people working for them are in it for the right reasons. I’m very passionate about the work we do helping children and families and I hate it when people come in who obviously do not have that same passion and try to do things the easy way or don’t give it their best. These are kids and family’s lives we are working to help—if you’re not serious about the work, don’t be in this field just because it pays well! Other companies will put up with substandard employees or people who cut corners or not do what’s best for the families they serve because everyone in this field is always looking for staff. But with IABA they would rather have quality than quantity and they will let people go if they aren’t doing the best by the families. I feel proud to work for an agency that will put their mission in front of their profits. It might not make them popular with everyone, but for me, the integrity part is why I work here instead of for any other company in the same field.

I worked at this company for almost three years, dedicating so much of myself to my cases. However, supervisors have horrible communication and scheduling throws their employees  under the bus and get them introuble. They frequently change schedules and expect employees to drive far distances without proper notice, or very little notice resulting in write-ups when not meeting their demands. Some supervisors/BIDS at their HHE clinic even belittled/belittle employees, creating a toxic work environment. Some BIDS/supervisors talk down to the BII’s and are incredibly condescending giving employees anxiety in the work environment. This goes for some teachers in that clinic (not all, but some. You know who you are.) Despite my dedication in this company I was treated unfairly and left traumatized to say the least. The only thing that kept me in that company were the amazing children I got the opportunity to work with and whom I learned from. However, in every other aspect, they showed a lack of empathy and understanding, prioritizing productivity over employee well-being. Their actions created a hostile work environment, making it difficult for me to grow professionally and maintain my mental health. They DO NOT CARE at all about their employees.

I accepted this position as I was told that I would be placed in an in-school setting, working with kids M-F full-time. This was not the case. I was assigned to one student initially for three days a week. This student was consistently absent from school, resulting in my only working 6 hours a week. I was eventually placed with a second student twice a week which upped my hours to about 19 hours a week (sometimes less if my second student was also absent from school). For what little pay employees here receive, I was unable to make a livable wage here. I left this position after only 2 months, frustrated with a lot of things within it, but most of all frustrated with the fact that I constantly came to work only to come back home because my student was not present.

The training was fine. My case manager was great. I just felt disappointed with the overall position as it was one that I was excited to take on as someone who had a genuine interest in working with children with autism, but this just is not a reliable source of income at all and I would stay away if you are looking for stable employment. As someone who had rent/bills to pay, this job stressed me out a lot.

my experience and opinion:  very old school work culture, untrustworthy, toxic, tons of favoritism, and non-competitive benefits. they at-will people that challenge the system or have too many questions, or complain about bad/toxic work culture, and try to take advantage of staff on salary to minimize overtime. there's no phone number to reach out to corporate or work locations due to individual work cell phones, they have high turn over in HR all the time so no one can be reliable to staff, and can be near impossible to get a response. in 2022, IABA underwent merging and acquisition and kept telling new hires "restructuring" and "reorganization," then outsourced parts of HR, only to rehire same positions. If they are still saying they are undergoing "restructuring" and "reorganization" due to merger and acquisition, suggestion is don't do it, no matter how much money they give you because they may decide in 90-days they don't like you and fire you due to paying you too much. it's too unstable with high turn over and had to close down multiple locations.

The company does not hire enough people quick enough. Always short staff, (morning, afternoon, night shifts), so they depend on finding people who are workaholics  (those that dont want a life outside work) , to cover all the open shifts. ( Maybe they dont hire enough people because they dont want to offer company benefits to more employees)  Main company office is also short staff,  so payroll will forget to reimburse you for mileage from the month before.   You may drive consumers between 100-200miles per month.  IABA wont help you pay for your insurance , so you have to tell your insurance agency, that you drive that much because you like to go out of town during days off from work.  Once you do get reimbursed back, you will get 58 center per mile. which is not bad for a non-profit agency.  HR, which is in L.A county( and where you need to go for the new employee orientation) does not call you back that same day.  Not enough HR people ether.   You will not get payed the maximum amount that is advertised, even if you comes in with experience and proper training   My guess is the Company does not want to do better for there employees,  since they can get away with less then the minimum.

Prose:  Decent amount of vacation hours, and Kaiser health coverage.

The only good thing about working at IABA is the amount of hours that you work. Working as a BI is already tough enough to earn a paycheck but the least this place does is offer hours. 

Working at $16.00 is not a livable wage. When I worked there, upper management promised we would be getting a raise (albeit small) only to pull the rug from under us and not give us the raise, only promised to earn the raise at some point in the future. 

The direct office staff is a nightmare to say the least. Upper management simply hates working there, and I can see why. At the time of working at IABA, they were still using paper documentation and requiring all staff to return to the office once a week to submit documentation. All of this work could easily have been done on an iPad, but IABA simply is stuck in the past. 

Training materials are quite literally from the 1990s (dated on the paperwork) and are completely non functional for todays day and age. 

The population you work with can obviously be quite challenging at times, however that is to be expected in the field of Applied Behavior Analysis. Support is simply not there from management though. 

I laugh all day long. That's partly know how much I enjoy my job. These kids are so funny, and they are always excited to learn things and play and it gives me a feeling of happiness not only to work with them and see them learn but to also just be around kids who are seeing things for the first time. Especially these days, it is nice to have a job that is always a happy place to be! We get a lot of training and supervisors are frequently in your sessions to give feedback, so you get a lot of contact and learning. There are chances to get pay increases and promotions if you follow the rules and do your data and follow the procedures. Sometimes the parents or teachers can be stressed, especially with COVID situations, so that can be hard sometimes. But most of the time everyone is nice and supportive and it's a really great job to have. I come home or sign off every day and know I'm doing something to help others, and that is a great feeling!

Low pay for the job description, stress and responsibilities.  I found out they bill insurance and the state for the hours I was working and were paid at a rate many times higher than what I was receiving.  When I asked them about it they fired me, no explanations or even attempts at one… as an independent contractor you have no rights or protection or unemployment benefits. I was working a scheduled 40 hours a week and still considered an independent contractor..? 

They also schedule tons of “training” hours where you make like minimum wage but they still bill the state at a premium and then they don’t even look at the packets/tests you spend hours completing.  You take their tests in a room filled with other people sharing answers without supervision and then grade your own packets that you slip into a folder you get to take home without showing to anyone.  

They prey on the state, disabled kids and young adults fresh out of college.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Behavioral specialist 34 salaries reported	$24.10 per hour
Direct support professional 47 salaries reported	$19.98 per hour
Career coach 19 salaries reported	$20.79 per hour
Recruiting coordinator 16 salaries reported	$25.50 per hour
Board certified behavior analyst 25 salaries reported	$95,060 per year

Working at Institute for Applied Behavior Analysis: Company Overview and Reviews

Institute for Applied Behavior Analysis

Institute for Applied Behavior Analysis Ratings

Popular jobs at Institute for Applied Behavior Analysis

Salary Satisfaction

Job Seeker Tools

Employer Tools

Browse

Stay Connected