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Kaplan

I am surprised to find that the last person who took the time to review the L.A. office said things that are actually very accurate. I am glad to see that I am not the only one who felt that way! The hours are consistently long, ranging from eight to 12 hours; it was a like a slow death inside of me. It made me wonder, why are we working so hard instead of smart? I also resented the management for the fascist ways, and thought that the people there are nice but gossipy and petty. It's like high school part two. And it is true, if the management doesn't like you, or if you ever haplessly express disapproval of the way things are handled, they will find a way to get rid of you as they did with me.

My first manager was amazing. Knowledgeable, organized, clear, patient, helpful, balanced, firm but never condescending, professional without being overbearing, and fun, friendly and sweet without ever crossing boundaries. Then a few things changed for what seemed like the better but was actually for worst: the vice president decided to promote me to full time employee, at a higher position with another team. Just as my luck would have it, I ended up with the worst team, the Middle East Team-- the team with the worst reputation of being the most disorganized. The worst place to throw somebody into after their third week of employment and with no serious previous experience in this industry. My new manager was Jaffar, and my new trainer-- Ursula. (NAMES HAVE BEEN CHANGED TO PROTECT ANONYMITY)

When I first met Ursula, I greeted her with a firm handshake. I was excited by the promotion and by the prospects in my new team. She looked tired and stressed, but I assumed it was the efforts in her work and continued thinking the best of her. As the weeks went by it became stressful because I noticed a lot of disagreements amongst managers about who should be doing what; furthermore, the directions that Ursula gave me were not only inconsistent with what my managers at the time asked me to do, but were often subject to change without notice, and I was blamed for it. I made mistakes, as all new employees tend to do. Yet, instead of being helpful and encouraging like I have seen other trainers act with their trainees, Ursula was condescending in her tone of voice, she would show disdain if she has to repeat herself, and noticed only error while hardly recognizing good work the way I had experienced with other trainers from there.

I assumed this was all due to the way she handles stress, so I gave her the benefit of the doubt in my judgment. I tried chatting with her, but would only get one-word answers from her. When I noticed that with others she was friendlier than a cheerleader, I knew I was being marginalized. She didn't want me around her, with her social group. She tolerated me when my presence was inevitable, but avoided my presence whenever possible. She gossiped about me, harassed me, noticed the one time I took a one-hour lunch break but never noticed the times I stayed overtime, gave me wrong directions then would blame me for mistakes.

This kind of treatment combined with poor training is enough to discourage anybody, yet I tried. I gave it my all. I stopped asking her questions because I grew discouraged by her passive aggressive remarks; I decided to learn by trial and error or by asking better managers. But when she became my manager she made sure to make it clear that I am to ask her questions and only her; asking anybody else for reassurance is a clear defiance of her newfound power.

She was given the opportunity to get some management training by making her my formal manager. Her manager at the time told me with a smile of resignation, "Ursula still needs to grow. So does Jaffar." They figured, what better way than to have her manage me? After all, she was already my trainer, and in my effort to be kind to her I said nothing but nice things about her to her managers. Soon enough, the Machiavellian warning proved correct: those who make it a business to be good all the time soon come to ruin amongst those who are not so good. I wasn't about to let that happen, so I did share my grievances with other managers about the way she was training me. She was given constructive criticism, and she must've hated me for it. This is why she reported me to the vice president, claiming that I was making too many mistakes, they called me in for a meeting-- which only discouraged me even more. In the end, I was fired. I never felt freer!

I write this knowing that my experience is dependent solely upon the department and team in which I worked, but that others could have completely different experiences in different areas of the company. That being said, I ultimately left Kaplan because I was unhappy due to clear issues my team faced.

My time at Kaplan started out too good to be true - a remote-first work culture, good benefits, a positive team, fun company swag, etc. Over the last year, Kaplan has been heavily impacted by layoffs, as well as seeing top talent quitting and roles not being backfilled from what I can only assume is due to challenges with company budget (which is pretty visible/noticeable to employees). This ultimately resulted in a smaller work force, with increased work load and of course, no additional compensation for this work. There are open positions that are needed but have not been filled in nearly a year (11 or 12 months at this point), with no hope to fill these roles before the new year. When I first came on, I was told I would be traveling up to 20%. With the layoffs and resigning talent, this increased to nearly 40% travel with trips sometimes 3 or 4 weeks of the month which was just unsustainable. At the time, employees were also made to pay for these trips up front out of pocket and submit to be reimbursed, which could take up to 3 weeks. Despite these issues, I felt there was a sort of "toxic positivity" where our team ignored these things and pretended everyone was in love with their job and the company.

Employees with a strong work ethic were not appreciated ("merit based" raise was not even equal to inflation/cost of living increase), and there was no clear path for development or advancement. There was also no professional development opportunities aside from limited internally created development (which is nice to some extent, but if you're only learning from leaders within the company, negative practices and groupthink can be perpetuated rather than learning new practices and hearing fresh perspectives).

Managers who have had longevity with the company were in management roles seemingly because of their longevity at the compamny, and not because of their strengths in leading and managing people. I personally experienced micromanagement, yet no one on ones for guidance. I also experienced extreme immaturity at the senior manager level, with my direct manager seeking answers for anonymous surveys, questioning and sharing about those surveys with other team members, wanting to follow employees on social media and bringing it up in meetings, gossiping or making rude comments about other employees, asking about confidential meetings, and choosing to over-indulge in beverages while traveling on work trips while employees were present. In my opinion this is unexeptable behavior for a senior manager to exibit, and is a huge contributing factor to why I resigned.

This is a personal preference, but I did not like having to have my personal cell phone number in my email signature, and have clients and employees reaching out to me at that number. This may not be an issue for some, but it felt invasive to me - especially if we were expected to be in communciation constantly with no cell phone stipend.

I hope that some of these issues can be addressed at Kaplan, because I was interested in the company initially because I believed in their mission of helping to make education accessible to students, and beleive that goodness is still there. I think if you are someone who is early on in your career, Kaplan could be a great place for you. At this stage for me, unfortunately it did not align with my career goals, nor did I feel my worth was valued.



Five things stand out for me about my work: 

Misleading Pay Rates

Teachers get paid at different rates for different duties. For a while the company was giving generous teaching rate bonuses to the most popular teachers in the largest metropolitan markets. However, the company keeps expanding required duties paid at minimum wage or close to minimum wage. Result:  My average hourly pay rate overall has actually *decreased* despite my "raises," and my average hourly rate is quite a bit less than my teaching rate. 


Great Flexibility Working from Home

This is one of the best parts of working for Kaplan. The number of hours worked teaching or tutoring online is up to the teacher and can vary from month to month as needed. For tutoring, students come from a variety of time zones, so you can get creative with hours worked.  


Difficult Communication

Kaplan asks for feedback on making improvements, but some managers only want to hear cheerleading, and will hold constructive feedback or even asking clarifying questions against you.  Since management changes quite frequently, it’s hard to know whether to make constructive recommendations or just pretend that everything is outstanding. Teachers advise each other to be safe and stick with the latter. As a result, Kaplan silences many of the people on the front lines who have insights that could really strengthen the company's performance.  I believe poor internal communication and a tremendous amount of underutilized internal talent is a large part of the reason that the company is currently struggling and losing market share. 


The Students are Amazing!  

As a teacher or tutor, you spend the vast majority of your time working with students, and that’s awesome. They are tremendously appreciative, and it’s great to support people in reaching for their dreams.


Products Are Not All Created Equal

Curriculum quality varies a lot from product to product, and it's just a lot more fun to teach a product with a strong curriculum. 

When I started there, they had a reputation for being a revolving door. I was skeptical about them but after my interview with 2 wonderful leaders (who are no longer there), I was very excited to work there. I was assured that they were aware of their shortcomings and were diligently working at eliminating them. It was apparent in everything from, the facilities to the discussion of core values. I LOVED working there for a very long time. Over time though, something veered them away from that mission. Employee engagement became an afterthought, job enrichment was non-existent, and it was clear that a work-life balance was not on the company's list of priorities. I watched single mothers cry about how to keep their job and adjust to a new schedule they were given because of some arbitrary shift-bid that made them work late evenings, nights, and/or weekends when childcare is next to impossible to get. I watched leaders who lucked into their roles, solely use call center metrics to guide their management of a team that was tasked with delivering qualitative results. I watched great ideas that could lead to sustained improvement fall to the wayside because the results weren't fast enough, and watched a lot of waste of human capital and talent. I watched a human resources department where half of the HR contacts were not trusted by the majority of the staff, and saw tons of nepotism. And I watched a company with a strong culture lose it all like a slow leaking balloon. 
Kaplan has all the bells and whistles to attract the best talent in the industry (except for good starting salaries for front-line personnel). By the time I left, it became evident that many leaders were either ill-suited for their roles and trying not to be found out, or very well suited but trying not to be a threat to those above them who might be intimidated by their abilities. There is hope though, and for a place I knew and loved so much, I hope they figure it out get back on track to being a "Best Place to Work."

The students are great and other teachers are very helpful. 

Compensation:
The pay and hours are horrible so turnover is quite high. You will only get about 20 hours a week teaching time. (When I taught abroad this was considered full time because lesson planning and grading are time-consuming.) Get ready for living with 6 roommates because you won't be able to afford even a studio in the farthest reaches of a borough. After a year, teachers can receive a 3% raise which translates to an extra 70 cents an hour. The schedule is flexible as long as you don't go on (unpaid) vacation during busy times of the year. There is sick pay only because NYC requires it. Teachers may be eligible for insurance, but low salary makes covering copay/deductible difficult. Teachers here are paid for prep which is good but it was half of teaching pay. If teachers did too much prep then they were pressured to do less! 

Workplace Culture:
Students reviewed teachers on a vague scale and if a teacher's score dropped below 4.5/5 then there was a meeting to review what went "wrong." There is no accounting for implicit bias in reviews. Teachers were given a work email address but it was more of a nuisance than helpful. 

Resources:
The center I was at had very few supplements. Course materials were outdated and students did not like them, so teachers had to spend a lot of time preparing and creating lessons from scratch. Kaplan has created their own materials, but it was not properly tested and was rather tested on an ongoing basis essentially using teachers as unpaid editors. The release was rather unorganized and created more work and stress for teachers. It got better with time. 

Job Security:
Teachers can go from employed to unemployed any given week. Job security depends on student numbers. I saw them yank around good teachers- telling them there was no class(=no job) and then there was. This happened constantly. 

Management:
It was a very corporate environment. Everything is top down. There is no room for teachers to advance unless you want to sell your soul.

Admissions Manager					Kaplan College, Hammond, IN
			Responsibilities include but are not limited to:
•	Accurately explain all educational programs, expected outcomes, student services, and financial consideration to students and parents 
•	Schedule and conduct interviews and pursue qualified candidates for enrollment (L-E 29%)
•	Staff, train, coach, and manage the Admissions team to ensure monthly goals are met or exceeded 
•	Manage a team of 11 Admissions Representatives to achieve a 20-23% lead to start rate
•	Motivate Admissions team to consistently achieve a (79- 84% show rate)
•	Consistently deliver 100-110% to budget.
•	Manage team to consistently achieve the monthly, student re-enter budget, (7 to 10 per month)
•	Ensure 100% compliance with all state and local accrediting bodies 
•	Deliver individual and team feedback through coaching and training
•	Identify performance trends and opportunities
•	Develop and implement an aggressive referral program
•	Develop and execute both short and long term student recruitment strategies 
•	Accurately Forecast new students starts, for classroom occupancy

08/09 – 11/12		Premier Admissions Advisor				Kaplan College, Hammond, IN
			Responsibilities included but were not limited to:
•	Recruit, enroll and start new students, (L-E 29%,), 186-205 new student starts, year over year
•	Contact inquiries promptly and conduct appropriate follow-up activity (L-A 65%  A-I 62%)
•	Accurately and compliantly communicate campus features and program information (I-E 87%)
•	Perform consistently to meet or exceed established monthly goals (L-S 25%)
•	Communicate with students prior to class to identify and address potential concerns 
•	Generate personally developed inquiries and referrals (PDL conversion 41%)
•	Keep current on all program offerings and seek to improve product knowledge
•	Actively complete all assigned training and webinars 
•	Appropriately represent Kaplan College at local schools and community events
•	Share best practices with the team with focus on time management and contact management

•	Engaging students to learn new skills, challenging students to become creative thinkers in order to meet the demaind in the work place, Supervises students with respect to their student lab experiences, counseling and maintaining up-to-date inventory of the student lab equipment and supplies, Prepares and evaluate students’ knowledge. Develops objectives for course didactics and serves as expert in assigned field of practice, Documents the teaching learning process and outcomes in accordance with standards, Participates in the evaluation of the program effectiveness. 
                           
•	Assist in orientation and development of medical program instructional staff. Conduct classroom observation to ensure that the syllabus is being followed accordingly. Serve as primary student services coordinator for the enrollment in the medical program. Team building, haring, evaluating, monitoring retention, counseling to enhance retention, assure compliance with all Texas Workforce Commission (TWC), Commission Accreditation of Allied Health Education Program (CAAHEP) policy and procedures. 

•	Enforce all students/faculty professional standards. Serve on the curriculum committee. Served as campus administrator for AAMA/AMT Daily student calls and counseling to enhance retention. Engaging in curriculum development, strategic planning

•	Engaging students in the development and mastery of skills and knowledge to become a success in their selected programs, collaborating on curriculum development, comprehensive exams, and quiz designed for the adult learner. Prepares lesson plans to meet the expected outcomes in accordance to programmatic standards, maintained documentation of the program outcomes and evaluation of the effectiveness, functions as the clinical externship community liaison for student clinical application skills and assessments.

I have a unique working experience with Kaplan University. The Learning Center commenced operation with a full staff 2010. I initially started my journey at the commencement as an Academic Advisor working with students to maintain retention; however my final position in the active center was Financial Aid Officer. 

Two years later, the Center was shut-down and the staff was displaced; except me. Without direction, I was able to rebrand the Learning Center to become a valuable resource for students. I developed learning and coaching workshops to enhance learning skills having a 98% or higher retention rate. Additionally, I had the opportunity to work alongside with student operations developing standard operating procedures, evaluate student transcripts for admission, perform quality assurance measures for enrollment agreements packages, and I redesigned a process workflow for the University's law school that lead to 60% more student files being reviewed by the Law committee for acceptance. This process has now been formally inducted and currently being utilized by the Admissions department at the Law school. 

Additionally, I also had the opportunity to work for the School of Nursing. In that period, I designed an Access database that led to a discovery of an over-billing change of $1200.00.

Please note that due to the uniqueness of my opportunity that was way outside the normal activities of the University. My job title does not adequately describe the responsibilities I undertook. For years, I was titled as Financial Aid Officer, even though I handled that position for 4 months until the active Learning Center ceased normal operations. I had to petition for my old title to be returned to me as there was not a title that could accommodate the wealth of work I was performing.

Responsible for knowing Kaplan’s teaching strategies for success on Medical programs for the U.S.
Medical Licensing Examination
• Responsible for marketing Kaplan programs to new customers
• Staffed National Call Center: advised potential clients on course options, pricing and scheduling
• Counseled students about the USMLE and Residency timelines
• Self-supervised for majority of workday
• Reach sales targets by receiving inbound calls and making outbound calls to prospective students
• Build mutually beneficial relationships through a consultative approach that leads to top line growth
• Excellent presentation and public speaking skills in a call center environment, ability to provide a
comfortable sales environment for prospective students
• Excellent time management, project management, prioritization and organizational skills
• Measurements (including, but not limited to) Net sales dollars, Enrollments, Conversion of Leads, Close
rates, Call Quality, Customer Satisfaction

I have learned additional systems and a more effective way to utilize gmail.
Management is not as proactive as I feel it should be when you have eager employees to expand their knowledge of both the company and the product. There is very limited opportunity for growth both developmentally and company wide. My co-workers are the reason I am still here. They are great people to work with and all are extremely intelligent and under-utilized.

The most difficult part of the job is knowing there really is no end goal. Again, development and future growth is so limited, it seems like there is no goal for you to work toward.

The most enjoyable part of the job is hearing back from a student that you helped them accomplish their goal(s).

Despite what ever culture they claim to promote, here's your job in Admissions and Military Admissions.
Show up on time. If you are late, you will be written up.  Three strikes and you're out.
Sit down and dial.  Your job is to speak to people who didn't go to college, and now need to pay $40-$60K for a college degree.  The customer's are generally unmotivated which contributes to a 50% or lower retention rate.  You have to reach a quota, or you will be let go.  You won't have much marketing support throughout the year to reach that quota, and you had to put out of your mind that the potential customer can get the same degree for a lower price.
Don't worry though, you'll have a Manager who monitors your every action.  You can sit all day long, dialing, and then be coached by someone on how to dial better.
There is little to no development or training that is considered worthwhile.  It's fun to train though, because then you get to be off the phone.  
There are employees who try to make it fun.  Cookoff's.  Contests.  They celebrate holidays with potlucks. 
You will work 9 hour shifts, plus commute time, so expect to put in 10 hour days or longer away from your house.
Benefits start day 1, so if you need those, consider this.  You can last 90 days to 6 months drawing a salary.
The Senior directors are worthless. All of the managers talk about integrity, but remember, they lie for a living trying to convince you to convince "students" to overpay for a degree.  They will convince you that you are making a difference.  You are.  You are giving some poor person the opportunity to go further in debt for the exact same produce they can get from a state college for one third of the price.

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