account executive

sales representative

customer service representative

admissions specialist

team leader

PENN FOSTER

A typical day as a controller involves more than performing accounting and financial roles. It often start with my arrival in the office at approximately 9 a.m.  During the first hour I usually address human resources and/or vendor's issues, providing approvals, check signings and other authorizations. The next few hours involves providing response to emails or phone calls, staff meetings and a dedicated hour to treasury/cash management roles. I sometimes take a break to talk to a peer outside of my department just to catch up on other occurrences in the organization or other individual's needs.  Although I have worked through lunch on several occasions, I think it is vital to take a lunch break and regroup for the afternoon. My afternoons are often spent in reviews and analysis of various accounts, department's performance, financial statements, re-enforcing controls as well as attending meetings. Other key activities frequently include month end closings, taxes and filings as well as budgeting and forecasting.

I have learnt that although my title is "controller" my mindset is that of an employee who is committed to the overall goal of my organization. Good workplace culture is valuable. Team building activities, rewards/ recognition for outstanding performance, proper training and exemplified promotion from within, aligning raises with performance, creating a forum for the voices and suggestions of employees are among positive workplace cultures which in return empowers the organization to thrive.  At all levels management is performance driven, mobilized by a margin or other success factor; and there is much value when we collaborate our skills and abilities to achieve set goals. I am privileged to be a play a part on that team.

The hardest part of my job is disciplining, although it often turns out to be a win, with a positive turnaround resulting from proper coaching. In my current job dealing with irresponsible, high paid publishers are at times very challenging.  Although this was not part of my stipulated role, I volunteered to intervene when the purchasing issues escalated. This turned out to be quite rewarding when with the help of my team we were able to developed processes that recently saved my current organization over $250,000.00 in publishing costs. 

My job is most enjoyable when as a team we are able to meet and exceed management's expectations.

Where there is good, there is bad.
Virtual work with great paid time off and benefits but mediocre pay. Favoritism is an increasingly noticeable factor. Not much room for advancement unless you're willing to pounce on cross-training among departments, which is actually interesting. Free education available (including college degrees). There is a lack of vision for this part of the Penn Foster brands, as there is typically little to no change management, although changes seem to be frequent. Pay raises are minimal, likely to match the pay raises/salaries among Union and non-Union employees, which is a substandard amount from 2%-3%, whether you go the "extra mile" or not. Your best chance at a pay raise is to apply for another department for which you're qualified. And even then, if they elect to not hire you for that position, expect to hear nothing if you do not get the job. Just expect someone else to randomly be announced in some minimal capacity for the position. You can gain a lot of knowledge working here though, as well as education. If you leverage your skills and knowledge well enough here, you can very likely have a future in higher education, but you quite possibly may want to seek that future with a different institution to receive at least average pay. "Corporate" staff enforces new, nonsensical policies that really make you question if they're not actually trying to run the college into the ground sometimes... Some people have been around for years but do not get promoted based on favoritism. And others who were around for years got canned, more than 40 long-standing employees lost their jobs right before the holidays and many did not even see it coming. Potential to receive tuition reimbursement, but it isn't a substantial amount, and you qualify for it once per fully completed program (so you have to finish your program and have it paid in full and graduate from it before the company will pay a penny to you). Overall, it is a great starting point for those who want to improve their professional standing and leverage their skills to most likely work at a different place. Somewhat of a "school trapped in a business," so-to-speak.

What is the best part of working at the company?
Being able to work fully remote

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
The company dormant care that their curriculums are WAY outdated, and chock full of errors that nobody reviews, checks, or corrects. They are constantly moving courses around from server to server, which results in broken links for learning content, causing students to have to contact the school to let them know they can no longer move forward. 
That’s about the largest reason for any student interaction, otherwise it’s fairly hands off.
There is little to no onboard training, so be prepared to be inquisitive and curious about learning your job, unless you’re going into the Vet tech program. It seems they care about that one. 
If you don’t mind dealing with the same problems day after day, with not much chance of improvement, this company might be for you.

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
Just like all others, there are favorites, and then there are those who get ‘flagged’ if they try to suggest improvements. Otherwise, there is NO company culture working remotely. They’ll hardly know you’re there.

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
Log in, start the necessary software programs, connect to the VPN and start answering help desk tickets, scheduling phone calls with disgruntled students, responding to emails from students who don’t understand the curriculum (it isn’t very clear and is VERY outdated), grade exams, for which there are no keys, and only one standardized location for about 10% of the old exams. 
Had to rely on two coworkers for questions, as boss was mostly disconnected, had very little technical knowledge, and relied on the two coworkers as well. 
Each month there was a company-wide teams meeting. 
For the most part, it was quiet, not bothered by a supervisor, just handling issues that will most likely never get fixed for the students.

They teach you one thing in training and it's something totally different when you are on the floor. VERY micro managing and backwards. There is ALWAYS a BUT at the end of a compliment.. You did great BUT..... So you never can do the right thing or say the right thing which can be disheartening. The job is sales. Tons of outbound calls and you have to jump through hoops to get your bonus which a lot of people do not get. Unless you are part of the in crowd with the manager you will get horrible calls. Its competitor school bought this school so do your research. The management team is very scary, does not stand behind the the employee's, gives misguided and wrong information, and throw each other and the employee's under the bus.  All managers and highers ups talk to one another so there is not an open door policy. If you go to a higher up about a issue with a manager you can tell it was told because of how they will indirectly start acting towards you or the type of calls you will receive. It is difficult to effectively plan a vacation because you will receive a response either the week you have requested time off or the Friday before that week even though you put time in weeks or even months in advance. 


Various departments are treated differently and have more perks than other departments. The employees are childish acting and cozy up to the management team just to get the better calls or other perks...excused lateness, longer breaks, etc. They do not care about their employee's and the pay and bonus is pennies on the dollar. The environment is stressful not competitive. They do not know if they want to be an actual school or a sales call center. The best part is the insurance.

I literally worked for the company for 1 day (training). I had NO idea that it was so deeply rooted in sales and how fiercely they push you to sell, sell, sell. My interview was on the telephone and I spoke w/the HR person for well over 40 minutes, she offered me the position on the spot based on that phone call. However, it was not explained clearly to me that hard push sales was the nature of this position. I was under the impression both from the ad itself and my phone interview, that this was more of a customer service position, helping people enroll in programs to better their future, which is what attracted me to the position in the first place. During my 1 day (out of 3 weeks of training) there, it was revealed that "big brother" or Voice Ops as they call it, listens to all calls and transcribes them into Call Flow where every/any one can view your calls, the management reviews/critics them and then counsels/coaches you based on what you are doing wrong and why you didn't close the sale. The upper team members seem very nice, however, this position is for people who are experienced and well versed in the sales field and have no problem pushing, pushing, pushing. I have a problem with that. Not to mention the days/hours are far from ideal. Yes, at the moment, the position is remote but it's the entire day and night shift and e/o weekend. That leaves no time for family which is my #1 priority. The money is good, the PTO is good, the benefits are good......IF you LOVE sales.

After working at this job for a number of years, I have seen patterns that I do not like to see in a company. 

The CEO and upper management never see exactly what their lowest-paid employees do on a daily basis. The lowest-paid employees are their customer service representatives: Those on the front-lines. 

They fire non-union employees, including their instructors, without warning. An example of this was last year when they "acquired" Ashworth, another online school. They eliminated the Principal's position, and fired many instructors because it no longer fit their business model. Teachers no longer fit their business model, as a school. 

They are far more concerned with "the business" as opposed to focusing on being an educational institution. The learning content is often grossly outdated, and the learning platforms are not focused on being inclusive to more than one learning style. 

The HR People Team has recently been trying to boost morale and care about individual success and wellbeing. They have been moderately successful in this venture. From my perspective, that is rarely mirrored in the managers' approaches to overseeing employees and does not make up for the lack of interest in making the corporation more learning-oriented. 

Overall, one of the only reasons people stay is because Penn Foster has good health insurance plans, and give a generous amount of "paid time off." 



While there's plenty of flexibility since many of us work remote only, it can be an overly stressful environment. From last minute demands to not having enough team members to adequately complete work, there's a lot of quiet celebration around burning yourself out or working working working. 
Additionally, leadership or mission or culture radically changes on a regular basis and with layoffs a relatively regular thing in the last few years, it's very hard to feel like your job isn't always in jeopardy and that you have to go so above and beyond in the hopes that you won't get fired that you end up stressed and constantly anxious. 
Some teams have great management who really care, while others are very devoted to the company line and making money rather than caring for employees or students. 
While there has been a push for more transparency, it still seems as if leadership isn't always being truthful or are trying to hide things from us. And they say they care about employees, but there has been no real attention paid to culture in years outside of making us do "goal setting" or saying they care about our compensation but not actually doing anything transparent about it. 
It's honestly not the worst place I've worked, but unless you're looking for an entry-level job to get your foot in the door, I would avoid.

What is the best part of working at the company?
The coworkers I interacted with were supportive and collaborative, and the education benefit was a valuable opportunity.

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
I worked at the Vet Tech academy branch, where I was involved in constant monitoring and extensive self-tracking, which made it difficult to focus on meaningful work. Much of my time felt spent documenting productivity rather than completing tasks, which created stress and reduced efficiency.

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
I often felt underpaid for the workload and struggled to keep up with increasing responsibilities and tight deadlines. From my experience, expectations sometimes required work beyond scheduled hours just to stay current, while management's support and guidance felt limited. Technical issues also added frustration, as resolving system problems was not always timely.

However, I believe the company could improve employee experience by reducing micromanagement, providing clearer workload planning, and offering stronger operational support to help employees succeed.

Pros: Supportive coworkers, education benefits
Cons: Micromanagement, heavy workload, limited support

I thoroughly enjoyed my experience with most of my coworkers at Career Step; even my managers were very understanding and supportive of most issues. The biggest issues came from outside of my department.

The sales team at Career Step are extremely predatory. There is a 14 day return policy that they are always trying to get past in order to hit their sales goals. This might not be a problem if it weren't for the fact that they're trying to effectively dupe people into contracts that can last multiple years. This is combined with the fact that they're awful at being transparent with the customer about the fact they're signing for a loan. Not to mention the product itself is of dubious quality.

This means that most of your customer support will be spent dealing with people who are extremely upset, accusing you of being grifters. On the other hand - if you do get satisfied customers you'll be made to explain the incredibly unintuitive Canvas system they've developed to people who don't know anything about computers, the internet or following basic instructions.

I used to love working for Penn Foster, but then unexpectedly on 12 January 2024 during a meeting that was scheduled 15 minutes prior to happening, my team and myself had 30 minutes collect ourselves and immediately log off of our remote full-time jobs working as student advocates for this company. Many of us were in such shock since there was no indication that this was happening since only job security was ever expressed to us throughout the training and on boarding  process. Because we all were grieving and trying to gather each others personal phone numbers so our teammates could still communicate,  with a limited time… Again maybe 30 minutes… Most of us got kicked off and logged off of our work computers well before we were able to collect all the necessary documentation provided to us in regards to our IMMEDIATE TERMINATION  just minutes before. I guess I’m just a little confused why this is even a posted listing with myself, and almost 200 other people were no longer able to do it as of this past week. 

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Account executive 11 salaries reported	$15.82 per hour
Sales representative 4 salaries reported	$15.00 per hour
Customer service representative 1 salary reported	$20.00 per hour
Admissions specialist 3 salaries reported	$15.00 per hour
Team leader 4 salaries reported	$46,250 per year

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