leasing consultant

maintenance technician

porter

operations associate

sales specialist

The Scion Group

The Scion Group is definitely a company full of go-getters and if they see that in you, you'll have great potential to move up through the company. The overall culture is very "type-A", driven and competitive, mostly in a way that brings success. Unfortunately, that attitude also comes with a workload that can be excessive at times (or all the time), especially for salaried employees. As a full-time employee I worked 45-50 hours per week, with many weeks exceeding that, outside the annual "Turn" period which was 70-90 hours per week for about 3 weeks. 

The office I worked in had an extremely high turnover rate - in 2 years there were 2 different General Managers (plus a 3rd within the following year), 3 Assistant Managers and several Marketing Managers (each a solo position), plus maybe 30 front office staff (usually 5-8 at a time). That made for constant training and re-adjusting, and was difficult to keep everyone on the same page. All locations are led by the corporate team in the background, and they were very encouraging and supportive (even came in person several times). Still, it was difficult to match the performance of the property with the expectations of corporate since they weren't present to know how things were going at the property. 

In 2021 there was a big corporate restructure, which made changes to many roles/positions and also brought a lot of layoffs. I was one of those. My review is not colored by bitterness about being laid off; overall it was a good thing for me because I found myself falling into workaholism and neglecting my family and personal life. That's definitely a risk that comes with working for Scion Group, depending on your specific location and management. 

That being said, the benefits are great for full-time employees and they definitely prefer to promote within, so there's lots of opportunity available. I can't speak much to the pay now, since my position was eliminated back in 2021 due to budget restrictions. The pay I received was competitive, especially considering performance bonuses. I believe the pay is fairly standard for the industry, and more competitive for full-time employees than part-time (but watch out for the work hours on salary!). 

Last thing I'll say is, the experience you have as an employee will vary *widely* depending on which property you work at (or at corporate), who the current managers are and what your position or job assignments are. Make sure to ask questions and get a feel for the overall culture at that particular location. 

I'm happy working with Scion but there are areas they can improve.  When you're doing good at your work, you don't hear much from anyone but your direct supervisor.  If you or your property are struggling there's inconsistent help either from a regional or a general manager from another property.  It would be great if there was a team of individuals who could be stationed at struggling properties for 1-2 months to understand what's needed and to really make an impact.  It's not as helpful to send managers from other properties because they can't give their full attention since they have another property that still depends on them.  Scion could certainly pay better- if you want the best company you need the best employees and those aren't cheap.  The student housing industry as a whole could do better but other companies are snagging the best people by enticing them with better wages.  I wish Scion would recognize employees with tenure- there should be a 1 year raise, 3 year raise, 5 year raise, etc based on performance.  And I'm not referring to a minimal 'cost of living' raise because those are insignificant if you're trying to show someone appreciation.

Typical Day/Management:

Unnecessarily stressful, mainly due to the GM. His assignments were either contrived or things he was supposed to do himself but made the CA's do. He's not a great fit for his role and doesn't give his team credit.

Most Enjoyable Part of the Job/What I Learned:

Teamwork really does make the dream work! Without a solid team, your property will not be successful with leasing to new residents and retaining old residents. Despite the GM's incompetence, we were still able to do well with our pre-leases because everyone from the Customer Experience Manager to the Leasing Consultants to the Maintenance staff all played their roles really well. I will definitely miss working with such a great team.

Corporate Culture:

I don't particularly enjoy Scion's outlook on their non-corporate teams. The see us as expendable and load us with painfully difficult tasks with little training/guidance. The turnover rate for GMs in the company is about 40%, which should tell you much of what you need to know. They took away commission for housing consultants but raised our pay by $2 to compete with the average base pay offered for the same position by other companies in my city. It's hardly an increase since it's no longer commission based. Overall, I feel the corporate team undervalues the hard work employees put in to get leases signed and it shows all too well in the treatment towards their employees and our pay structure.

I was hired for the full time Experience Team Member position and began training. Within two weeks, my general manager had left, and within a month so had my direct supervisor. While the team coming in to take on this property is very organized, I feel that there could have been more understanding I had been trained to do the job one way just to have to immediately be trained how to do it another way. When I expressed my struggles working the front desk alone, I was essentially met with “Well, that’s your job,” even though they had acknowledged there was a need for staffing and was in the process of hiring more. In addition, I still had only been in this position for less than two months. It was very stressful and not very great for my mental health. The ETM position is inherently set up to take on a lot of the emotional labor of when a property doesn’t meet standards (even though they really don’t get paid for that). Scion also has a very confusing corporate structure and it’s difficult to do sales when you are restricted by the central office in Chicago yet they also won’t answer you when you need answers about promotions they insist on making. Scion is also very behind the industry curve on employee housing and that’s a BIG con. Overall, I wouldn’t recommend working here, at least not in the Bloomington, IN market.

My typical day as a maintenance tech over these last few months would be coming in at 8 and checking the pool and seeing the damages that came in the night before and clean up anything you can within that time. At 10 you are open to hit workorders and go into the apartments. Do that and generally go in for lunch around noon. after that you hit any remaining work orders and property work they want to be done until 5. You will have to be prepared to constantly change exit signs and fix broken glass as it is not a 1 time thing. Drunk college students will wander the halls and hit down exit signs nightly... that and having the on call phone were the only cons I could think about this place. Deep down the place was fun and exciting to work at with excellent management that will work with your schedule and make sure you are comfortable working there. I worked there with a full staff and worked there completely alone, the level of work isnt hard as long as you are goal oriented and willing to work through the dumbness of kids that are living in their first homes away from their parents. 

The job culture and energy from the corporate staff was great, however the regional staff had unrealistic expectations.  It was nearly impossible to have  a work/life balance with the constant texts and emails that were expected to be responded to after hours. Micromanagement is not a strong enough word to describe the experience at the property level. If you do not have a family or a social life in general this might be the perfect opportunity for you. The salary was competitive but when you factor in the number of hours you are expected to work and the sacrifices on your personal life that you are forced to make it simply does not balance out.  Efforts are completely invalid unless high numbers are put out each day, regardless of what obstacles your property has to overcome.  Hard work is not rewarded or even acknowledged unless you join the 100%club - which just isnt going to happen in some markets. They literally expect one person to do the work load of 10 with no additional compensation.

Working for SCION was extremely stressful majority of the time. The particular property that I worked at underwent construction and they made everything the problem of the residents. The construction company hired was extremely unprofessional and left debris all over the still occupied neighborhood. I honestly feel that they should have torn the whole complex down and started from scratch because the piping is old and was bursting ultimately damaging the newly remodeled apartments. I was both a resident and worker so I understood things from both ends. Often time situations could have been handled a lot better on the office side. There is also an issue with extremely inconsistent management. They get good management and then run them away because the upper management (out of office such as regional) are very rude and disrespectful people. If you need a job during college it's not bad but I would just say that things are not handled well mostly due to policies that have been implemented in order to protect the company and ultimately disregard residents.

A typical day at work was calling,emailing, meeting new leads and prospects. This could be anywhere from 20-200 leads a day. 

The biggest lesson that I learned was to manage my time well enough so that when the unexpected happens I was not caught off guard. This goes into my next point the hardest thing about the job was managing my time well. This was a big factor in the day to day process because you could be calling your list of 150 prospects and a group of 6 walk in and are looking for a tour of the community then you have to plan out how you will get your list done afterwards. 

The most enjoyable part of the job was meeting new people everyday and expanding my connections. I would meet upwards to 20-40 new people each week. This really opened my eyes as to getting out of my comfort zone and speaking to people. With a diverse community here at Miami University you meet all walks of life.

Scion, like a lot of big "corporate" companies, has some good and some bad. If you work here, you will probably like and appreciate the people on your team. They care about you and everyone works together to get the job done. That's the good part.

The problem with this company lies in the corporate leadership who have no interest in looking outside of their own Chicago bubble. It's not that the company is an echo chamber of ideas or that the channel of communication doesn't exist, it's that the leadership completely ignore the groundwork while they make plans from 42,000 feet up. There are serious problems that will likely never be addressed as a result.

Like I said, it's a mixed bag. Personally, it was not the place for me but I know some are willing to look past these negatives.

What is the best part of working at the company?
Providing a great experience for residents at the community and motivating reams to be come their best.

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
Deliverables due on top of one another.

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
Very stressful; there are no opportunities for career growth and there is a lack of training for new team members. Teams that are understaffed do not receive help but still must perform. 

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
Long days from 7a-6pm. Agm prep, facilities prep, font dean prep for the day, turn work, contracts, resident Issues, and other deliverables due daily.

 If your property is understaffed, please look into the market first. Sometimes this is the cause of why properties become understaffed due to market competition, especially with the facilities team.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Leasing consultant 62 salaries reported	$18.65 per hour
Maintenance technician 34 salaries reported	$21.46 per hour
Porter 18 salaries reported	$18.63 per hour
Operations associate 28 salaries reported	$16.73 per hour
Sales specialist 3 salaries reported	$58,333 per year

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