Is EF (Education First) a good company to work for?

EF (Education First) has an overall rating of 3.4 out of 5, based on over 6,456 reviews left anonymously by employees. This rating has been stable over the past 12 months. 61% of employees would recommend working at EF (Education First) to a friend and 47% have a positive outlook for the business. The best reviews about EF (Education First) have been left by employees working as Sales Manager , Director and Intern .

Does EF (Education First) pay their employees well?

According to anonymously submitted Glassdoor reviews, EF (Education First) employees rate their compensation and benefits as 2.9 out of 5. Find out more about salaries and benefits at EF (Education First). This rating has been stable over the past 12 months.

How satisfied are employees working at EF (Education First)?

61% of EF (Education First) employees would recommend working there to a friend based on Glassdoor reviews . Employees also rated EF (Education First) 3.2 out of 5 for work life balance, 3.7 for culture and values and 3.2 for career opportunities.

What are the top reviewed jobs at EF (Education First)?

English Teacher (293) , Teacher (246) , Tour Consultant (238) , ESL Teacher (199) , Online English Teacher (199) , Sales Coordinator (137) , Sales (74) , Activity Leader (73) , Online ESL Teacher (67) , Sales Consultant (63) , Manager (61) , Educational Tour Consultant (46) , Marketing (42) , EF Activity Leader (40) , Sales Associate (40)

What are the pros of working at EF (Education First) according to real employee reviews?

"The company is great for people right out of college and that have an interest in education and travel." ((in 427 reviews)); "Overall really great culture and very easy to feel welcome!" ((in 314 reviews)); "Colleagues are great and share similar values for the most part." ((in 222 reviews)); "Great benefits and travel opportunities." ((in 172 reviews)); "The team has been great and so open to teaching you everything you need to know and more." ((in 114 reviews))

What are the cons of working at EF (Education First) according to real employee reviews?

"You'll be doing a lot of work for low pay and have no life outside of EF." ((in 613 reviews)); "Employees are generally over worked and have an incredible amount of work for such a low salary." ((in 510 reviews)); "Poor management and lack of decisiveness from managers that have been stagnating in their roles for too many years." ((in 317 reviews)); "There can be long hours and you get told no on the phone quite often." ((in 159 reviews)); "Bad manager leading the country" ((in 121 reviews))

What are employees saying about EF (Education First) layoffs in 2026?

Explore Glassdoor’s employee reviews to understand what current and former employees are saying about EF (Education First) layoffs and their outlook for job security at EF (Education First) in 2026.

What are the top reviewed EF (Education First) locations?

Boston , Cambridge , Denver , Tarrytown , San Diego , Austin , New York , San Francisco , Thornwood , Santa Barbara , Miami , Chicago , Miami Beach , Brighton , Los Angeles , Washington , Honolulu , Atlanta , China , Redondo Beach , Remote , Long Beach , Pasadena , Monterey , China Grove , Dallas , Houston , Seattle , Portland , Baltimore

EF (Education First) reviews

3.4

61% would recommend to a friend

(4,610 total reviews)

Edward Hult, Ph.D

61% approve of CEO

47% positive business outlook

Ratings by demographic groups

Race / Ethnicity

Gender

Sexual orientation

Disability

Parent or family caregiver

Veteran status

EF (Education First) has an employee rating of 3.4 out of 5 stars, based on 4,610 company reviews on Glassdoor which indicates that most employees have a good working experience there. The EF (Education First) employee rating is in line with the average (within 1 standard deviation) for employers within the Education industry (3.8 stars).

Reviews by job title

5K reviews

1.0

Apr 28, 2015

I loved the students

Online english teacher

Recommend

CEO approval

Business Outlook

Pros

I loved working with the students. Most were very eager to improve their speaking skills

Cons

My "mentor" was a jerk. From the very first meeting I could her a patronizing tone in her voice.

1.0

Jun 17, 2022

More toxic than fun

Tour experience manager

Recommend

CEO approval

Business Outlook

Pros

The health insurance was pretty great.

Cons

- extremely underpaid for the workload that is expected of you, including working late evenings and weekends for snacks or pizza in return. - goals and bonuses were often impossible to reach - when employees were unhappy they would very often get talked into quitting instead of management trying to help or be supportive to their employees in any way. - college clique-esque office politics (including drunken, inappropriate conversations in Lingo after hours) - manipulative management - lots of talk about internal promotions but most "promotions" are lateral and come with more responsibility and little to no pay raise. - when the pandemic hit people were coming straight to the office from traveling abroad and we were getting very confusing messaging from the higher-ups urging us to continue to work from the office when many of us felt unsafe and were completely capable of working from home. - The office is not a perk; it's hard to get to, you have to pay for parking (even the parking that EF built for employees, coffee and food at lingo is expensive and there was rarely a private spot to have a private phone call or to eat lunch alone.

EF (Education First) Response

4y

Thanks for taking the time to share with us your feedback. We always want to improve and in order for us to do that, we need to listen to our team members (both previous and current). Open communication is essential to this endeavor, so we appreciate you sharing your experiences. We are sorry, however, to hear you have felt your time at EF has been toxic. We strive to provide resources for EF team members to not only do their jobs, but to also maintain a healthy work-life balance and feel valued. If you'd like to talk more, you can reach out to HR@ef.com, and we can be in touch.

2.0

Apr 4, 2020

It seems ok but it’s really not

Resident advisor

Recommend

CEO approval

Business Outlook

Pros

-You make your own schedule -Free food & housing -Opportunity to learn from different cultures -Cool coworkers -If you just want to live rent free and have free food yet also be miserable and have no life, this is great

Cons

-Management is biased/has favorites and will not rehire you (if a summer temp) if you don’t fit into the idea of who she wants you to be. -Hard work is ignored by senior management -The rooms are disgusting; no one would fix things after multiple requests -The students can be very misbehaved

EF (Education First) Response

6y

Thank you for your feedback. Happy to hear you enjoyed your colleagues and working in a very international environment. Your comments are very valuable for us and we will speak to our management in Tarrytown in regards to your feedback on management favourism, on how they can better see hard working staff. We are truly sorry EF has not lived up to your expectations. We wish you all the best for 2020.

Viewing 31 - 33 of 4,610 Reviews

Jobs at EF (Education First)

ESL Teacher - Summer 2026

Activity Leader-Summer

Summer Activity Leader

Customer Events and Business Development Co-Op