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EF (Education First)

Engaged Employer

A Specific Type of Person Will Thrive Here - Anonymous employee EF (Education First) Employee Review

3.0
Mar 24, 2020
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

-Incredible travel perks. -Incredible end-product. -Pay is good for non-entry level positions. -Incredible benefits. -Feels like a transition out of college if you're into that??? -There are a lot of fun events and feel-good surprises for employees. While these are a wholly positive on their own, most anyone I've spoken to would gladly sacrifice these for even a tiny annual bonus. It makes you feel like the company prioritizes how it looks externally to what it puts in its employees' pockets esp. since it's well known entry-level jobs pay poorly and EF flaunts its $$$.

Cons

-Management. Poor management is a clear trend in these reviews--I wish I had paid more attention to them when I was interviewing. A lack of effective managers and management experience is my chief complaint. Management positions are filled internally when it doesn't even make sense. I am often in dismay at the lack of professionalism management exhibits or excuses here. I think they get away with a lot by mostly managing young, entry level post-grads. It's a strange power dynamic. -If diversity is important to you, this probably isn't the right workplace environment for you. On top of a lack of surface level diversity, the workforce is painfully homogeneous; it's a perfect example of a company that says they are always striving to increase diversity in hiring, yet somehow also seems to constantly prioritize the notion of "culture fit" without realizing their culture may be running counterintuitive to their goals to diversify the workforce. There are people who really care and put on incredible diversity events, but the participants are those who need diversity training least: mostly those who already identify within a minority group. -Lack of career direction or definition. Modest annual raises and no additional compensation opportunities. -No flexible work policy. At best, EF is way behind the times here. At worst, they don't trust their employees.

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EF (Education First) Response
6y
Thank you for your feedback. We always want to improve and your comments are valuable for our efforts in this matter. We are happy to hear you enjoy some of the perks of joining EF - the travel, the fun factor this company has to offer in terms of fun events etc and working in a highly international environment together with fun and outgoing colleagues. We are sorry to hear you perceive a lack of management and career direction. We take professional development seriously and, with the number of schools and offices around the world, we're sorry to see that you found mobility to be a challenge. In terms of diversity, we believe we are truly diverse as a company. In many of our offices around the globe, we have many different nationalities. For example in Zurich with 700 people, we have 47 different nationalities. If you wish to discuss more flexible working hours, please contact your local RED team. Best regards

Explore other reviews about EF (Education First)

5.0
Apr 22, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Good training, good communication especially for a remote position, flexible, great management

Cons

Scheduling and staffing effectively could be challenging due to unpredictable nature of emergency response, which caused both understaffed shifts and overstaffed shifts. In addition, phone-based customer service can be emotionally challenging - customers in stressful situations can often be difficult to deal with.

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EF (Education First) Response
2mo
Hearing that the training, communication, and management stood out, especially in a remote setting, is really meaningful. Thank you for sharing! As you mentioned, the nature of emergency response is inherently unpredictable. Our phone-based support in high stress situations can be central to defining the experience for travelers, and the people who handle it are a big part of that. We’re proud of the team you were part of and hope the skills you built here continue to serve you well.
1.0
Jul 7, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Well structured, comprehensive formal training. Perks and benefits

Cons

Once training is done, you’re pretty much on your own to figure things out. The weekly meetings with your manager end. You spend all day on the phones and there’s not a whole lot of interaction or collaboration going on in the office or across your team. At the end of the day it is a job and the perks and benefits are nice (travel). It just seemed social interaction of any kind, even to ask questions, was discouraged and in fact was viewed as distracting. The cold calling just gets to be tiring after a while, making it hard to stay at the job for longer than 1-2 years. Good entry level sales job, though.

1
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EF (Education First) Response
14h
Thank you for sharing this reflection on your time as a Tour Consultant in Boston. We're glad the training and benefits were highlights, though we believe strong onboarding is just the beginning when it comes to manager availability and team collaboration. We appreciate you sharing that it didn't carry through in the way it should have. Please don't hesitate to reach out to hr.us@ef.com if you'd like to share more. We wish you the best in what comes next.
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