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 6,470 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 improved by 1% over the last 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 (240) , Online English Teacher (199) , ESL Teacher (198) , Sales Coordinator (137) , Activity Leader (75) , Sales (75) , Online ESL Teacher (67) , Sales Consultant (64) , Manager (61) , Educational Tour Consultant (46) , Marketing (42) , Director (41) , EF Activity Leader (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 411 reviews)); "Overall really great culture and very easy to feel welcome!" ((in 329 reviews)); "Colleagues are great and share similar values for the most part." ((in 211 reviews)); "Great benefits and travel opportunities." ((in 170 reviews)); "The team has been great and so open to teaching you everything you need to know and more." ((in 118 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 616 reviews)); "Employees are generally over worked and have an incredible amount of work for such a low salary." ((in 515 reviews)); "Poor management and lack of decisiveness from managers that have been stagnating in their roles for too many years." ((in 309 reviews)); "There can be long hours and you get told no on the phone quite often." ((in 144 reviews)); "Bad manager leading the country" ((in 122 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

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EF (Education First)

EF (Education First) reviews

Inspiring international environment with room to grow, but restructuring takes its toll - Experience Design Director EF (Education First) Employee Review

4.0

Aug 18, 2025

Experience design director

Recommend

CEO approval

Business Outlook

Pros

Truly international workplace with exciting, diverse colleagues Beautiful office space with lots of energy and creativity Fun community events and a lively office culture right in the city center Leadership trainings are excellent and provide real personal growth Working on services which have lifelong impact on students' lives

Cons

Elaborate sign-off processes take time and energy, where trust isn't always felt Frequent restructuring and quarterly finance review based decisions on hiring and layoffs can feel exhausting and lower morale

EF (Education First) Response

11mo

Thank you for taking the time to leave a review. We’re so glad to hear that you value the international environment, vibrant office culture, and the opportunities for personal growth through leadership training. It’s also great to know that you appreciate the meaningful impact of what we do. Thank you also for your constructive feedback on sign-off processes and changes in the organization, we appreciate your feedback and have shared it with leadership. Trust is very important to us, we encourage you to reach out to talk with your manager, Recruitment & Employee Development team, or you can email hr@ef.com if there is anything else you want to share about your specific experience so we can properly address it. Thanks again for sharing.

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5.0

Apr 22, 2026

On tour support coordinator

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.

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

Tour consultant

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.

EF (Education First) Response

17h

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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EF (Education First)

Inspiring international environment with room to grow, but restructuring takes its toll - Experience Design Director EF (Education First) Employee Review

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