International Education - Project Manager AcadeMe Employee Review

AcadeMe describes itself as an education company, with an emphasis on continuous learning for both employees and clients (students). This is the company’s greatest strength; I found value in my time at AcadeMe precisely because the management and very much encouraged all of us to pursue our intellectual and personal interests both in and out of work. Unlike other spaces that give time for personal projects, the pursuit of our own interests does not have to result in a product for the company. Instead, we, as employees, are given the opportunity to learn for the sake of learning. This is not explicitly for company benefit, but because the management finds inherent good in learning. The company office is mostly an open plan, with some workers choosing to work in the open space while others choose to work in private office spaces. As someone who tends to prefer open plans, this was a plus. The company structure is mostly flat. Because the company is so small, you will get to know management well, and your voice will be valued. When I suggested changes to the office or company operations, there was no doubt that my suggestions would be heard. The company is more focused on providing services in accordance to its mission, to bring a liberal arts education to China. I will vouch for the company’s mission-driven focus. Most of the time, it considers the intellectual value of its pursuits and investments before considering any financial benefits. I found the decision to leave finances largely out of the equation, while not necessarily the best business decision, to have a positive impact on day to day life at the company. There’s a great bookshelf and a comfortable reading area in the office. While not yet full, the collection grows as students and employees contribute to the company’s collection. As I said earlier, I was highly encouraged to do read in my downtime and more often than not, I had a chance to discuss these books with my coworkers. I worked with very brilliant students. While it is cliché to say that teachers learn from their students, at AcadeMe, this is very true. Additionally, the company allows you to design and teach a course of your choosing, on essentially any topic that sounds interesting. I designed a seminar and taught it two times. During the design process, I received constant support and feedback from coworkers, who encouraged me to be innovative and experimental. The design process itself was very rewarding, where I was essentially paid to read about my interests. In short: friendly and academic company culture, open office environment, nice coworkers.

The job gets extremely stressful during the college application season, which occurs between the beginning of September and the beginning of January. The working hours change to 12pm to 9pm, with overtime common. This makes social engagements during that period difficult and the work-life balance in general becomes difficult if not impossible to maintain. Because the company is so small, you’ll be facing all of your coworkers every day. Working remotely does not happen often and my impression that it is not encouraged. Because you are working with students, unless you are explicit about communicating your working hours, your students might bother you with work questions after close of business. As I mentioned earlier, work-life balance is tricky business in this field. You are expected to use your personal WeChat account to facilitate communication, making the separation even more difficult. You are not provided a computer and are expected to bring your personal device. Some of the company’s resources, such as its calendar and many of its documents, need to be accessed with a VPN, which you are expected to subscribe to out of pocket. If your VPN is malfunctioning, these files become inaccessible. Similarly, the company lacked a consistent means of communication during my first few months, where we cycled through several different email and messaging services before settling down. The office space can get messy during the application season, as everyone in the office is feeling a great deal of stress. Food containers accumulate and tables are often filled with loose papers. For clean freaks, this might add on to the stress. The company isn’t very environmentally friendly, and consumes a lot of bottled water and printed paper. If it matters to you, the small company size means that you don’t have as great of a chance to build up a large network. The company also relies on temporary (1 or 2 year-long) contracts to serve as its workforce, making advancement more difficult. There are very few women in the office (3 women out of 10 employees as I write this review) and I found at times interactions between employees reflected this imbalance. In short: difficult to maintain work-life balance, imbalanced gender ratio, and some startup growing pains.

In college, we're told to explore ourselves and our interests, academically and otherwise; to try new things; to cultivate greater self-awareness-but for what? Do we embark on this glorified journey of self-discovery just so that we can ride the coattails of our universities' reputations into the biggest names in consulting four years later? For many, though to admit it would be to betray the self-righteous mission we like to boast during our college days, the answer is a wholehearted, unabashed "yes." Two years ago, in the days preceding my graduation from the Johns Hopkins University, I, too, all too frequently found myself suited up, resume in hand, confidently striding into various career fairs and professing my love for so many consulting firms I "dreamed" to work for. I'd jump through any hoop HR representatives threw at me, and I'd do so with a beaming smile on my face that I myself even believed to be genuine. Yet, now, two years later, here I am in Beijing wrapping up my second year as an AcadeMe Fellow and preparing to go back to school to tie up some loose ends in my own education. What brought me to AcadeMe in spite of the statistics insisting I'd do otherwise those two years ago was not some grandiose epiphany, but rather an intriguing job posting that I randomly came across on Handshake one day and an inkling that my chances for intellectual and personal growth after college might be greater beyond the post-graduate associate role at consulting firms X, Y, and Z. Shortly after coming to AcadeMe and beginning my work as an AcadeMe Fellow, a role which combines college counseling with teaching and curriculum design while allowing for the creative space to independently initiate one's own educational projects, a co-worker and now close friend of mine recommended to me a book called Excellent Sheep by William Deresiewicz. In short, this book poignantly explores the so-called "miseducation of American elite"-a problem which I've found isn't actually limited to only the American elite, but students around the world representing every social class, particularly those in China-and the meritocratic reward system that encourages uniformity among top-performing students and that, by consequence, suppresses their ability to think for themselves. As I read this book, I began to see my entire college experience through a new, different lens. I can't say I regret any of the choices I made in college, as I might not have come to AcadeMe had I done things any differently, but I certainly had some misconceptions about the nature of the university as both an institution and an ideal before reading Excellent Sheep and coming to redefine education for myself over the course of my time as an AcadeMe Fellow. This type of self-reflection and intellectual inquiry are enjoyed by every member of the AcadeMe community, students and Fellows alike. A typical experience for me as a college counselor is pondering questions of personal identity with my students, sharing experiences and ideas with them and sometimes arriving at greater understandings of ourselves in the process. Though I act as a mentor to all my students, it's oftentimes the moments when my students confound me with questions I've never considered before or when I'm compelled by something a student says to me to rethink my own views that I enjoy my job most. This happens as often in the classes and workshops I lead for AcadeMe's Core and Homer Project programs as it does in my one-on-one college counseling sessions. Despite its small size (the team currently only consists of ten full-time employees), AcadeMe is making a big statement in a saturated education market where standardized test preparation and college admissions counseling in the form of essay-editing services dominate. Though AcadeMe does its fair share of test prep and essay-editing, it places a much greater emphasis on student's long-term intellectual and personal growth beyond the college application process. Its team of Fellows strives to bring AcadeMe's students a uniquely interdisciplinary liberal arts experience; in reading the great texts that the team guides them through in their courses and workshops, the students are exposed to new philosophical concepts which they can use to form or develop their own ideas on subjects such as the nature of life and personal identity. I believe the lessons the students take away from their time at AcadeMe help them to not only build successful college application packages but also lay the groundwork for a more introspective college experiences, career, and adult life in general. For me, this is AcadeMe's greatest selling point for Fellows as much as it is for students. After all, what teacher or counselor doesn't like to see his or her students grow? In the process of witnessing all of my students' growth, I've also had the chance to gain concrete teaching experience and to bring my own academic interests to the classroom. For example, as part of AcadeMe's Homer Project during my first year as a Fellow, I designed and instructed a course called Citizenship: The Politics of Belonging, exploring with my students the complex relationship between politics and personal identity while making full use of my academic background in international relations and political science. In general, AcadeMe embraces its Fellows' interests with open arms and encourages them to be creative in their approach to their work. Overall, my past two years at AcadeMe have been more awarding than I ever expected. During my time as a Fellow, I've contributed to a truly meaningful educational initiative while cultivating greater self-awareness alongside my exceptionally bright and inspiring students. Going forward, I plan to take AcadeMe's spirit of inquiry and introspection wherever I go, whether graduate school or beyond.

I find AcadeMe's cons to be limited to a number of problems commonly experienced by start-ups and believe that they will be addressed in the immediate future: 1. Small size and gender imbalance of team The small size of AcadeMe's team could be considered both a pro and a con: while it doesn't take long to develop close working relationships with all of your coworkers at a company as small as AcadeMe, it's often difficult to operate at a high efficiency in this type of work environment since everyone is expected to take on a large number of roles at any given time and will inevitably have to neglect certain projects even when those projects could be very beneficial for the company. In addition, given its 3:10 female-to-male gender ratio, the AcadeMe team is suffering from a lack of female representation. AcadeMe is currently making great efforts to recruit more female Fellows to correct this imbalance. 2. Limited number of opportunities for career advancement, especially within AcadeMe itself The AcadeMe Fellowship, like any Fellowship, was purposely designed to be a temporary position with a two-year contract. It's therefore an attractive option for recent college graduates wanting to gain teaching experience or simply a space to think a grow before resuming their academic careers. However, as of now, there's no clear means of getting promoted and remaining on the AcadeMe Team past the second year of the Fellowship, meaning this isn't an ideal opportunity for anyone looking to begin developing any kind of long-term career. As AcadeMe continues to grow, though, I envision AcadeMe hiring for longer-term roles.