Pros
some wonderful super sharp colleagues, great technology, plenty of real student programs in districts using the product. Great opportunities to connect with organizations and changemakers at the top of the field.
Cons
These are the things that make it hard to work at Gooru: The CEO is a boss, not a leader. A classic industrial revolution style boss. As with most of this set, he is threatened rather than empowered by talent. He relies on a rapid churn cycle of people he learns to emulate and then treats as worthless. He refers frequently to Gooru’s “execution bias,” a focus on data-driven action. Problematically, in practice this execution bias is impulse-driven, informed by his waxing and waning moods and whatever odd conversation he has with someone in the field on a given day. Process improvements put in place by the dedicated team are often turned on their head based on his eureka moments, only to revert entirely a week later. Real data on how things are going, such as the insights gathered here, are considered irrelevant. He prefers to hire young workers directly out of college who are unfamiliar with healthy work environments and can function as pupils. The current strategy is to hire as few senior people and education specialists as possible, rather have them consult on an hourly basis at arms length where they see little of the internal strife and won’t cry foul. Disclaimer: this strategy may have changed 5 times since I've written this. Raising a red flag about how things are going is considered taboo and often punished rapidly. You are likely to be shamed within 24 hours, lose responsibilities, and receive blank stares from the knowing eyes of colleagues too intimidated to confirm the elephants in the room. Those who know how to play the game do ok. The trust level across teams is very low with high levels of internal competition that seem misplaced in a nonprofit context. Much has been said in these reviews about the existing leadership structure. The organization has a two-person leadership team that co-creates key performance indicators with a faux leadership team designed to look like they are an extension of said team.As has been indicated by many, the second in command has little education expertise and is universally regarded as poorly suited to her position. A mass human resources exodus now counting over 40 in less than 3 years is their joint legacy. It is difficult to claim you are honoring the human right to education in an institution that’s built on a core of distrust and a foundation of manipulation. This organization is resurrecting the darkest corners of the past its product so hopes to reform.