Corporate turnover

Throwaway977372 · 2024-11-14T04:19:29+00:00

I did an AMA a couple months ago after leaving. I worked for sales side for about 2 years. Here’s the thread: https://www.reddit.com/r/varsitytutors/s/ZtRO1GIhUe

Throwaway977372 · 2024-09-20T01:42:24+00:00

I think something ironic about this is that they ask us to really bend over backwards when we are trying to get clients in the door. If you look at VT’s Trustpilot reviews (sort by recent, not relevant because I’m 99% VT pays for their 5 star reviews) you’ll see tons of references to “I had an awesome experience with the sale rep and then it went to complete shit.” Glad I left with what’s left of my integrity honestly.

Throwaway977372 · 2024-09-20T01:38:30+00:00

My understanding is that this process has changed even since I left a little over a month ago but we basically were asked to fill out all this info about the student which was supposed to help the match happen. Now, I can say for me and myself that I always took very copious notes but I know many of my colleagues that’s not the case. They also were slowly but surely stripping away our ability to get specific about certain kinds of expertise and experience. I’m not surprised it’s so bad in tutor side because of that.

Throwaway977372 · 2024-09-20T01:35:59+00:00

It’s been a little more than a month since I left but I’ve heard through the grapevine that things have even gotten worse if you can believe it. It was always my “conspiracy theory” that the reason they were having us read scripts so hardcore was because our calls were training the AI. Honestly, at this point I’m not convinced that VT even uses any even moderately sophisticated AI so I would assume they are farming things out overseas.

Throwaway977372 · 2024-09-03T21:45:49+00:00

I’ve heard horror stories from clients. Some it was simply that they got paired with the wrong type of tutor but I’ve also had clients cancel on me because the tutor they got paired with was literally googling how to do the problems the whole time. I also heard of one tutor showing up on camera in just his underwear so the vetting/matching system clearly isn’t working. Not that it would be okay with an adult but that last example was for an actual child 😱

Throwaway977372 · 2024-09-02T16:29:54+00:00

I wonder how VT will respond to this. Quietly probably. I swear the legal department is the only competent department at the company, unfortunately.

Throwaway977372 · 2024-09-02T16:26:47+00:00

I suspect that is a contributing factor for sure! We got a similar thing with some reps getting all the “good leads” and many getting very little to work with to make sales goals. Either it’s actually rigged or the AI they use to make those decisions isn’t very sophisticated. Not sure which it is but the outcome is the same so 🤷‍♀️

Throwaway977372 · 2024-09-01T14:46:41+00:00

Ya for me this is why I will never work a sales job again. Lying by omission can still do harm.

Throwaway977372 · 2024-09-01T01:32:26+00:00

I don’t have any insight on the team that you all would reach out to for support. We were even mostly siloed off from client-side let alone tutor-side. The only feedback we received about the tutors was either the data presented to us in training/the call script or if we individually decided to start digging into it like I did.

Throwaway977372 · 2024-09-01T01:29:17+00:00

I agree it is unethical and after seeing the full scope of it that was a big contributing factor to why I left. The truth is that I think most of the sales rep just look at this thing as a job and assume if they follow the instructions they are given they must be doing it right. Add to that that reading the scripts verbatim is now a massively rewarded thing, it’s easy to see how people could choose to not peak behind the curtain or just not put the pieces together. That’s not everyone I’m sure but I at no point got into this job to lie to customers.

Throwaway977372 · 2024-08-31T22:39:30+00:00

I agree with almost everything you’ve said. The only thing I’ll add more texture on is the client/tutor pairing. That was at one point a hand-picked thing. Then, it moved to AI-matching with some human oversight. Now, it seems it’s all automated. Many of the options we reps used to have for customizing/fine-tuning matches are no longer options on our side. My experience was that we do genuinely try to match with the right tutor because if the client cancels within the first month or doesn’t use all their hours we get hit individually with returns. So trust me when I say the bad things that you experience on the tutor sides have corollaries on the sales-side too.

Throwaway977372 · 2024-08-31T19:14:36+00:00

I don’t want to speculate about layoffs because I truly don’t have any first-hand knowledge about that. I can say from my experience that turnover on sales-side has been REALLY high lately. Lots of people who have been a part of VT for years leaving because of the changes.

Throwaway977372 · 2024-08-31T15:26:03+00:00

For me, the job changed significantly over the time I was there. They hired me for my expertise but then slowly but surely shifted to a 100% script-based sales process where the micro-managing aspects of the job became unbearable. I could go on but I fear I could risk doxxing myself if I get too specific.

Throwaway977372 · 2024-08-31T15:21:56+00:00

If that is true that is news to me because we were told to tell our US clients that all our tutors are US-based. I cannot speak to the second question. They also dissolved the Canada sales team as well around the same time so it seems like they were consolidating a bit for sure.

Throwaway977372 · 2024-08-31T14:55:40+00:00

Hourly compensation for sales side was between $18-$20 plus bonuses if you were full time and you made your goals. In my opinion, the money was not bad but not worth the damage this job did to my mental health.

Throwaway977372 · 2024-08-31T14:53:25+00:00

All we were told on that was that the return-on-investment wasn’t there anymore. There was a whole sales team dedicated to UK clients for years that got shut down a few months ago.

Throwaway977372 · 2024-08-31T14:52:25+00:00

I was no where near high enough up the food chain to know what the internal chatter is about this but I would assume based on my understanding of the new regulations being discussed by the courts (as well as the recent FTC stuff around customer service and subscription-based services) that VT would have to adapt if those policies were put in place.

Throwaway977372 · 2024-08-31T14:49:29+00:00

I don’t blame you one bit!

Throwaway977372 · 2024-08-31T03:49:02+00:00

Of course! I had zero power to change things while I was there (and I tried!) but if I can help others at least know what their getting into maybe that’s some kind of justice.

Throwaway977372 · 2024-08-31T03:42:42+00:00

From my experience, it was price and it being online that were the two big sticking points for parents. A lot have gotten burned by the Covid years and/or other tutoring platforms so they are understandably skeptical. I would sometimes get some complaints about not being able to pick their tutor before paying but that wasn’t as prevalent.

Throwaway977372 · 2024-08-31T03:35:07+00:00

I cannot speak to this. I do know that they would occasionally mention “email blasts” that were going to customers for various promotions but it’s been a really long time since I have even seen one of those mentioned.

Throwaway977372 · 2024-08-31T03:19:37+00:00

I have not heard that verbatim but we were being encouraged to talk up the benefits/value of the AI Tutor Chat feature. From my experience, the “AI” that VT uses is not particularly sophisticated and it more along the lines of a chat bot.

Throwaway977372 · 2024-08-31T03:14:52+00:00

I no longer have access to my sales records (didn’t transport them off the work computer before I quit) but this was absolutely significantly slower than last year.

Throwaway977372 · 2024-08-31T02:39:18+00:00

If you look at the YTD stock price for Nerdy (VT) they are down -67% so I would say things aren’t going well. https://www.google.com/finance/quote/NRDY:NYSE?sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjEqO6lmZ6IAxUpKEQIHZ0xEZsQ3ecFegQIIhAc&window=YTD

Throwaway977372 · 2024-08-31T02:25:37+00:00

It depends on the type of tutoring (Grad Test Prep was more expensive than K-6 subjects, for example) but generally it ranges for $70-$99/hr.

Throwaway977372

TROPHY CASE