Pros
Free food/drink. You become close with your coworkers because you learn to stick together to survive the bad treatment. Really no pros to working here. Any "positive" review on this site was crafted and posted by Success Academy itself (told by an HR employee who confirmed it). Current employees are also encouraged to post about "how great Success is" - these people are part of the cult!
Cons
If I could give negative stars to Success Academy I would. The only reason why I gave 5 stars for Career Opportunities is because there is such high turnover that there are always job openings. Insanely high (and constant) turnover at the network and schools. The operations team, for example, was losing people at a daily rate. Most people quit, but they also force you out if someone doesn't like you - either by treating you terribly or just firing you. If you get fired or give notice, they make you leave right then and there - you cannot say goodbye or gather your things (they send your belongings to you). They have a goal to expand to 100 schools in the next 5 years but they won't be able to do it if teachers and employees keep quitting at the insanely high rates they are! Success' approach with the kids is terrible and frankly abusive and punitive. Students are constantly berated and screamed at - spend their day in terror. They get 20 minutes for lunch and recess because food and fresh air isn't important to a child- only test scores are! Test scores are they only thing that matter and they spend most of the day preparing for those tests - a process that most teachers think is a carrot and stick method - if you do well, you get a treat. During testing, staff cannot wear heels or loud shoes, students cannot go to the bathroom (and often wet themselves), students cannot wash their hands (strictly use hand sanitizer), and teachers aren't allowed to eat. Teachers are encouraged to "tear and repair" - meaning tear up a test/homework if a student did poorly and then make them redo it. Teachers have 12+ hour long days and don't get to sit down in their classrooms. Success is really wasteful with their money. They spend millions of dollars building their schools, only to change room use a year later and spend thousands of dollars to renovate a perfectly good classroom. Employees have said that classroom items such as custom lockers and bulletin boards cost $20,000 per room - money that should be going toward students directly (or even other public schools!) The network office is just as terrible as schools. They break you down, but don't build you back up. A lot of people go to HR about issues and HR does nothing. In fact, they often force the victim to meet with the accused employee face to face, instead of protecting and supporting them. There is a lot of victim blaming here. Management has openly bragged about managing with fear. If you make any mistake, you are treated like a murderer. Long office hours. Staff is required to be available by phone 24/7. Most people end up rolling over their vacation because its too stressful to leave work for an extended period of time - either due to extensive work load or because management makes you feel terrible. You will only get a promotion if you do what they say and keep your mouth shut. If you are liked by management, you will move up quickly. Most of leadership is in their 20's - started off as teachers and are now directors. They don't care about experience, they want sheep -easily-led people who do what Success says and keep their head down and mouths shut. Follow the herd or be slaughtered. Success is 100% a cult. Drink the kool-aid and you'll be successful. Refuse to drink the kool-aid and you'll be kicked out. Success brags about how great and successful they are but turn a blind eye to how they treat their kids and employees.