Adventure Science Center Reviews

The interview was setup so that they sold you a really awesome opportunity. They asked all these questions about my experience, but never really translated it to the job after a certain point. Supervisors never set clear expectations for Adventure Guides aside from "engage with guests" which doesn't exactly work in a place that's trying to be a museum and not a retail store. If you didn't engage the way they wanted you to (which was never really communicated), they "wrote you up." I cannot confirm this, but it seemed some Adventure Guides were favored over others if they could provide ASC with outside resources for special events. A handful of Adventure Guides have/had specialized knowledge in certain scientific areas and were not allowed to work with things relating to that. A lot of days, volunteers would be doing things that we were told in the interview we would be doing. A lot of standing around. Many weekdays were very slow and staying productive was difficult. Goalposts were shifted regularly and supervisors rarely checked in. They tried to create "structure," "weekly meetings," among other things that were going to happen regularly, but just never did. When you did something you thought would be productive, it was squashed down pretty quickly. Other employees in full-time and higher paying roles have expressed similar concerns.

Very low pay. The organization acknowledges that it under pays, but is not willing to increase salaries. Upper leadership only cares about revenue, not the organizational mission or the staff. Poor leadership can be felt throughout the whole organization, and trickles-down from executive leadership to managers to everyone else. You can't look up to managers/leadership to learn or gain mentorship. Staff feel lied to. Poor communication between leadership and staff, and poor communication between departments. Very little training and professional development available. Very little growth opportunity. The organization prefers to hire from the outside instead of hiring from within. High turnover - most staff stay long enough to gain a bit of experience, then leave to go places where they will be valued and paid fairly for their work.