JoVE Reviews

I'll emphasize some cons that fellow employees have highlighted, but having spent this past winter in Boston I wanted to address an issue I think speaks volumes about the management at the company and I haven’t really seen anyone mention. If you experienced this winter in Boston, and had any type of commute whatsoever to your place of work then those weeks may be a bitter memory for you. At JoVE this stands out to me as one of the biggest signs of disrespect and disregard for their employees. People have mentioned how those 9-5 hours are rigid and if you aren't in your seat at 9 then you most likely are spoken to or pulled aside over your tardiness. Couple that with a crippled transit system, white out conditions and a dangerous commute. The only time your absence from the office was allowed was when there was a state of emergency and there was NO public transit and you couldn’t legally be on the road. Now obviously the company is not required to close or issue work form home days when the weather is rough, but when a fellow coworker of mine was faced with the option of shoveling out their car for close to an hour, and driving in more than difficult road conditions, and then would have been 2+ hours late to work, common sense says work from home....but not at JoVE. She was told she had to take a personal day if she could not make it in to the office because employees can’t be trusted to do their jobs while not under the watch of their managers. While that is well within the rights of the CEO to demand, I think that a prospective hire should know what to expect come winter. On to some other expectations. Sales is a high pressure job no question about that and always has been. But my past experiences have never left me with a fear for my job almost weekly. It didn’t matter that in publishing the sales cycle should be quarterly vs monthly, or that your territory was already saturated, or that almost every 3 months the CEO had a new idea how to structure the Sales team and its offerings. If you didn’t hit your numbers, you got a warning followed by the door. The managers did their best they could to shield you from it, and make the lemonade out of lemons, but at the end of the day what the CEO says goes. If you can stomach that kind of pressure and unrealistic expectations, then maybe the above Pros are good enough for you. And I could keep going on and on, but at the end of the day its already been said before. Some reviews on here look to be personal, but they aren’t wrong.

Working at JoVE is a miserable experience which I can boil down to three main reasons: 1. The work itself is extremely dull and frustrating. If you are in editorial, you are essentially a sales person. Your job is to call scientists and beg them to publish with JoVE, which costs them a huge amount of money, Scientists generally think this is ridiculous and a waste of money. As an editor, if you don't make at least 10 "sales" per month, you are fired. No questions asked. As an editorial assistant, you are essentially spamming scientists with emails from JoVE trying to convince them to publish. 2. Management is extremely frustrated, with no transparency and little respect for employees. If you like to be micro-managed, sit through pointless meetings, and have absolutely no voice, then go ahead and work at JoVE. Day-to-day, one of the worst parts of the job is tip-toeing around and trying to avoid your manager staring over your shoulder or dragging you into the office for a "pep talk." There is no true leadership. Also, because people are fired almost every week for having low numbers, there is a constant fear of being fired and the management makes it very clear that everyone is replaceable (why do you think there are constantly job postings on this site?) 3. The pay is ridiculously low. Try living in Boston on about 25k. It's not fun. Everyone who works at JoVE is broke (except management) and many have to work second jobs just to get by. Hold out for a better job. Working at JoVE is a miserable experience.