Pros
The training was great. I work for a new company now and while the training process there is different, I still draw from the same teaching techniques and ideas I was trained with at ABC almost a decade ago when I train new technicians. If you're looking for an entry-level position and an introduction to ABA, this is a great place for your foundation. The structure of the classrooms also run smoothly for both the staff and the students. And as someone else said in a different review, the hours can be convenient for students. I was also able to use my work experience for some course credits during my undergrad. It's a lot of hard work and a lot of fun. A lot of the middle management staff, like the leads were great! They knew hot to relate to the technicians and were effective supervisors. Many of them had a laid-back management style that made them very approachable and let the technicians feel comfortable around them. But they were not taken advantage of because they were well-experienced individuals who knew their trade. So everyone respected them - not because they demanded respect - but because they earned it and we all knew it. In addition, now that I do in-home therapy that can be isolating, working in a close-knit school environment with other colleagues and supervisors, there is always support around if you need help and supervision is always available. I am not sure how much things have changed since I left there a few years ago, but from my experience, it was not difficult to get full time. In fact, the reason why I had to leave the company was because I was beginning grad school and I was told they were going to be phasing part time position and wanted to only have full time Behavior Technicians. Things could have changed over the years, but had I been allowed to go part time, I would have loved to stay. I miss the kids terribly and the Behavior Technicians were great people, some of whom are still great friends of mine. As I mentioned, I haven't been there for quite a few years, but they also have a recent dedication to educating their employees. Employees seeking to obtain their Master's and BCBA degrees now have the opportunity to work in a group with their coworkers and on site to go through the program together. Most importantly, the students progress. You work with them everyday and see their language skills, social skills, and academic abilities improve. There are hard days, there are tough behaviors. But every day, you leave work knowing you made a difference. And that data shows it. If you don't mind a minimal paycheck, this is truly the payoff of the job that keeps employees motivated everyday.
Cons
This is also a pro, but you get very attached to the kids. They rotate staff around once a year to different classrooms to prevent staff and client burnout/satiation. This is a great idea, but it's hard to watch and work with the same kids directly for an entire year, get moved to a different classroom, and not be able to have direct knowledge of their progress after that due to confidentiality (staff were not allowed to discuss clients with each other unless the same 2 staff talking about that client worked directly in the same classroom with that client). I'm also in disagreement with someone else who reviewed saying that they inquired about advancement at every review. Because a con I am listing is that ABC was not diligent with their reviews. And being that raises are determined based on the result of the review, it was very frustrating. It took me 2.5 years of working there before I got my first review, and you're supposed to get one a MINIMUM of once a year (also, to that same person, you can't get direct therapy Behavior Technician work signed off for your BCBA hours). Once the school districts, and subsequently ABC, got hit with budget cuts and started getting furloughed a few years back, they made a promise that they would not conduct any layoffs. And to my knowledge they held true to that. What happened instead, at least from the BT perspective, was that people started getting fired for seemingly random and wrongful reasons. Admittedly, I only received second or third-hand knowledge, but from the stories I heard, it sounded like random reasons were made up to terminate some people - and it seemed to be, from my perspective at the time, a way to save some money and tighten the belts without having to officially lay people off. This all may or may not have any validity, but what it did for those of us who remained was made us incredibly fearful for our job securities. The supervisors seemed to be alienated from the direct classroom staff, and it made it so that every time a BCBA was in the classroom, we were all fearful of every little screw up, thinking we could get fired at any moment. Giving the benefit of the doubt, it was probably just because of the rumors going around at the BT level, but anxiety of all the staff increased, and I feel work performances suffered. So I think there was an oversight on the management's part, which I hope has been resolved. My only real gripe was that the pay was absolutely not good. At all. For being a college student, it was enough to pay the bills and have hours that worked with my school schedule, but really not much else. Maybe it's a symptom of being in California and when budget cuts happen at the government level, education is the first to go. But being in competition with other companies who do ABA, the pay doesn't come close. I worked there for nearly 5 years, and I was only making $1.50 more per hour than when I started. When I got my new job about 6 months later, I started off making almost twice as much per hour than I did at ABC, and that's not even with a company that pays the most in the area. If it weren't so hard to leave the amazing team of staff and the incredible kids that are there, I'm sure other staff members would have a much easier decision leaving for a company that pays better. Medical, dental, etc are good if you are full time, but the paycheck you bring home is never a lot at the behavior technician level. If you hold a Bachelor's Degree or less, there are few opportunities for upward mobility within the company. Unless you want to move to work in administration for the company, behavior technician and lead behavior technician are your only real options. And since the leads tend to be people who have been around the company a long time, and have a desire to stick around, that leaves opportunities for promotions very limited. Personally, this was part of the motivation that I had to seek a higher degree and certification, but I saw a lot of people get complacent, or even discouraged.