employers with tuition reimbursement

[Anonymous]

So here's the deal. I want to start a graduate degree part-time, and my current employer does not offer tuition reimbursement and isn't open to supporting staff professional development. I'm job hunting, but I want to try to focus on employer's who are interested in professional development of their staff. Any recommendations on how to approach this job hunt?

[Anonymous]

Many employers give a summary of benefits on their website but it will probably be a general statement of we offer tuition reimbursement. You would need to talk to someone at the actual company to know what the policy is, which really will vary from company to company. Some have a waiting period, some only offer partial reimbursement. Some pay based on your grades (example B or better to be reimbursed). Some companies will pay upfront, others will not reimburse you until after you complete the course and show your grades. Some pay for books and supplies. In most cases they are going to want to know why getting this degree is going to help you in your current position or in your career path with the company. I have also seen companies that will ask you to pay them back if you leave within a certain timeframe after receiving reimbursement.

I used to recruit and honestly I don't think it is an appropriate question to ask in a first interview. You could ask at the end how the company helps to develop their employees but I would not ask if they have tuition reimbursement.

Good luck with your job search.

[Anonymous]

Any of the universities in the area would offer some level of tuition benefits to their employees.

[Anonymous]

Another thing to bear in mind is that if your employer does pay for classes, this money will be counted as income for tax purposes.

[Anonymous]

Just to give you another idea. My company, will reimburse up to 10% of your salary for educational expenses.
However, these need to be career related. So, lets pretend that I do something within the IT field, they will not pay for me to get my Masters in Education.
They might pay for me to get my law degree if I wuold make the case of how it is connected to work that the compnay does. (We do some work supporting DOJ)

[Anonymous]

AARP pays 4,000 per year.

[Anonymous]

Doesn't the federal government provide some tuituion reimbursement?

[Anonymous]

Georgetown and AU both offer generous tuition remission packages to employees. I do think you have to be there some period of time before taking advantage of them. As someone else pointed out this amount is taxable as income. So, if you are making 60,000 and take courses worth 20,000. You pay taxes as if you made 80,000. This means you basicly end up paying a good chunk of that tuition. The salaries at the universitites may be lower than the private sector, so you really have to do the math to determine whether the benefits are worth it. Georgetown also has generous retirement benefits to consider (they match up to 10% contribution in a 401K).

good luck

[Anonymous]

Some agencies to tuition reimbursement, or will make student loan payments, but there's no guarantee that the funds will be available year to year. You do also have to commit to staying at that agency for a set period of time.

[Anonymous]

reznick group, calvert group, snyder cohn, deloitte, nextel, adp.... might take a little research but if you check the websites of the companies you are interested in most list tuition reimbursement as a "benefit". Click in Careers and then "benefits". It is really a lure to get great people to work at these places. Note that if you leave the company before a certain amount of time they may ask you to repay...