A Job Not a Career - Research Associate CoStar Group Employee Review

1.0
Jun 22, 2012
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

1) Benefits- Good health insurance, healthy food available on every floor, pre- paid metro card, etc. 2) Location- downtown DC, easy access to metro

Cons

1) Pay- It's average at best for what you should be making out of college. 2) Management- Everything is micromanaged. 3) Metrics- Impossible to reach..constantly changing...and many times serve no purpose. 4) Career Growth- Does not exist here. This is a job, not a career. You won't know whether to laugh or cry when you realize that every month or so some idiot from outside who has no relation to real estate and has some laughable "management" experience gets hired as your boss when you've been working for 2-3 years and are still referred to as "trainee". It gets even better when you have to teach those same people how to do their jobs...so they can spit in your face and fire you a couple of months later. Basically, in short, you should get here with the expectation that this is a job...you'll never get promoted or develop your career here. My advice is to try to meet the miniumum goals required for you not to get fired. And definitely look for soemthing else...and look hard. Out of most training classes, less than 5% of people will make it past a year. I noticed from personal experience that most of my class was fired, and there was no way you can blame them. They get unreasonable metrics to meet, and get threatned to get fired anyway if they don't meet them. So they get two options...one, cheat...or two, try to meet their goals, fail, get on a PIP, and eventually get fired. The rest of my class were relentlessly looking for other paths, and most found something by year end. So, if you have no other choice, and you just graduated school, with no job or plans, like most college grads in this economy, go for it. Put in your 6 months to a year, try to please senior management, and use this as a stepping stone to something else. But once you do find something else, get out, and do it fast.

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5.0
May 22, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Development, work life balance, competitive environment, career growth opportunities

Cons

A lot of priorities to juggle

1
1.0
May 11, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

401k, medical benefits snacks decent base salary

Cons

Working at CoStar Group was one of the most emotionally exhausting sales environments I’ve experienced. The culture on my team was extremely male-dominated, hyper-competitive, and very much “sink or swim.” Collaboration was talked about constantly by management, but in reality the environment rewarded internal competition, territorial behavior, favoritism, and politics over actual teamwork. As one of the few women on the sales team, I often felt isolated and unsupported. Instead of mentorship or coaching, the expectation was basically: “figure it out yourself.” New hires were thrown into difficult situations with inconsistent training and unrealistic expectations, while certain reps appeared to receive stronger books of business, better territories, or more support than others. It created resentment and a toxic atmosphere where coworkers often felt more like competitors waiting for you to fail than teammates. The turnover was incredibly high, which should have been a red flag. Management pushed aggressive quotas and nonstop pressure while failing to address morale, burnout, or fairness concerns. There was also an unhealthy obsession with leaderboard culture and internal politics that made the workplace feel stressful every single day. What disappointed me most was that I genuinely believed in the product and enjoyed helping clients. Many customers loved working with me, and I built strong relationships. But internally, the environment became mentally draining. The constant competitiveness, lack of support, and toxic culture eventually outweighed the positives of the role.

5
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