Not a place to grow - Research Associate CoStar Group Employee Review

2.0
21 Mar 2012
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

There are a lot of pros to working here, but none on the professional growth side. A good 401(k) program with matching contributions, medical, dental, vision and ample time off are provided. Also, quarterly bonuses are given for hitting your numbers, although they can be hard to attain (but they are working on changing that, which is good progress on their part). The office location in downtown DC is hard to beat, and free employee Segway rides, fitness center, yoga classes, fresh fruit, milk and juice every day make coming to work a little easier. However, it is important to point out that most people do not take advantage of everything CoStar does offer because it is so stressed to hit your numbers, and that is it, that the fun side things are not used because people do not want to spend an extra second at the office.

Cons

Most of what has been said about how employees are treated does not need to be reiterated, as this is not a place to grow professionally. They tell you in an interview that you have a chance to be a research manager (who only make ~50k a year for a whole lot of responsibility and headaches from their managers), but in my almost 2 years of being employed, not a single employee has been promoted to manager, as they prefer to hire from outside and then teach the managers about how they want employees to be treated, so managers cannot see how difficult hitting Metrics goals as an employee really are, and to not breed any sympathy when it comes to the constant firing of people who are put in hard situations with their portfolios. Also, this IS NOT a job where you learn anything about the commercial real estate market. This is a strictly call center job where you are paid to make as many calls as possible a day, and extract as much information as possible from the people you speak with, and if you do not do those things, you will be fired basically immediately. I also want to point out that this is not from a disgruntled current or ex-employee as I have not hated working here (I have a new job that starts in a month), but it is just facts presented so any future employee can understand what they are getting into.

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5.0
22 May 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
11 May 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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