ERUdyne, Inc

There's not much else to say in addition to the other (ON POINT) reviews about ERUdyne. ZERO starts for sure. It was as unorganized as anything I've been a part of. After 20 years in the military, I was really looking forward to a skillbridge that would propel me into a field I'm passionate about. That was not the case.

Everything on their SMSS is almost a lie and completely outdated. Their webpage is severely outdated, they do NOT have 125 employees, and I would be shocked if they had 1/3 of the partnerships listed on their page. This was so frustrating for me because I was really looking forward to sinking my teeth into crisis management but instead, got days filled with digressions, tangents, and RARE discussion about the topic at hand. We were always asked to come up with these business plans like Risk Assessments, Skills matrix, Business continuity plans, stuff that few (if any of us) knew about. There was no guidance on how to get to something successful. And the comment about the interns doing the work is spot-on. I really can't figure out how this company is around or how it makes it mark on society. There are no 'skills' that will 'bridge' you into a new career with ERUdyne.

You got time? I got a story to tell. So read and heed! ERUdyne got a hustle going on with interns. After 21 years of service I got sold and box of rocks. I did the 3 part interview process. I was told with my interview “that I would receive their Crisis Management certification after my time was done…would become a part of their ecosystem and would help land a job prior my retirement date.” Man after 2 weeks into the internship I noticed sh!t wasn’t right. First off there was 22 interns to 5 full time employees. All the interns were leads vs the full time employees. The full time employees never showed up. I got a chuckle out of that. So with all of these “projects” when an intern was leaving a new intern was supposed to pick up the carry the stick or finish the assignment. Mind you now this isn’t any training or plan or for someone to guide you. It’s just you and other interns working. Bruh I don’t even know how they earn revenue. No P&L sheets.

Second issue…I’m sitting on my porch basking in the sun on a call because this is all remote listening in and this lady utters the words “while we are working on getting accredited for the crisis management certification like PMP.” I bout fell out my lounge chair. I’m like hold the F up. You mean to tell me your aren’t accredited and the interns are working on your accreditation?! That threw me off and at the point, I started looking at my leave balance and said I need to survive 6 more weeks and I’m switching to terminal leave and looking for a job. Which is what I did. I put in my 2 weeks notice. I had an exit convo on my decision and brought up how I sold a lie on the certification and how I don’t agree with you not paying your full time employees. Another thing of note is when people quit or leave there isn’t a announcement.

Third issue…One person blurted out once again in one of the projects groups that she was “offered a job but wouldn’t get paid until the money comes through.” I quickly sent a message off to the side “like why would you work for free? You’re not one of the retirees like myself who has at least a check coming in. You need to bounce.”

Fourth issue…the lady asked me to make changes to a course to which I wasn’t a SME to. A drone course for the FAA. Mind you ya boy hasn’t even flown a drone a day in his life.

The only pro to this Skillbridge was I was smart enough to know something was off. I took advantage of that time to focus on applying to jobs, networking, VA, and getting my house together. I was able to secure a job while on terminal and double dip for a good part of 4 months!

Now here goes the funny part on how disorganized ERUdyne is. I quit the Skillbridge and only did 2 months. Tell me why 3 weeks ago I get an email from the company for my crisis management certification with a completion date of my original final date. I did nowhere near 120 days!

Oh and crisis management is a new thing. It’s not new! There are plenty of companies that have crisis management folks to handle stuff. She is just flipping words from emergency management to crisis management. This company is wild man.

If I could give this company, ERUdyne, zero stars, I would. I learned nothing other than that civilian companies love to abuse the military's commitment and loyalty. Even after the internship, I am still unaware of what the company does, how it obtains revenue, or how it has been in business for over 20 years. In my opinion, future interns should heed caution and thoroughly research. It offers paid positions and never pays with some excuse of “when we secure the next contract,” etc. Interns applied their money to various databases for Request for Proposals and attended conferences to represent ERUdyne without a refund. I would strongly caution anyone approached by this “ORGANIZATION” to do extensive research and speak to actual employees, not management. A good indicator of an organization is usually the turnover rate.

The leadership was based on manipulation. For example, interns were to develop a business plan without direction or training--to continue the business for leadership.

The skillbridge program is an excellent concept for transitioning out of the service. I could only pray that ERUdyne is the exception to what the program represents and what civilian companies expect from us.

No position offered, though I'm sure if I didn't trail off or voice my opinion as much they might have offered me one. For my own mental health, I couldn't have taken it. I stopped participating the last month or so because the internship was depressing.

Very unsupported and undervalued.

Would not recommend. Actually, got to a point where I didn't have to even say anything negative, people started backing out on their own. People who i'd recommended it to reached out to me and said during their interview process they picked up on the red flags that I missed.

Zero accountability. It's up to you when/if you show up, and when the interns that participate more encourage some sort of accountability we get told to quit overthinking it, or that it's actually more beneficial to your mental health to have a lack of accountability. When concerns over not following training plans are expressed, CEO laughs and says "well no one really knows". Some interns end up with 5 projects while others ride out their entire internship on "listen only" mode.

Relys too much on free labor. Training plan created by intern. Recommended by numerous interns on numerous occasions to have a paid employees be the "team lead" and hold interns accountable for projects, idea kept getting rejected, leaving interns as team leads for their very short time... Meaning zero continuity between batches of interns. You have slides that have interns listed that haven't been in the program for months. POCs that have been out of the program for months. Etc.

Horrible onboarding process. By the time you onboard you maybe "work" for 4 weeks before you start to zone out, and even then half of the classes get cancelled.

You're basically guilted into sticking around after your SkillBridge ends, unpaid. You're told when you begin that positions are based on contracts, but then it seems like it's all talk the entire time and there's no actual commitments so who knows what the actual cash flow is.

They basically choose people with a crisis management background so they can share their war stories during the allotted training time, so no actual training takes place. After over 120 days I couldn't tell you one acronym, but I could share some war stores!

Honestly, not sure how they've been in business as long as they have... But notice how the CEO is the only person that has been in it for the long haul. I have zero doubt that they want to do the right thing but they are so disorganized it's insane.