Pros
Pros include an in-depth, behind the scenes view of how campaigning and production works. Overall the people who make up the team are creative, supportive, and kind.
Cons
The cons come exclusively from the company's partners. The partners, who serve as the 'C-level executives,' represent the public face of this small business (their pictures displayed on their website). and play a major role in the relationships with their clients and the day-to-day responsibilities, were also responsible for creating an abusive, toxic environment that drove people to mental/emotional breakdown. Public humiliation, threats of getting fired, embarrassing and menial tasks with no purpose - these are common at AL Media. Here are some specific examples of the way the staff was treated by the hands of partners. If you were working closely with the partners, you could expect incessant micromanaging; one-on-one meetings where your employment status was discussed; CC'ing the entire company on an email to call you out on your misspelling, mistake, whatever. The consistency of these techniques often felt like harassment among the staff. Those that suffered worst in this company are the schedulers - I can't recall the number exactly, but at one point the company had something like 10 + schedulers over 3 years (as most quit). As the company is very small, there technically isn't an HR department, and thus no one to direct your complaints to. Others who supported the partners did nothing to protect the staff from the onslaught of aggression. The toxicity from the partnership trickled down to everyone else. There was staff crying in the bathroom, people taking cocaine, Ritalin and other drugs during the day to cope with the intensity of demands, which included 80 hour + work weeks. But the most alarming component of the partner's behavior was the hypocrisy between the persona exhibited to the clients vs the wrath unleashed on their own employees. I recall overhearing racist and xenophobic things (i.e., mocking accents, reinforcing stereotypes, lamenting about the challenges of filming people of color), despite clients being POC or from different ethnic backgrounds (and don't forget, politicians running for office). Another observation I have is that most of the cruelty and vitriol is mostly (if not entirely) directed towards the other women among the staff. You should feel safe where you work. When I think about my time at AL Media, I don't think about the projects I worked on; I think of the near constant fear of being degraded. AL Media presents itself as an attractive place to work, but its the people - not the projects - that make the job meaningful. Otherwise, I recommend searching for other opportunities in the field.