Pros
Free and tasty lunch on Fridays.
Cons
The London studio is a strange place to work. They are good at marketing themselves as being a different design studio, emphasizing flexibility, work/life balance, and a caring rather than cut throat environment. They do a good job recruiting with this marketing strategy. But very quickly, people realize that it's a marketing strategy and not reality. Usually, in design agencies, the people who lead the culture are designers. In this studio, the operations team lead the culture and the people doing the paid work are marginalized and seen as dispendable (this is the reality versus the marketing strategy). Lots of people get hired and most leave within 6 months when they realize how weird and creepy the environment is. The only people who stay are those who don't have other options (can't get a job or can't risk leaving this job for a new one) or don't care enough to leave (and thus, lack of talent and drive and not competitive in the market). The project work is incredibly dull and the quality standard is low, so it's especially hard for people who are building their careers and want to expand and learn. The senior management is pretty checked out and wants to collect their bonuses for when they finally fully merge with Capgemini. Finally, their HR department is a lawsuit waiting to happen. They broadcast staff's private struggles to other employees in an inappropriate way. Apparently, a staff member was having trouble arriving in time for AM standups because of the school run and wanted flexibility. She was told by HR that as the only parent, she shouldn't expect special treatment. She left. A different staff member had a dog allergy and was told that he needed to have his desk space in the corner kitchen, away from the rest of the studio, since dogs have priority in the space. He also left. Another person was struggling with depression and HR broadcast this person's depression and their leave of absence via email without their knowledge. This person also left.