Stay VERY Far Away - Anonymous employee Information Experts Employee Review

I've debated for years about writing a review of IE on Glass Door because a) I didn't want anything I wrote to be personally identifying in any way, and b) I assumed they would be out of business by now. Enough time has passed to finally talk some truth about my time at IE. It also appears that plenty of other people have had similar experiences so I'm probably safe to share my perspective. Sadly, it also seems IE is still in business which only affirms there can't possibly be a god. The biggest Con of this company is the lack of direction in management, which starts firmly at the top with their CEO. Ms. Levin is like the human analog of an internet clickbait article: quick, seemingly exciting, but ultimately vapid and a complete waste of time. She would drift into the office on odd days, make incoherent yet highly declarative speeches (usually about the company direction and trending internet blah blah blah), and then disappear, leaving a wake of total WTF. This lack of direction would then permeate down through the ranks of IE management, who are (or were) the epitome of meaningless. Based on the trendiness of the CEO, everyone, especially management, were supposed experts on everything. However, no one in management, from my perspective, had any clue how to run any particular project - with most projects run into the ground and/or crashing and burning midway through life cycle (but man, did those managers all look super cool with their Macbook Pros and kitschy office decor). It should come as no surprise that IE had a tendency to oversell and under deliver, on the regular; on more than one occasion a client detached or decoupled with IE midway through a project based on bad management and poorly-managed deliverables. On a tangent: one particular manager spent so much time at the links, I'm surprised he didn't show up to work in a golf cart (when he showed up at all). Oh, it's also worth noting, all the managers were attempting to usurp and back stab each other at every turn. Every. Single. One of them. Given how terrible management was, it should be no surprise working there as a specialist was basically hell on earth. Work streams were constantly halted, retooled, reworked, halted again, and more often than not put back together in a way that either made no sense or, ironically, changed nothing except to drain projected hours. Deadlines were missed or narrowly completed at the peril of the poor souls attached. And when things went wrong, managers were all too happy to throw specialists under the bus to save themselves - which at times ended with highly skilled people either being fired or quitting out of shame or disgust. Also worth noting, this is where a bad telework plan can really chafe your choad. For example, how great is it to telework when no one adheres to core hours and you end up having to appease managers who like to work when their kids are asleep? Personally, I'd rather sit in traffic than have to answer emails at midnight - but maybe I'm just weird that way. Then there was just the general stupid that can't be explained. Management required new hires to take personality tests which if it isn't illegal, should be. All-Hands meetings were cultish in nature, with everyone pledging their allegiance to the mighty Marissa Levin, giver of information and seeker of expertise (oh and speaking of her again, many a quarterly meeting required her to bash clients who were less than thrilled with IE because, y'know, nothing screams professionalism like slamming the people paying your company to perform a task or function). There is a hive mentality among the IE upper echelon that can't be quantified but also can't be ignored (for example, notice all the good workplace reviews of IE, whether here or on indeed-dot-com, come from managers - this is probably because they were directed to write these reviews). Also, don't expect any raises or bonuses.