A Unique Place to Work - Research Executive Instinct Laboratory Employee Review

Some of the best opportunities of my career so far have come from instinct laboratory. The company is a forward thinking organization, with a list of clients that most firms would die for - working with these brands at such a stage in my career was unprecedented and I valued the experience immeasurably. International travel was a given and I have been fortunate enough to speak to well respected business leader throughout Europe. This experience has been vital to me in my current job. Obviously the offices are world class and they provide a warm environment with friendly people to work in, something I currently miss!

One of the main downsides is the hours you have to have to work, deadlines have to be met and this can often lead to extended working hours. I guess it comes with the responsibility of speaking to important brands and comes with the nature of the projects. Occasionally I have had to work weekends if travelling internationally, but this was always compensated with a day or two off during the week.

I have been working extensively either in or alongside every department of instinct. Whilst giving a 5 star rating, I want to stress that this company is not for everyone and the below should help explain this. The experience I gained here so far is just insane. During my 3 years at instinct, I have worked on and managed projects with businesses such as Red Bull, McKinsey, adidas, Nespresso, Nestle, Oakley, Helly Hansen, McDonald's, Mammut, Hasbro and many more. From workshops with Premier League clubs over designing hospital breakrooms to survival training with Red Bull High Performance directors, the diversity keeps my daily work interesting and challenging. Whilst some people might disagree with the way the company is run, there is a consensus among everyone that works and has worked here that the amount of global brands you work with is second to none. Despite coming straight from university with no previous work experience, the senior management put trust in me and helped me move up from a supporting role as a researcher to a client-facing one in project management. This allowed me to head up major projects after just one year. Whilst this was definitely exciting, it also caused some challenges for me along the way. However, I always felt the level of support and involvement from the senior team was right. Sometimes the senior team is not immediately available to help you out (due to high workload and travel), but this really made me become more proactive and think through problems myself. Here I can say that the team in the office is super supportive and you can always get help from the people around you (if you proactively ask them which is something not everyone inherently does and therefore those people can feel a bit lost - I had to learn this as well). I also feel that what I have learned here in terms of psychology & behavioural science comes in quite handy for any challenge I might face in my career. Even if you never had anything to do with psychology, you will learn the core principles and how to apply them to different environments quickly. No matter if I have to deal with the redesign of an app, help a retailer sell more products or make an event more exciting, I never feel lost as I can always draw on these principles to work out a starting point for the solution. In terms of the physical space, the new office with auditorium, basketball court, minigolf on the roof and sufficient free parking space is amazing and makes it a fun place to hang out after / outside of work. The team is quite young and super friendly. I also quite enjoy the travel both within Europe and overseas that comes with being a researcher or project manager.

Whilst you can learn incredible things here and are surrounded by smart people, it really is down to you what you make from it. From my own experience as well as seeing other people succeed / fail here I can say that you really need to be a 'self-learner' and comfortable dealing with completely new problems and challenges that can drop in anytime. I guess this makes it hard for some people and I have struggled with this as well here and there. Whilst I personally have adapted to this, I know that some find this challenging and sometimes even frustrating so I put this as a con. In terms of the working hours, yes - there are times when you have to stay a bit longer and, in terms of project management, also do some work over the weekend. Whilst the Creative department is more prone to longer hours (due to research being a more streamlined, clear process), the amount of (unpaid) overtime is manageable in my opinion and does not significantly differ from other Creative agencies. I'd say it is on average two to three hours per week although this can fluctuate quite considerably with weeks where you can leave on time every day and weeks with high workload. For me personally, the pros have always been outweighing the cons to a solid degree and therefore I give 5 stars, but it is definitely not the place to be if you want an easy job where you get told what to do from 9 to 5. You have to be able to look after and teach yourself to progress.