Pros
- Great location in Union Square - Lots of resources. Training, software availability are good. You can basically get whatever tool you need to do your job. - Very talented team of designers and design staff. Amazing pedigrees and exceptional talent all around you. They generally hire well. - Generally everyone is pretty nice and committed to your success. This isn't a place with too many divas or yelling or screaming. - Generally well-managed and organized office - Depending on the studio work-from-home can be quite flexible - Onboarding process is one of the best I've seen for a non-corporate firm. Management tends to be very responsive. - Top tier projects and clients. You'll get to work on some of the most influential projects out there with the world's top architects and developers. If its early in your career you become well connected quickly.
Cons
- Your experience will vary from studio to studio. Some studios are awesome, others can be a little chaotic and not as organized with long hours and crazy deadlines. Your experience here can vary dramatically from project to project and studio director to director. - It is a big, impersonal machine of an operation. Do not expect to have a big set of friends or work relationships for a while. It can take at least a year just to learn who everyone is. This is further exacerbated by the company taking up four floors of the building, so there are people working on different floors you may never even meet. - People either leave quickly or stay for a long time. So the office is sort of a weird mix of people who've been there 5 or more years and people who have maybe been around for 5 months. - This is a big office. Don't expect to see David Rockwell or for him to know who you are except in passing if you don't work on any projects he's involved in. But David is always pleasant and respectful. - Like most NY commercial design firms at times things can be high pressure and high stress. Clients can be demanding. - Benefits are just so-so. Payscale is average for NYC. - Rockwell tends to be 'design first' in their approach, which is not necessarily a bad thing, but it does mean that sometimes the quality of deliverables can be so-so depending on the project. They have an uneven reputation with their clients. The design staff tends to be young-ish (under 30) so there sometimes aren't enough experienced people to facilitate proper follow through and project delivery. This is a general problem with NY design firms not just specific to Rockwell Group.