Pros
- Junior employees can expect fast-paced, hard-hitting, real-deal agency work. - Some employees are genuinely wonderful coworkers who become friends. - "Lunch and learns" and similar development sessions were usually worthwhile. - Conferences and events were fun. - There were frequent free food opportunities (lunches, Friday morning donuts, etc.).
Cons
- I'm writing this review because I believe it should be public knowledge this company hosts a (totally voluntary) prayer at the beginning of most staff meetings. Evangelical Christianity is a dominating thread woven throughout the organization, by design. Despite numerous attempts to push back and establish a more inclusive workplace for all, when I left, nothing had changed. As an example: on a company retreat, a co-founder gave a speech encouraging all members of the team to consider "Who you are, but more importantly, WHOSE you are." I hid in the bathroom for a significant time after that. - Shortly after leaving the company I received a call from a co-founder accusing me of writing another of the scathing reviews posted here. Only halfway through that call did she realize it was just another disgruntled former employee, not me. - Internships here are unpaid and intensive. Sure, this is an opportunity to gain valuable on-the-job experience, but it effectively edges out any premium candidates who can't afford to donate their labor for free. As the internship program is the surest foot in the door here, it's no surprise the organization has a longstanding diversity problem - one I repeatedly addressed to leadership. I will say, in my time since leaving it seems there has been some genuine investment in this area, but I suspect little has changed and these moves were most certainly reactionary given last summer's wave of social reckoning. - Though there were members of the team, even in leadership positions, who did genuinely wish for things to improve, many, many excuses were made as to why nothing could. Generally along the lines of "we're a growing business" "we are trying our best" "we don't have time or money to invest in x, y, or x because we're focused on keeping the ship afloat" etc. - The pay was substandard. Not on par with similar agencies of their size, and inconsistent between team members with similar backgrounds and experiences. - Leaders within the organization would often step into client work only to "put out fires" which led to distrust, confusion, and demoralization. - There was an absolutely startling lack of boundaries between professional and personal conversations. I could give a million examples, but as the most striking were between friends of mine and senior leadership, I won't tell others' stories out of respect for their privacy. - I waited 2 years to write this out of fear if that tells you anything about the points made above.