Pros
Starting as a complete novice in the business development industry it can help to give you some basic knowledge on how to do aspects of the job. However it really only focuses on lead generation and nothing past that in the process. Regular socials, but heavy drinking culture. The people, but turnover is so insanely high that they won’t be around for long.
Cons
Limited scope of the business development/new business process, the job focuses solely on lead generation for agencies at which point you hand over leads to your agency to continue the process. Can be monotonous if you don’t enjoy a sales/target-driven role, and I don’t think there is much to be learned beyond a year in the role. Pay is well below the industry standard and senior management have no interest in addressing it. At one point this was going to be addressed by moving the company to an employee-owned model where all employees would own shares in the company and receive financial benefit this way, but this never happened and the company was instead sold to a competitor. Turnover is atrocious and completely unsustainable, with roughly 4 people leaving the company each month during my time here. This takes it’s toll on overall company morale, as well as the team having to train new people each month (while doing the AM job), and management having to constantly explain to their agencies why they have no consistent AM on their account. Management doesn’t seem to take an interest when team members are clearly struggling, letting great team members leave and only offering solutions when it’s too little, too late. As other reviews have mentioned there is an ‘inner circle’ that has developed and it does make people feel left out if they’re not included. Management meetings are not productive and feel more like an opportunity to complain about your AMs rather than an opportunity for constructive solutions.