Design with a side of programming - Director of Technology Upstatement Employee Review

As an Interaction Design Apprentice at Upstatement, I had an amazing experience working with a talented, supportive, and collaborative team. The mentorship was top-notch, and I felt valued while gaining hands-on experience with real client work. The culture fosters creativity, growth, and autonomy, making it an ideal place to learn and thrive as a designer. Highly recommend!

The projects and clients can be challenging as the standards are very high, but it’s a great environment to push yourself and grow.

While it might be cliche, the caliber of people at Upstatement is a huge draw. Every single person is thoughtful, engaged, self-aware, kind, and doing their best. The agency has an impressive client list, "no jerks" client policy, commitment to work-life balance. Great place to contribute to the craft of building a business, with ample opportunity to provide feedback and pilot new ideas.

The company has grown substantially and is actively working on building out operational support for employees generally and project teams specifically. Senior leadership is stretched across creative and operational work, so the pace of change + improvement can be slower than the timeline an employee might hope for. Diversity across race, gender, and sexuality at senior levels has a lot of room for improvement. Because employees tend to stay here a long time, most diversity increases happen through growth rather than turnover, which slows the rate at which the company broadens its representation and perspectives.