Pros
Enthusiastic colleagues who share a passion for writing and pop culture. Decent standard of writing and good feedback from editors. My work for WhatCulture helped me get onto the career path I really wanted.
Cons
Dreadful, bullish management by CEO Matt Holmes, who communicated exclusively through Skype text chat, and was overbearing and unfriendly from Day One - sending me negative feedback from editors and insisting that I don't mention anything about it to the editors themselves, calling my work "lousy", and constantly reminding me that he didn't believe I was right for the job. I learned not to take this personally, as most writers in the London office where I worked were subjected to the same treatment. No stability - I was one of several writers hired to work at WhatCulture's new London office in September 2015. One by one I watched most people in the office get sacked for the most tenuous reasons. My turn came in January 2016, when the CEO cited trust issues as the reason for firing me. The CEO seemed to take it on himself to make sure that employees never felt secure in their jobs, presumably believing that this was the way to make employees work harder. Uncertain roles - I applied for the role of Games Writer, but soon after being told I got the job, I was told that if I didn't work 70-80% on the tech section, then "we're wasting our time and this isn't going to work". Upon saying that, he put me on the spot, and demanded that I come up with 10 article ideas there and then to "show him I get what he's looking for". It was incredibly militaristic and stressful, and reflected my experience throughout. Untenable targets - The CEO demanded that I (and most writers, as far as I'm aware) write 10 list articles a week - around 5000-6000 words a day. Having spoken to fellow staff, no one was hitting these mammoth targets, yet when Matt would pick out writers to bully over Skype, he would often cite 'not hitting targets' as the reason (I should stress that last I checked in mid-2016, 4 of the 10 most popular articles in the Gaming section were authored by me, with millions of views between them, and generating continuous 'pay-per-click' revenue for the company).