FMCG has built up a culture that prides itself on recruiting new grads straight out of college. And for the vast majority of its current employees, this has been the birthplace of their professional careers. The company knows this, and uses this to its advantage at every opportunity it gets. That's why you get drawn in. That's why you stick around. That's why you slowly start telling yourself that this is normal, paying less attention to the fact that your sanity and emotional well-being will continue taking a backseat to the needs of the company.
You will be made to feel as if everything is on fire. You will come in early. You will run the same processes you've always run. You will do this on the same datasets you've always worked with. It will take the same time to execute this. Again. And again. And again. You will take a break for lunch in the cafeteria. Someone will ask you where your work is. You will feel guilty about not eating at your desk. You will sit back down in front of your monitors. You will wait for things to run. You will watch others leave the office. You will stay. You will order dinner. You will eat at your desk. You will wait. And you will wait. And you will wait. And when it's finally late enough, you will head home.
Writing short, simple sentences is easy. It's comfortable because we don't need to think much - the formula is already built out. You combine a subject, a verb, and maybe even an object, and you're following a timeless rule that steers you to some desired goal - in this case, communication. But it becomes excruciating, especially in an environment that doesn't provide the support or mentorship for you to pursue anything beyond that small box.
There's no doubt that this company was once a titan in the industry, operating and competing against similar consulting firms that were tenfold its size. And while they've tried to shift its once-appropriate culture and line of work from a traditional finance amalgam to a more modern one, many of these changes have been in name and title only.
Regardless of how they may explain an analyst role, at the end of the day, the work itself quickly becomes stale, and the breadth of technical skills you ultimately develop is non-existent. The emphasis on current deliverables far outweighs any other professional development initiatives you may want to undertake, and the overall conservative nature of the company makes it nearly impossible to take any real risk in changing the old formula. It's comfortable to do the same things that have worked in the past, but quickly paves the way to a dangerous complacency in both company trajectory and employee motivation.
Focusing on the latter, it's impossible to thrive in a workplace where you're forced to maintain face time to prove your worth as an employee. This is a common formality in roles like banking and trading where analyst classes have tens or hundreds of people, but has no place in a small company that strives to modernize itself to adapt to this century. People here love talking about the flat org structure, but practices like these only alienate analysts from their managers. This results in an innate aversion to speaking out, leading to a lack of honest upwards feedback and perpetuating what is, at its core, a toxic work environment.
In order to move up the ladder, you're expected to perform in your day-to-day, but are also tasked with moving the business along. While not uncommon in smaller firms to wear many hats, FMCG does not provide the support that its employees need to be able to drive these conversations and carry out these roles successfully. Micromanagement runs rampant, and an overall lack of transparency vertically and laterally makes it difficult to contribute meaningfully without it feeling like you're fighting with your hands tied behind your back. Healthy work relationships involve effort from both analysts and their managers. While the analyst drives the car and steers the wheel, their managers should be looking at a map and navigating around roadblocks. Here, you're left to fend for yourself, juggling additional responsibilities that they market as "opportunities", when in reality can only do more harm than good.
This is probably not the role you're looking for.