Gensler Reviews

Pros

Top tier company; excellent management; benefits of being a small office with large, global support network; great community culture and amazing colleagues to work with; recognition of talent and hard work with great opportunities for advancement.

Cons

There are no major cons.

Pros

Many of the projects are very good, and fun to work on. Everyone is very accessible and most are easy to work with. The studio system means you work with a smaller group of people while having the resources of a very large firm, and Gensler treats their employees well.

Cons

Unless you are very lucky, very loud, or VERY motivated, Gensler does not do a great job at recognizing, rewarding, or developing talent, even though they make all the right noises. Unless you are one of the chosen favorites in a studio, you won't have the opportunities to work on the great projects or in the areas you want to work in. I watched many, many people get passed over for promotions to some young gun who hosted an office movie night or something, even if their credentials - seniority, licensure, client recommendations, etc. - were much higher. This is a firm that comforts you into thinking they're different, but acts like every other corporation. It's a good place to work if you go in with your eyes open.

Pros

World class talent, business expertise, client experience.

Cons

A corporation that values bottom-line over design and people. Toxic, narcissistic managerial practices are encouraged and promoted because this kind of leadership allows for the manipulation of people into working for free. This is why the company touts being a billion-dollar company (a large profit margin when all are working overtime for free and don't share it back with non-principal employees), while many employees get low bonuses and salaries. Patriarchial and white supremacy is blatantly visible at all leadership levels with a few token minorities to promote "diversity" -- see instagram account @blackatgensler. I have only seen white, blonde and token asians as "star designers", even principal's children abusing their privilege of being promoted quickly, meanwhile the rest of the employees (including minorities) had to "wait their turn" to be recognized as associates. Systemic racism and misogynism are very well in place, visible, and hard to disrupt.

Pros

A lot of resources and tools to continue growth and learning in the field. Also to help get those deliverables out efficiently and on the fly

Cons

Very top heavy. Promotes toxic competitive me culture. Profit comes before employees. This means a lot of low fee contracts and squeezing free hours out of the employees. Salary’s are average but only if you include the annual bonus. The final disappointment was how they handled the covid global pandemic crisis. The ship was sinking and projects were being canceled left and right. Gensler was quick to cut employees free with no health insurance, no warning, little help with unemployment resources and zero transparency. It was brutal and felt sociopathic. While most tech companies, even small ones were handling the ongoing crisis with care, Gensler had no problem kicking their long-term dedicated employees to the curb in an unbelievably non-human way. You can tell a well managed company from a poorly managed one on how they operate during a crisis and Gensler failed miserably.

Pros

Excellent work culture and great workplace

Cons

I didn't encounter any downside