Good place to start your career but too many internal issues to go the distance.
Pros
As the title alludes to, Hunt Adkins is a great place to get your foot in the door if you want to get into advertising. They place a lot of faith in their young talent, which allows them to grow quickly and often into full time roles. The space itself is beautiful. If you're looking for something funky and quirky, their open floor plan overlooking Hennepin Avenue lends itself to some great views. Entry and mid level coworkers are great, or at least were. There's a sense of camaraderie amongst the ones who carry out the day to day tasks, which will build some really strong relationships. HA can certainly convince talented people to join their ranks.
Cons
To continue on young talent, HA does invest heavily in the interns, but there are caveats that come with that. The first, there's no real support. Most employees are "too busy" for proper training so it's a sink or swim environment. That works for some, but not all. Second, the micromanagement of what little time is actually spent with a superior is borderline ridiculous. Coaching and micromanaging are synonymous at HA, which can be very hard to actually learn from. Finally, the pay is brutal. If you're just getting started in advertising and want a job at HA, expect to keep that second job until you make Account Executive 5 years down the road. In regards to work-life balance, there hardly is any. If you have a family, significant other, even a dog, don't expect to see them much. Yes there are days where you'll put in 12 hours easy, but that may not be because work is there. Face time is a necessity to get ahead. For benefits, you're almost better off getting your own insurance or latching onto someone else's. Salary is definitely on the low end for all positions so do your research when negotiating. The biggest hurdle of them all, however, is the management. The agency is run by a selective clique that can make life a breeze or a nightmare. Breaking into the clique happens when you follow orders, do as the clients say, and put in the hours (necessary or not). This culture builds fear within the agency, and not the fear of failing, but getting openly berated by one of these players. As a collective, they're opinionated, egotistical, and irrational, which inhibits any form of collaboration as an agency across new business, creative concepting, account management, etc. These attributes live in all agencies, however when there are 20-30 employees at any given time, these issues have to be put aside to create executions the client and agency can both be proud of.