Pros
Hmmmm, let's see. The office is pretty. If you're new to NY, you'll make friends because the revolving door brings in a lot of new young faces constantly. You *may* get to work some cool events unless one of the executives decide they don't like you and subsequently blacklists you from any and every account through word of mouth.
Cons
Okay, so lets get to the nitty gritty. They will try to tell you this post is from a disgruntled employee and I know this because I too was in your position once. But please trust me when I say, I only write this to help you. I too was reading Glassdoor reviews of Rubenstein, trying to balance the pros from the cons and decide if a company could really be THAT bad. I, unlike you (I hope), took that chance and man oh man if I could take it back I would! Let me first start by saying that my experience was that of an account coordinator. I'll only be speaking from that point of view as that is the position I can give the most insight on. So with that being said, I'm sure the term coordinator makes you think a junior level staffer who will be supporting the overall efforts of the team. Correct? No, no, no, no, no. *Get Out voice* You are an assistant. Meaning you are seen but not heard. You will answer calls and set up meetings with coffee and tea. You'll work on the occasional media list and do many many coverage reports (with no direction by the way) but mostly your job will be administrative. The executives won't trust you to do anything meaningful and you will often hear them talking about you behind your back as Rubenstein thrives on a gossipy culture. You will tell yourself if I just work hard and show that I'm eager to learn, then maybe things will change. Sigh, if only. The culture is set up for coordinators to be disposable. In my own interview, HR basically told me in so many words "hey this may be your first job, but it doesn't have to be your last one!" I should've known from that statement alone that this wasn't a company looking to grow its junior staff. But hey, fresh out of college you easily make mistakes and you miss those signs. It also doesn't hurt that Rubenstein banks on eager recent graduates who don't know better. Besides the constant gossiping and the very clear separation of coordinators from the rest of the executive staff (almost like being in a weird professional caste system), the way HR is run is scary. You will often hear coordinators discussing amongst themselves who they can trust in HR and who they can't. CRAZY, right? You may tell them them your manager cursed at you, that they overwork you or even ask you to do things that are entirely out of your job description (i.e fetching an executive water whenever they need it or picking up laundry) and they will listen. I'll at least give them that. But they will do absolutely nothing to resolve the issue. To be honest, sometimes I felt that telling HR my grievances only made my situation worse. They were very manipulative and I often felt completely at a loss and on my own. Because of this, it was not uncommon to find new coordinators crying in the bathroom from being mistreated by senior staff. The more seasoned coordinators would often offer a shoulder to cry on during these times and tell the newbies that they too were once in their position and not to take it personal. It also wasn't uncommon for coordinators to get together and discuss when they hoped to "escape" Rubenstein. You could go up to any coordinator on any team and ask "when do you hope to leave?" and they wouldn't hesitate to describe to you in great detail their plans of getting out. No need to clarify or provide context on what you meant by the question because that's all you think about when you work at this job. This is how bad it was and most likely still is. I kid you not. In terms of compensation, I don't feel that I need to touch on the salary because I'm sure you've read some of the other reviews. So I'll just say yes. They were telling the truth. It's abysmal. Also, promotions? LOL. That's a one in a million situation right there. I'm not writing this because I'm angry. I've since moved on and work in an environment where I feel that I am valued. Honestly, I appreciate it all the more because of how I was treated at Rubenstein. So, I guess I can thank them for that. I just want the same for whoever is reading this right now. This company will not value you. They will use you until you reach your breaking point and leave. It's a shame because they have the potential to be a hub for cultivating great young talent in the PR profession. But somewhere along the way, it seems the company got cocky and maybe even lazy, deciding that they didn't need to focus on retaining their staff. Maybe they felt they could survive from the name alone but times are a-changing and now they are left with extreme turnover rates. I was literally going to goodbye happy hours at least once or twice a month before I left. No joke. So please, heed my warning. You are worth so much more than what this company has to offer. I promise. I truly hope you take my words into consideration.
