Zimmerman Advertising Reviews

Upper management are all brainwashed. Got verbally abused and berated by founder Jordan Zimmerman himself in front of 5 male coworkers until i was dismissed in tears.Oh and pregnant.

I'm sure you've noticed other negative reviews and warnings on here, and maybe you feel like it can be different for you. Maybe you are unemployed or you are so fed up with your current role you want to give Zimmerman a try. Even if those things are true, don't trade a bad hand with another, try your luck with another company. Here's why... At Zimmerman, there are only a few people who have it better than others but in general, this company does not care about you, you will work harder than you've ever worked before and if you do well and if you can handle it, they will ask you to work even harder. "Don't rest in the glory, relentlessly pursue" "You will sleep when you die" so you will relentlessly pursue as you make other people look great, and you will just be another gear in the "machine" and you will get burnt out, with very little payoff. LONG HOURS, NO RESPECT FOR WORK-LIFE BALANCE There are so many ways they try to justify this, it's normalized. Zimmerman has a lot of employees that have been there for so long, you get manipulated into thinking, "well everyone is working hard, so should I, otherwise I will look bad" The most common justifications I've heard are; "This is the industry, everyone works a lot, it's not for everyone" "I used to work every weekend, this is nothing" "Client asked for something, we have to do it" "It's 24/7, Jordan wakes up at 3 am" Zimmerman Advertising usually attracts a certain type of client, a "has been" company, that used to do well, but now they can't afford a fancy New York agency, so they need an experienced company who has enough experience, staff, and reputation, and they can do everything but for less. CLIENT QUALITY AFFECTS YOUR WORK Look at Zimmerman's website case studies, Jamba Juice, Chuck E. Cheese, Michael's. Zimmerman advertising is a company that's so set in its ways, instead of trying to evolve and meet the industry standards when it comes to measuring, performance, strategy, most of its advertising tactics are outdated, cookie-cutter packages that seem valuable compared to their competition because they oversell and under deliver. Usually, they are trying to revive brands/sales, by using price/discount focused campaigns with very little time, budget, and resources, in order to make up for all the lacking budget and resources, they put the burden on employees by overworking them. More clients, more concepts, more ideas, more examples, more edits, more versions, more revisions, more hours with the same amount of people. As they gain more business they only hire more account managers. Usually, ones with no experience are hired straight out of school for 25-30k is better for profitability, but when they lack experience managing client expectations is not possible. They try to keep the clients happy by committing to a lot of requests without much regard to how they will get done. The number of employees that request things to be produced are approximately 3 times the amount of people who can produce them and it's even more challenging when these requests have very little budget, short turnaround, and a lot of layers of internal opinions and approvals. Which results in an overworked creative department with low morale, frustration, disconnect. NO REWARD FOR HARD WORK On top of the organizational reasons why people work a lot, there's no acknowledgment of hard work, or rewards, better working conditions, making up for all the additional time you put in, late nights, weekends, no bonuses, no gifts, no standard raises, no severances, no nothing! Working remotely is frowned upon, no one ever works from home out of fear. When a potential client visits the office, during their office tour, if the social room is looking empty, you might be asked to take a laptop and be an "extra" in a room. Until recently, ( pre-covid ) they used to ask people to show up at 5-6 AM in the morning, wear a T-shirt with the client's name on it, and clap as a client enters the building, just so the c-level management can tell them, "Look! We are 24/7". At Zimmerman, you get paid a 10% below the market salary and the more you work, the wealthier others get, and they don't share the wealth, they don't acknowledge your efforts, they don't enter competitions, your work doesn't get industry recognition. Your only reward for doing well at your job is more work. Same salary, same title, no additional benefits or rewards, if you don't like it, there are others out there who would be happy to take your job. This is a real statement, by the way... Two articles were written about how people are mistreated at Zimmerman advertising. When people expose the things happening at this agency using fishbowl they are tracked down by their writing style. People have been complaining about similar things for years. Not much has changed... Even if you endure everything, seniority doesn't guarantee a promotion. People barely get promoted in their departments. Veterans who have held the senior positions they are in right now have been there forever, and they don't have any other agency to go to, so they are not leaving. They have no incentive to watch out for you or make you become better at what you do, their only incentive is to groom you enough so they interact with you less, and they can go back to their busy schedule. Everyone is so busy trying to keep their head above the water, there's no time for manager-level roles to suggest improvements or any incentive to make things better. If you are fired, laid-off, or resigning, they will just find another person who desperately needs this job. So do yourself a favor, no matter how badly you need a position at Zimmerman, just take a chance on another opportunity, do not let your passion and strength misguide you. A lot of people have said, "I'm great in a lot of ways and things might be different for me". Sure it can be different, looks like a fun challenge from the outside, but that effort of yours is better spent on a company that will appreciate you more, and if you work hard, it's acknowledged, rewarded. Maybe find a company that encourages you to improve yourself, and they are invested in you as much as you are invested in them.