iStrategyLabs Reviews

Anyone with a broad spectrum of experience other agencies or walks of life prior to joining the company was incredibly undervalued. Despite seeming organized and on the cutting-edge, the foundational business practices were not just confusing but couldn't possibly be successful - for instance, there was no actual time tracking so everyone was wildly over or under-allocated and accounts were either wildly over or under-servicing. It was very clear that the executive team didn't have much experience themselves. When I started, vacation days were "unlimited" and employee's were reimbursed up to $2k for insurance OOPs. Those unlimited vacation days was blatantly only a perk for the most tenured employees and no one else. When the health insurance requirements changed, we all took a $2k hit to our compensation packages and despite multiple questions on the matter, the issue was ignored by management. A lot of decisions that impacted the company (like health insurance) were done through Slack voting, which seemed insane. The sale to a holding company was quite disappointing. All of the work is content work. Period. And most big efforts are just opportunities to increase the Creative Director's portfolio, regardless of sound strategy for clients. If you want your entire life (including your social life) to revolve around ISL, you're golden.

ISL’s acquisition by JWT is more a blessing than a curse for a company who has never regarded KPI’s, KLI’s and ROI’s as anything more than tangential numbers. The content that is created is made at the whims of executive team members, hard facts and analytics disregarded. Perhaps the acquisition will also help to root out the nepotism that exists, the middle school Mean Girls environment that has prospered for years, and the upper level management who have an elementary school grasp on digital marketing. Read through a few of management’s bios, the number of years they have spent within the safe confines and cluelessness of ISL should alarm you. I will abbreviate the additional con’s in bullet form so that my post hopefully doesn't get taken down for a 10th time (s/o to people trolling this to report it): -Yearly reviews that favor those who spend time drinking and attending company happy hours -No pay for time worked, paltry salaries as compared to industry averages -Unbearably inept management -No ability to grow or room for promotion within this haphazardly constructed company -Desperate times- leadership now solicits for new business by having employees use personal connections. When asked what incentive employees have, they answer “your job.”