Pros
Diverse Skillset Development: one of AP’s greatest benefits is that very early in your career, you will be able to develop a well-rounded skillset. Projects are set up such that you will hone your technical skills (e.g Excel, GPSE (AP’s proprietary modeling platform)), presentation skills (e.g. creating PowerPoints, presenting to the client), communication skills (e.g. client contact via emails/handling calls), and more. This is where AP has a leg up over other companies that have a very siloed professional development track (e.g. only Mangers present to the client, only Analysts model, etc.). Strong Growth Opportunities: Not to sound cliche, but with hard work and constant strive to get better, you can accelerate rapidly within the company. Merit-based promotions are common; hard work, successes and accomplishments are celebrated and rewarded via promotions, salary increases and bonuses. This is certainly one of - if not the - strongest attribute of AP. Strong Managers/Senior Management: The majority of managers and senior management truly do care about your professional development and want to ensure that you’re getting the most out of your experience with the company. My previous manager was an amazing manager and really guided me to success across the duration of my career at the company. This is common with many other managers as well; for the most part, they strive to lead by example and guide you to greatness. Pleasant Environment: I don’t think this is necessarily unique to AP as I’m sure there are many other companies who also produce pleasant work environments, but one of the benefits at AP is that people are, for the most part, pleasant to engage with and are willing to help out in any way they can. There isn’t a culture of ‘let me step on your neck to climb to the top of the ladder.’ Merit-Based Organization: Office politics at AP are minimal to non-existent which helps make the career journey at the company enjoyable and stress free. Kissing up to management doesn’t work and certainly doesn’t guarantee you promotions or benefits as it may do at many other companies. The only way to career progression is through working hard, continuously progressing and showing potential over time. This is something that AP should always strive to keep and never lose sight of as the company continues to grow. Casual Work Environment: This may seem like a trivial thing to mention, but the office culture is very lax and chill. You can wear jeans, t-shirts, sneakers, etc. You only dress up business casual when a client is expected to be in the office. Other cool tidbits are listening to music (I’m sure other companies allow this too - but there are some companies that have a strict rule on this), snacks in the kitchen, open office space, etc. Desire for Feedback: AP seems to be receptive to feedback and often engages it employees to provide feedback on how the organization can improve. Not only do they solicit feedback, for the most part they act on it as well.
Cons
Dull/Monotonous/Uninspired Work: To piggy back off the review, "Burn and Churn: An Analytic Partners Anthology”, the work at AP can be boring - particularly the Marketing Mix projects. AP offers other projects such as pricing and attribution. However, with the Marketing Mix projects, it’s easy to get swallowed into a ‘rinse-wash-repeat’ cycle of updating the same project over and over and over again. There are so many times you can keep telling the client to invest in X, or do Y, or change Z. Towards the tail end of my career, I honestly felt uninspired and bored with my projects. Lack of Technical Skill Advancement: I find it troubling that it’s a possibility to work at this company (which is in the field of Marketing/Data Analytics) for multiple years, leave, and only have Excel and PowerPoint skills to show for your experience. As many earlier reviews pointed out, the company as a whole, leverages in-house proprietary modeling software (GPSE). These skills aren’t transferable as the software is exclusive to AP. It’s possible and common to never touch renown technical programs like R, SQL, SAS, Python, etc. And the frustrating thing to add to this is the inconsistency across the organization in regards to the usage of these type of programs. Some people are fortunate enough to be placed on projects (e.g. pricing, MTA) that do require SQL, R, and Python. So you have a segment of the company that is well-versed in these platforms and another segment of the company that doesn’t have any exposure to these platforms. This is certainly AP’s weak point and could potentially hurt the company in the long run if they don’t build a workforce that is well-versed in these essential data analytic software tools. Try Too Hard: The company tries too hard to compensate for the areas in which it lacks. AP will put together countless happy hours and social events in what seems like a distraction from the mundane everyday work and inconsistent employee development in the organization. In addition, there is a light ‘stigma’ for those who choose not to regularly attend these events. Allow individuals to attend - or not attend - these events without questioning them and covertly pressuring them to attend these events. Socializing at work or attending happy hours isn’t built for everyone. Leave it to the people who naturally enjoy it. Compensation and Benefits: This is an area where the company has definitely improved over time, but I do believe still has ample wiggle room to grow - especially with the goal of doubling revenue in the coming years. It would be great to see some of the revenue growth trickle down to the employees, both from base pay and merit-based bonus perspectives. Resources: For the amount of client meetings that take place, the hardware and software are severely lacking. Failing Polycom systems, lack of reliable calling tools, inconsistent client software (e.g. some people use Skype while others use Webex which isn’t as intuitive as Skype) make setting up client meetings an unenjoyable experience. The common thread among these ‘cons’ is that the company is so focused on growing and doubling revenue that it’s losing sight of creating an enriching employee experience. The company would rather you work on a monotonous project and continue to lack critical technical skills in the world of analytics, as long as you can model on their proprietary platform and are one step closer to brining the company to doubling revenue. I think it’s important that AP takes a step back and grow organically and not force growth, because you will eventually lose employee morale and retention with the elements you have to sacrifice in order to achieve such an arbitrary goal.
