Pros
If you do not much have experience and looking to get your career started in Accounting/Insurance, it is relatively easy to enter and you can get some relevant experience. The company is growing rapidly so theres also a lot of opportunity to move up into a Team Leader role, even as soon as one year after joining. If you are really looking to make an impact and take charge in regards to managing people and bettering processes, you can do this with relative ease (the bigger places I had worked at previously made change feel impossible). If you are looking to start/further a career in Group Insurance in particular, it is good as you will be working with many of the major companies in the field and you can get to know the ins and outs, as well as make connections. The best thing by far for me was definitely the team mates and friends I made. Owing to the fact that it is a small office (everyone knows each other on a first name basis) and because they still require 5-days in the office, you will definitely get to know everyone well. There's a lot of recent grads and it's easy enough to organize events with people to get to know them. On the individual level, most people are really nice, friendly and thoughtful. (just introverted) Overall, its a relatively introverted office though so if you don't care for the above, it's also easy to just do the work and not need to participate in too much either. It's really up to you. The work itself is straight forward enough (just tedious and repetitive). The coffee shop downstairs that you will get free coffee from is also great and the owners are absolutely top people! I definitely do not regret my time here at all (6 months) but wouldn't have wanted to go any further than that personally.
Cons
My account will of course be bias so take it with a grain of salt. - The working model is extremely outdated. For a start, 5-days in the office for no good reason when it would be absolutely possible to do hybrid or WFH. You will also need to wear business attire Mon - Thurs and you will definitely be expected to be present 8:30 am- 5pm. (also questionable whether this is necessary). This is a company that would have been relatively modern in the 90's (subsidized gym membership! Casual Fridays! free coffee downstairs and fruit in the kitchen!), but for 2023 doesn't really cut it. You will find that commuting will take up a lot of your time. - This office has a high number of international people on Visas (particularly at the bottom of the company). There's absolutely no problem with that in itself ( my closest co-workers were on visas) but it does lead itself to a culture of compliance and not really questioning why we continue to work in certain ways (as people are more focused on getting their PR etc) and do not want to rock the boat. It is obvious that they cannot attract local talent with the current work styles and pay levels. - Overtime is quite common. No one will get angry at you for leaving at 5 on the dot (and there are people who do), but you will definitely be silently judged for it. - The pay is definitely lower for what you could get elsewhere (and especially when you consider how much time coming in everyday, getting everything ready etc). - Training will really depend on your team and team leader. There was no particular training program in place when I was there so whoever your Team Leader is will be entirely responsible for training you. Some TL's are very good (Ian) and the team is supportive (AIA and Integrity) . Others, not so much. I was unlucky enough to be trained by someone who was far too busy and missed a lot of crucial steps in my training (and then later proceeded to gaslight me into me believing it was my fault). It's definitely a game of Roulette as to how your training will go. - There are two people in management who are particularly unprofessional and who have absolutely ridiculous expectations of what you should be able to achieve (T & H). Are you perfect? Unless your immediate answer is Yes, then they will have a problem with you. Unfortunately, because it is still a small company (although becoming big), they act in ways which would definitely not be acceptable in larger organizations.