Pros
If you have a good art director in your department (which I had), you eliminate a decent portion of most of the troubles I've seen other Freeze employees had. A good art director will allow for a certain degree of creativity and experimentation with your work, which can be fun. It's an excellent learning experience and, especially having not earned a degree after leaving school, I was quite happy that I got this employment so early after college. If you work with licenses, some of the perks of seeing production works before their public release can be fun. There are benefits and stock purchasing options available, and you get a good hour long lunch break and Jewish holidays off. You also can network with other great creative people here. Nearly everyone I met at this job were fascinating people to know, some I still keep in touch with and follow creatively. For the design department, dresscode is also pretty relaxed. Some people will opt to dress nicely, but my own supervisor often wore ripped jeans and sneakers in the office. I was more buttoned up in appearance when I interviewed than either of my interviewers and completely ditched the button up and blazer combo within half a month of working there. And it's nice to be comfortable when you're at work. If you're in sales or one of the other departments in the showroom area, however, you'll want to dress a little smarter than the artists. I definitely recommend it as a first office job experience for creatives looking to boost their resume and portfolio. Perhaps not for more than that, but it's an okay first industry experience for people leaving college.
Cons
Remember what I said about IF you have a good art director in charge of your department? That's the only way you'll want to work here for more than a year. That or if you actually get promoted or can't find work elsewhere. A couple of the departments had trouble holding onto artists because of how terrible some of the art directors are, either at their job or as a person. Even with a good art director, 80% of this job is copying and pasting with a few effects and text treatment added in. That gets monotonous, so a lot of people come and go frequently. Last I heard, even my spot is still left open a year later. People just don't want to do repetitive work when you're barely making even with a NYC cost of living. Which is the other thing. The starting pay is not great if you're living on your own in NYC. Great if you're living with parents or overstuffing a flat with several friends, but I personally would have to call home for bailouts periodically. One of two paychecks per month would be completely drained after rent was due. Higher ups don't care. They are really restrictive with raises and growth, and don't like people staying late voluntarily to get the work finished on time. Most people show up as much as half an hour late and try to make up for that by staying the extra half hour, but around the time I left, there was talk of how much the bosses up top didn't like it when people from the design department stayed late, regardless if they were tardy or not or if it was to meet a deadline. Even when I stayed late because a sales rep got a request last minute from a client that wanted a specific set of design options made from scratch just an hour before clock out and asking for major changes five minutes before the end of office hours. I think it's their way to avoid having to pay overtime, which I was told upfront is something they don't offer. But working late can be inevitable in many situations with this office, depending on what job you get. They also pulled one of the perks designers get, which was to be able to take home old samples and clothing bodies when they were getting cleaned out of the showroom. These are items that we designed, ones that didn't necessarily get picked up for mass production, and they were going to make us pay the company for our work that they were otherwise just going to throw away. Not donate or recycle. Throw away. Nepotism is a serious problem, too. Sales representatives are the ones pulling in the most money here, picking up commissions and huge bonuses, and a good number of the sales people are related to the CEOs. And remember, artists here don't get commissions, just pats on the back and a note in their file for consideration at the end of the year evaluation when something of theirs sells, or becomes a best selling item. Shortly before I left, someone in sales accidentally emailed the whole office his resume; someone who was known to be the last person to clock in and one of the first to clock out, and reputed as not being particularly great at his job in between. His base salary was six figures. 'Caused a huge wave of resentment in an office that already bad relationship with the higher ups. Last thing is the client buyers. Some are great, but most are terrible and want to just buy the same thing, which contributes to repetition and monotony in this job for designers. Or worse, they can't ever make up their mind on what it is they want from the designers so you'll be making revisions that cut into time for other client projects for months. The one buyer that asked for a specific design to be done an hour before clock out was a frequent headache. Some licenses also try to push for certain designs to be made, but sales people don't want to pitch them to buyers because of how particular those sales people are. (Which is annoying. It's your job to convince them to buy in the first place.) It really can make the job draining.