Pros
I'll be honest - ICE is unlike anywhere I've worked before, and that's mostly a very good thing. As a human-centred designer, I came here expecting interesting work. What I didn't expect was how much genuine autonomy I'd have from almost day one. There's no hand-holding here. You're trusted to bring your expertise and get on with it, which for someone like me is exactly what I need to do my best work. The projects are genuinely meaningful. We're not designing widgets or chasing vanity metrics, we're working on behaviour change, public health, NHS systems, community engagement. The kind of work that actually touches people's lives. That keeps you motivated on the hard days. The team is full of people who really care. Not in a corporate wellness programme way, in a "staying late because they believe in what they're doing" way. That energy is infectious if you let it in. Leadership is accessible and genuinely values-led. Stuart in particular wears his heart on his sleeve, which you don't always get in a CEO. The B Corp commitment isn't just a badge, you feel it in how decisions get made. For people who are self-starters, who want to be part of something with a bigger purpose, and who thrive when given responsibility early, this place will stretch and grow you in ways a more structured corporate environment simply wouldn't.
Cons
The pace is real. I won't sugarcoat it. Things move fast, priorities shift, and you need to be comfortable with a degree of organised chaos. If you need rigid structure and a clearly mapped daily activity, you'll probably find it frustrating.The team are storng on reviews, called MDJ's My developmenmt journey and steady increments. Communication around changes could be better, sometimes decisions land without enough context and that creates unnecessary pressure. It's something the organisation is aware of and working on, but it's worth knowing going in. Pay is competitive for a consultancy of this size and mission, but won't match larger corporates. You're trading some of that for purpose, flexibility and variety, whether that trade works for you is a personal call. It did for me.