Talented coworkers but low pay and high expectations - Landscape Designer Sasaki Employee Review

I had an amazing experience at Sasaki. The office culture was collaborative, respectful, and intellectually generous, with a very horizontal structure that allowed interns to contribute meaningfully. I appreciated the exposure to complex urban design and campus planning projects, the integration between disciplines, and the opportunity to learn from highly experienced designers and principals. Overall, it was a strong professional and learning experience.

Because the internship was relatively short, it sometimes felt like there was limited time to fully follow projects through different phases.

Diverse and talented team, diverse and high profile, high-standard projects,

Junior designers, please lose any illusions you have about this firm, In my opinion, staying here for more than 2 years felt like being exploited systematically. The culture here expects heavy overtime as the norm with no additional compensation. One principal I worked with uses what I would call it gaslighting to create a high-pressure environment just to squeeze out more production. It is an exhausting environment. Also, there is a significant lack of transparency inside the project teams, junior staff are often cut off from site visits and a lot of client communications. Without access to this first-hand information, it is impossible to show vision or leadership in a project, effectively reducing junior designers to mere "drafting tools". This is extremely harmful to your professional growth.