Pros
-Many great people have joined the company, though most of them have come and gone pretty quickly - Access to big-name brands as clients whose internal teams are generally wonderful -(semi-pro) I like to think that the people with the most power at Paradigm are not intentionally malicious. They try their best. But they are naïve and highly lacking in self-awareness. And in this work, that is extremely harmful and often, toxic.
Cons
There were so many, but my top 2: - Paradigm’s commitment to DEI is superficial at best, opportunistic at worst. So if you care about DEI in any deep or personal way, you will experience acute disappointment if you work here. For example, for all the pride and self-congratulation leaders express about having an all-female-identifying, somewhat racially diverse leadership team, they seem to embrace and assert and institutionalize many patriarchal and white supremacist values and ideas (examples: perfectionism, defensiveness, efficiency over quality, worship of “objectivity” and ivory tower “expertise,” fear of open conflict, scapegoating folks who cause discomfort to those in power, etc.). Seeing Paradigm capitalize on the current #BLM protests and post-COVID revival of corporate awareness of DEI without acknowledging their mixed/dismal track record is the ugliest manifestation of this. Basically, the practice vs. preach gap is unacceptably huge. This is a classic case of "those who can't do, teach." It shouldn't be allowed in this field. There are several other DEI consultancies that work much harder to walk the walk, not just talk the talk. I’d recommend checking them out instead. - Leadership made many promises and statements that were immediately contradicted by actions or words in a different forum. Like, you might be told there is a policy that applies to everyone and later you’ll find out that someone who is a favorite of the leadership team is an exception to that policy. And these kinds of discrepancies are never publicly acknowledged. Or they are explained away as part of “start-up changes” or some other story that doesn’t make sense. In my time here, decision-making transparency and consistency were serious, ongoing problems. It made it extremely hard to trust that anyone steering the company was doing it with integrity. Given how deeply these issues ran while I was at Paradigm... and I still hear stuff through the grapevine...I can't imagine that things are magically different or better now. Spare yourself the misery of working for this company. Or, if you do choose to join, make sure you reach out to alumni for a fuller picture.
