big ideas, mergers, pet projects, and employees come and go with fervor. egos stay forever.
Pros
i give p+b 3 stars because of one huge silver lining: if you can stick around and work until it hurts and don't expect many praises in return, you can learn an incredible amount here. this company would like to be a launching pad for startups but it really seems to be a launching pad for its own employees to go on to bigger, better things once they can't take the environment any longer. coworker relations are the best you will find--a band of brothers in the trenches in diverse fields being hounded to "innovate" in a working environment that allots nowhere near the amount of time, or money, or explorative freedom needed to execute these big ideas. put an overworked group of creative and entrepreneurial minds together in an office environment that favors manipulation and brand image smoke screens over actual client care and program focus, and i guess that's what you get: good friends, good ideas, limited means to feel satisfied in your work. do it while you can, and leave as soon as you can't. your resume will rock. plus leadership is spendy, so that makes for some nice perks.
Cons
leadership unable to get out of their own way. after employee turnover hit double digits (in a company hovering around 25 people total) junior level staff were performing tasks once managed by partners, while ownership was traveling frequently, returning out of touch with the workings of the company, and proclaiming grossly misguided new strategies with little to no room for debate (e.g.-- redistributing accounts like the dutch dividing africa) restructuring of accounts was frequent, and new client leads were often learning as they went with no senior figure to guide them. employees who had quit and left the company were still referred to as account leads for as long as 6 months, maybe more. the entire staff had to squirm around questions regarding these people's availability in order to keep up the facade of a competent business. even on the website now, multiple employees listed have been gone from the company for months. despite the clear need for a new guard of senior level employees, they kept hiring junior associates and left them to fumble through, in some cases filing roles wholly unrelated to their background or original job description. multiple attempted mergers failed to fill the void, forming and dissolving in a matter of months. but again... silver lining. you will learn to solve your own problems, interface with people from a diverse set of backgrounds, and walk away with a valuable set of anecdotes for your next interview. nyc beware: despite a huge discrepancy in performance quotas, expect to jump in on day-to-day tactical execution, set up meetings, and pass on business leads to LA without thanks. continue to question why this is happening ad nauseam. repeat as needed for all new process guidelines, brand message shifts, and office relocations. collect all employee exit letters, to be read upon induction into the alumni club.