Good place to start career, then leave - Anonymous employee ICON Employee Review

2.0
Jun 9, 2016
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

-Principals really care about their employees and work hard to create a good work environment. -The work is fast-paced and interesting. You have the opportunity to get experience in a range of projects and therapeutic areas. -Great colleagues who work hard to produce quality deliverables. -Flexible schedules and ability to work from home. -Promotions come quickly but for reasons that are cons, in both senses of the word.

Cons

-ICON's big solution to its problems is to restructure top level management constantly, leading to a rotating cast of global heads and VPs who don't stay in positions long enough to accomplish anything substantial or follow through on commitments. -Pay is well below market and ICON has avoided benchmarking its employees' salaries for years, yet constantly maintains they care about retention. -Turnover is astronomical, resulting in a situation where current employees are constantly getting more work dumped on them from colleagues who have quit. -Performance reviews center on unattainable metrics and scores are compressed into a limited range in order to justify laughably small (i.e. below inflation) annual raises and bonuses. - Promotion-based salary increases are small and, by internal rules, make the promoted employee ineligible for any other raises during the next 6 months. Managers appear to time promotions to take advantage of this loophole to deny annual and department-wide raises.

Explore other reviews about ICON

5.0
Jun 4, 2026
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Great work culture. Really nice management

Cons

It's hard to move up in the career ladder from within.

3.0
Jun 2, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Decent benefits and remote work.

Cons

Management. Also most days it felt like I was just another number.

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