Pros
They recently renovated their office. It's definitely a step up from the dungeon-like vibes it had before. I guess they thought if they made the place look a bit less depressing, we'd forget about that little voice in our heads that constantly screams, "Run for your life!"
Cons
Boy, where do I start. This is going to be a lengthy one so please, bear with me. 1) Onboarding & training - Brace yourself for an absolutely disastrous onboarding experience at Ipsos. It was a complete and utter mess, with the HR team demonstrating incompetence in coordinating and communicating effectively. Just to give you a taste of their disorganization, on my first day, I was instructed to spend the entire 8 hours in the office. However, I ended up being there for a mere 20 minutes to set up my laptop before being swiftly asked to leave because my boss and the entire team “forgot” that I was joining that day and all of them weren’t in the office. Talk about a stellar first impression, right? As for the training, save yourself the trouble of going through their materials. It's nothing more than a collection of pointless videos that offer zero practical knowledge. It's all theory with no real-world application, completely disregarding the fact that our line of work relies heavily on experiential learning. For a grueling three weeks, I was forced to sit through these useless videos instead of receiving proper guidance from a team member on how things actually work and how to get tasks accomplished. Once I was finally thrown into projects, I was left to fend for myself without any form of guidance. I had to navigate their bajillion archaic systems, with their outdated policies and processes, all on my own. It's a sink-or-swim situation, and you're left to figure it out without any real support. 2) Leadership & management - It's extremely evident that the leadership at Ipsos is sorely lacking in qualifications and basic leadership skills. Most of the managers hold their positions solely based on tenure, not competence. Shockingly, these so-called "big bosses" lack even a fundamental understanding of the basic processes carried out by their own teams. When issues arise and we turn to them for support, they prove to be utterly useless, as they are clueless about how things actually get done. My department is a huge team that consists of multiple subdivisions. Upon joining the firm, I was told to support subdivision A. As I was learning the ropes and getting more involved in projects, I was approached to support subdivision B at the same time. Essentially, I was expected to handle the workload of two people, working on unrelated projects across different subdivisions. And no, there was no pay raise or any form of incentives for this added responsibility. When my department had some restructuring, it took me a whole month to know who my new manager would be. I kept asking the big bosses, but none of them could give me an answer for some reason. My department is overwhelmingly top-heavy, with only 1 junior researcher, 2 senior researchers, and a staggering 17 managers, senior managers, and research directors. It's baffling why they continue to bring in and promote individuals to managerial roles when we don't even have enough junior-level staff to handle the actual groundwork. 3) Salary - Ipsos is cheap and they shamelessly exploit and underpay their employees, treating them as mere numbers rather than individuals. Although I left the firm within a year and didn't personally experience their annual increments and bonuses, but, I have been told by my colleagues that they amounted to very little. Ipsos rather brings in expats from other countries (India) just so they can avoid paying market rate salaries to Malaysians (no hate to expats working in Malaysia btw, this is just a very prominent observation I have had whilst working at Ipsos). I say this because in my department, all research directors except one are expats. In one of the subdivisions I work in, it's just a small team of 3 people - I was the sole Malaysian. The manager who joined after me in this subdivision isn't even based in Malaysia, but works remotely from a different time zone. Once I handed in my resignation, I was told that they were actively seeking candidates to replace me, specifically considering non-Malaysian applicants. Just goes to show that Ipsos will go to great lengths to evade hiring Malaysians and paying them fair market rates. 4) They also make it really difficult to leave the firm. Once I handed in my resignation, my boss persistently urged me to reconsider and withdraw it, up until during my final week at Ipsos. While it's understandable to ask once or twice, continuing to push after I've clearly expressed my decision is not only extremely frustrating but also outright rude. There are numerous other cons that could be added to this list, but then I might as well write a novel. If you're contemplating joining this firm, I strongly advise reading the other reviews on Glassdoor and carefully considering your decision. The stress, burnout, and emotional exhaustion that come with working here simply isn’t worth it.