Pros
The Project Director role is great for someone who has recently graduated from college and needs to build a foundational skill set for business. You will work with big name clients, and get immediate exposure to supplier-client relationships. Your projects will take place across the world, so you will also gain exposure to international relationships, customs, etc. You will learn accountability, organizational skills, time management, and conflict management. You will gain surface knowledge on qualitative market research, but know that you will likely never go to research - you will plan logistics and support recruitment. There are about 1-2 weeks of onboarding and training, and expectations of your role are 100% outlined. Those who are in your role, or work closely with your role, can become great friends. Vacation, holidays, and benefits are good.
Cons
There is little to nothing to motivate you in this role. The role is so underpaid, and odds are that you will never get a bonus. Monthly "recognition" is in place, but it is poorly managed. Management and Sr. Management take all of the client and internal feedback (you're lucky if you get either) and filter what they want to recognize - it's delivered with a sheet of paper, and a treat of "you get to leave 2-hours early one day," but you won't be able to use it. You're also the middle man. If anything goes wrong, everyone points their fingers at you. Is there an opportunity to excel, or do something that you'd like? They tell you "put in the extra time to make the opportunity happen," but that extra time is spent on managing an outrageous project capacity and anything you couldn't get done during the day, and you become burnt out - it's a vicious cycle. Being treated unfairly by management? You're told to be the bigger person, and that senior management will "talk to" the manager that disrespected you. The Ipsos UU office is made up of about 70% of this role - you are all doing the same thing. If you have any skills outside of what they want their Project Managers to be, they will rarely be utilized, and if anything, they will be deflated. Maybe these skills are better suited for a non-operations role? Good luck getting out of this silo of the company. Want a promotion? Try threatening to quit. 20% is middle-management, which gets what you're going through. But beware - some of these managers get it, but want you to go through the hell that they've been through, and some want to make sure you don't go through anything they ever went through. The latter is rare, but you'll see who they are based on how much turnover is on their team. The final 10% is the Senior Leadership Team (SLT), who hears and sees that the company is falling apart but continues to "move forward" like nothing is happening. Turnover has become so bad that it's laughable here, and it's not limited to Project Directors, either. Communication about turnover is even more ridiculous - it rarely happens, and if it does, it's weeks after that desk is noticeably empty, which leaves that event up to gossip.
