Insane workload. They expect you to work two jobs (field coordinator and PM) but barely offer enough compensation to cover one job. Everyone I knew at Ipsos was extremely overworked, and as a result all our studies end up providing sloppy research. There were simply not enough hours in the work day to do both jobs for multiple studies. Terrible work/life balance. Because of the workload, you have to pull double and triple shifts to get studies out the door. They'll make it seem like you have a decent amount of PTO, but you are expected to still be "available" on those days (meaning your manager will call your cell repeatedly until you pick up). You'll also be expected to work on weekends, nights, and holidays. And you are not compensated at all for your overtime. A good PTO package doesn't mean anything if you're not actually allowed to take a break. The programs they use are old, difficult to navigate, and extremely slow. That's another reason the workload was so difficult -- every single project requires that you use 5 different difficult programs for the sake of "organization", which might make things easier on management, but makes it nearly impossible for entry-level employees. Not a healthy work environment. There's very little transparency, and there's very little trust in one another. Everyone at Ipsos plays the "blame game" -- when we'd run into a problem with a study (which would happen with pretty much every study), the immediate question would be "what did this person do wrong" rather than "how can we work together to fix this." As the PM, I would get blamed for things that I had no control over, and I was expected to turn around and place the blame on the coders/script writers (who are even MORE overworked). As a result, you don't have productive or positive relationships with your coworkers, and instead just end up resentful of one another. Like I mentioned earlier, the quality of studies we produce isn't very good either, so it's difficult to be proud of the work you do. And, as a PM, you never even get to see how the studies work out or what the client thinks of them. After working 70 hour weeks, it's really difficult to have nothing to show for it. TLDR; you can find someplace better to work. This place will give you decent connections, but it will work you to the bone. You'll be emotionally and physically exhausted, and won't feel proud of your work.
