Great company with ample opportunities and dedication to career development
Pros
I started my career at Vision Critical, which ultimately became Maru/Matchbox and worked there for 3.5 years. Maru/Matchbox offered a wide range of different marketing research solutions in both quantitative and qualitative research. I also had the opportunity to work on a multitude of different clients and industries including consumer-packaged goods, travel, media and entertainment, and tech. I had great managers that taught my valuable lessons in client service and overall business best practices, which I've utilized throughout my career beyond Maru/Matchbox. My favorite manager throughout my career still currently works there. For me, the people made Maru/Matchbox very special and a great atmosphere. The office I worked in (Chicago), had a great open space in the loop, with a beer fridge and great office building amenities (fitness room, catered food, rooftop overlooking the Chicago River). Pros Recap: -People -Office space/environment -Client (Fortune 500 companies) -Unique solutions and great client delieverables
Cons
Being a medium/large sized company, change is hard and sometimes strenuous when being implemented. There was a lot of change, ultimately for the good, back in 2016. In 2016 the company underwent a lot of changes and the research department (Vision Critical at the time) spun-off into a new entity called Maru/Matchbox. It was an exciting time, but with this change there were a lot of shifts in roles and leaders, which ended up frustrating people. Maru/Matchbox was venture-back and was acquiring research practices as well as looking to build their own new research tools which added more tools to the tool kit but added more question marks about the company's mission. Also during this time, one of the founding members and most motivating professional I've ever worked with separated ties with the company, which was tough for myself and a lot of other people. In 2018/2019 - the mission statement was slightly revised and is now the company's main mission statement today. I think a lot of the negative reviews from others come from these years when Maru/Matchbox was first starting off, since there was so much change but this has settled drastically since then. One thing you'll notice is that there are a lot of people with long tenure at Maru/Matchbox which was always a positive sign for me. Cons Recap: -Medium to large (depending on the person) -Lot of change in the company from 2016-2018
