1. The job descriptions and interviews paint the picture of an interesting, creative work with modern solutions, etc, etc, you've read it many times. Then it turns out you were hired to do file juggling and data entry.
2. The entire mindset is built around a perception of working a lot, instead of working hard, smart and efficient. Pretty much everyone is expected to do lots of unpaid overtime and depending on your team/manager it can vary from pressure on the calls/meetings to open mobbing.
3. As long as you sit a lot at work you will be "fine". If you're someone who likes to organize their work to do a lot in a shorter amount of time then you will be constantly berated and compared unfavorably to people who do worse than you, but spend more time in the office. If you show data supporting that you, in fact, do more you will hear "I don't care".
4. You are routinely asked to clean up the mess after people who can't do their job properly, then you don't hear "thank you" from anyone and are compared unfavorably to the person you are cleaning after because see point 3.
5. Everyone is speaking about showing ownership. How this works in practice: when some unusual or ad-hoc request comes in, one of the managers will reply "I got this!" to everyone, then will forward the request to you or one of your co-workers through an email saying "handle this". You will see this time and time again.
6. Ridiculous amount of micromanagement for no reason nor gain. Even if there was a reason for it, it's done in a completely ineffective manner.
7. On the topic of management and managers... I don't think there's need to add anything, just read other reviews. Whatever bad experience you had or whatever bad stories you've heard I'm willing to bet these guys will manage to beat it.
8. Lots of blame shifting, gossip and similar stuff. People will routinely tell on you when you share your honest thoughts with them. Different departments dislike each other by default and so on. Admittedly, this happens at pretty much every bigger company, but it's on a completely different scale here.
9. Nepotism before professionalism. Very immature communication in general. I guess it's down to the fact that many "managers" here are inexperienced postgraduates, but that doesn't change anything.
10. Stone age tech-wise. From the hardware you work on, through the tools you use every day, up to means of communication. If you worked at any half-modern company then moving here will feel like someone took you from a 5-star hotel and put in a straw hut in a middle of nowhere.
11. You will be "trained" in turning on your pc and answering emails (I wish I was kidding), but when you have an actual question then your best, and only, bet is chatting up you colleagues until you find someone who knows the answer and is willing to share it. There's a good chance that no one knows it, though.
12. If you don't work from US/UK office then be aware that this company does their best to not respect local employment laws and regulations. You have to quarrel and fight for something that you have a right to and the next time it happens again despite the fact that you're discussing exactly the same case with exactly the same people.
13. Silly inflation of job titles. You can be an "executive" after a year, doing exactly the same, simple job you were doing at the beginning. You can meet "directors" who are just forwarding the files to/from translators.
