Employees under-appreciated, constant unpaid overtime, feels like exploitation.
Pros
Great coworkers- I've made true friends here. Everyone is very capable. Great external vendors (linguists), and a nice view from the office windows. Health, dental, vision insurance. Seems to be an OK salary for a just-graduated young person looking to move to New York (but beware...see below regarding salary) The company will re-imburse dinner eaten at the office after 8pm and taxi rides after 9pm (which will occur often).
Cons
A lot. I will try to be objective. #1) HR has a strict policy against references of any sort, beyond your salary, main tasks, and dates of employment. This, along with the general long hours, will make it difficult to secure a new job while being employed here. #2) Due to unbelievable turnover rates, this company feels constantly understaffed. Constant need to work 12+ hour days just to keep up (not get ahead). Sometimes need to come in during the weekend just to catch up and stay on track. There is a cycle of understaffing because there is little time to actively seek candidates. #3) Sales teams out of sync with production teams, which results in many unrealistic projects that will require more time and energy than you have as one human. #4) Outdated technologies and ill-working platforms make each task more time-consuming. Email is constantly being clogged due to tiny memory space (frequently need to spend 30 minutes clearing emails just to be able to reply and send mail). SALARY: Start at 40k as a trainee, increasing to 43k after about 3-4 months. This is on the low side in a city like NYC, but still passable. HOWEVER- given the extreme work hours, you end up making between $11-$15/hour (even before taxes and insurance items are taken out). OVERALL: The company seems to be largely based on catching bright, young, capable individuals before they have found their footing in the currently tough job market. No work-life balance. Don't expect to be able to make plans before 7 or 8pm and keep them. Burnout will happen. A colleague who has received their first promotion recently did not get what was expected (this person consistently worked 12+ hour days, and took very little vacation time thus far). Hard work not necessarily rewarded... From my experience, the only ones who have stayed on for over 1 or 2 years have never been with another company/industry. Staying here long enough, people may forget that the time and sweat spent here are sunk costs- and are determined to make it work here. This is both admirable and tragic because these hardworking people would do so well elsewhere. My advice is- this is an adequate opportunity to move to NYC and learn about what is NOT OK in a work environment. You will learn diligence and patience here. You will learn to control your anger. Enter at your own risk, and please PLEASE do not lose sight of better opportunities once you're here.
