Pros
The company has a work hard/play hard atmosphere that, as a younger person, I find very appealing. The CEOs and most of the senior management are in their 30s and 40s; as a result, the company population skews quite young. If you're under 40, there are lots of opportunities for friendship and camaraderie.
I'm consistently impressed with the high level of competence among the staff. Most companies have those few "bad eggs" who don't pull their own weight; I haven't encountered any of that at TransPerfect. The majority of my colleagues are intelligent, hardworking, and amicable people, which is a testament to the company's hiring practices: potential hires go through several rounds of interviews and multiple managers have to vote to hire them.
The company is a meritocracy; it's not a popularity contest. People are promoted based on a combination of their job performance, company loyalty, and managerial skill/potential. The company is also structured in such a way that anyone who deserves to be promoted eventually is, even if they are not management material (there are higher-level positions that don't involve as much management; also, creating a position to fit a person's specific skill set is not unheard of). There's also a better-than-average amount of diversity in the company's upper echelons--many women and people with families are in top positions.
Lastly, the language services industry is a good place to be right now; it's experiencing record growth and will only get bigger in the years to come. Within the industry, TransPerfect is the current standout, experiencing the highest rate of growth among the top LSPs. All of this is important if you're living in the US and concerned about job stability.
Cons
- Certain departments (Marketing/Communications, Production) seem to be undervalued/underpaid; I've seen quite a few good people leave for monetary reasons.
- There is too much micromanagement from above, which creates bottlenecks in decision-making and slows company response time; some great ideas never leave the ground because the approval process is so overblown.
- Training programs for full-time employees are bare bones; I'd like to see more emphasis placed on personal development (as opposed to just giving people the essential skills to meet the minimum requirements of their jobs).
