Pros
Flexible Hours Some nice colleagues
Cons
I was first told The Designory is like a family. If there was any truth to that the closest would be a dysfunctional one. Culture and Environment The work environment is filled with negative energy and people - daily bashing and pointing fingers at one and another; The place is absolutely horrific. The mid and senior management are some of the most unprofessional people I have ever worked with and for. They are aggressive, dismissive and uncivil. You find yourself spending most of your time and energy arguing about work process, timeline and insignificant details that are dictated by a few company tyrants. Everyone has to pretend to be nice while nobody actually enjoys working with each other. People are also on thin ice due to the insecurity and fear of constant accusations for expressing their minds and ideas. There is no culture in the company, PERIOD. Just do what you are told, don't challenge anything and keep your mouth shut. Management Lack of leadership as directions are never stated clearly and is always left to interruptions. Management really does not care about the well being of the employee nor the advancement and the future of the company. Relationship is most likely managed at the high level with clients over fancy cocktails and dinners, and as long as money is being made the actual quality nor the execution of work will ever be looked at. They want to stay out of details while flying around and attend "strategy meetings" and let their minions bury the burden of figuring out how to actually provide value and deliver the work. Most importantly there is a lack of integrity. There is no honest business here, work is not being completed but would still bill the client with overly inflated billable hours just because nobody looks. I personally feel terrible for the founding partners who created the agency as this is not who they expected to leave their sweat and tears to. Learning and Advancement: None. When I asked for more training I was told that nobody receives training in the company and one should be considered lucky if they received any training at all. One might ask, why wouldn't a company invest in their employees to help them perform better at their job? Wouldn't it actually be in their benefit? Well, the company is dictated by people who have been there for more than 15 years. They are accustomed to their approach and methods. They would like to keep things the way they understand it and repeat the same process every month, quarter and year. It's not in their interest to change and advance things just because its better and more efficient - change is hard and uncomfortable for them. Do not join the company thinking you will make something of yourself and change things for the better, your ambitions will be destroyed and better saved for a company that gives you that stage. The Work The work is silo-ed by a few departments with their own interest of only checking it off their list; thus the constant arguing internally and trying to one-up each other with their own objectives. The arguments could be about timeline, cost of projects, client's demands but it will never ever be about delivering quality and creative work. In-result from all that chaos, the execution is completely and utterly unorganized and always lacks quality control - the work is sub-par at best. No one has a clear idea nor understanding of what is exactly being delivered as most of the work seems to have no tangible value and a carbon copy of the ideas and creatives of competitors in the industry. The most disgraceful and embarrassing aspect is to continue and defend useless work while it bears no relevance to the actual original request nor the ideas that were promised. Shamelessly still trying to defy common sense by arguing the value of the work with clients while continuing to up-sell them on similar garbage. This is not a real agency, mostly all the work is outsourced as there are not enough talents internally - not to mention they cannot keep talents. No alignment of quality control between third-party, agency and the clients either. Many times I would be surprised at the amount of simple and elementary mistakes that would make its way through rounds of review and into the client's eyes. The creative work is never really creative...just a copy or mirroring of any existing ideas and practice in the market - as explained above. It is rather only a production house that mimics real creative work. Overall I highly recommend to not work for The Designory. You want to be in a company surrounded by great people and culture. It's the only way you will become a better version of yourself and continues to learn and advance throughout your professional career. We spend half of our lives working and surrounded by colleagues, so make sure the company and its people is worthy of your time and efforts.
