Pros
Smart and friendly people, free snacks and beverages, and good location with lots of restaurants nearby. Benefits are okay, but not great. The work/life balance is good because I rarely had to work crazy hours. The occasional sporting event tickets are a nice perk as well.
Cons
Poor collaboration among team members; it's a butts in seat mentality that keeps most staff at their desks for fear of not being billable (there's a ping pong table that rarely gets used because staff are afraid to use it). There's not a whole of conversations/meetings going on - just a few people handing out directions and everyone else just following along. There are "optional" weekly lunch and learn meetings, but there's no learning going on in these meetings and they aren't really optional. If I'm going to be required to give up my lunch hour to sit in a meeting, I'd like to get something out of it besides just a free lunch. The turnover of the entire staff is astounding. I don't know the exact number, but I would imagine that there was at least a 60% turnover rate in 2014. The agency has gone from around 30 employees in 2014, down to less than 20 currently. The turnover isn't just among regular staff, but members of the management team as well. When I start seeing managers bail, that's when I know it's time to go. There's a lack of training when you start at Elevation. The office space looks great, but the environment and culture doesn't feel like a typical agency. There's no energy or excitement among the staff. They have the typical crazy deadlines and demanding clients that all agencies have. But at other agencies you get a great culture and a fun environment that makes the deadlines and clients tolerable. You don't get the great culture at Elevation, just the crappy deadlines and clients. The flexible hours aren't really flexible. To me flexible hours means I can come and go as long as all of my work gets done. Flexible hours at Elevation just means that you can pick your start and end time, then it becomes set in stone. You can't come in one day at 8, then the next day at 7, etc. Once you pick your start and end time, those become your set hours. I'd be concerned about the long term prospects of Elevation. There is so much negative energy regarding the agency, I'm not sure how the current management team can overcome it, no matter how great this team may be.