Pros
If you get the right manager they’ll leave you alone and let you do good work. Lots of smart people. Lots of exposure to top companies as clients. Lots of self-directed learning opportunities.
Cons
Many of those at the top levels do not have market research experience - they come from marketing, etc. So if you have more market research experience then they do - be careful how you use it. They aren’t able to discern really great work from ‘passable’ work. Which obviously isn’t very motivating. If you’re not savvy in terms of ‘office politics’ and you don’t spend at least 25% of your 55+ hour work weeks playing to the egos of the higher ups, you’ll struggle no matter how prolific and smart you are. Also, not motivating. The company overall is VERY siloed. They pitch to clients that they are the perfect balance between creativity and connectivity across methodologies (aka the different Ipsos divisions)...but they’re not. Clients end up feeling very ‘chopped up’ across their work - no left hand to right hand connection. The worst thing you can have is the CLIENT serving as the SOP. There’s too much competition among the divisions.