- Very bureaucratic: approvals, reviews, stakeholder alignment, brand/legal/compliance can make even simple things feel heavy
- Highly matrixed: ownership gets blurry - many teams have input, but not everyone has clear decision rights (or don't feel comfortable making the final say), causing friction and delays
- Very siloed teams: teams can duplicate work or optimize for visibility rather than shared business impact
- Internal politics matter a lot: relationships, perception, and stakeholder management matters as much (if not sometimes even more) than the actual work; huge focus on being a happy company cheerleader and managing up to leaders
- Rigid RTO/team norms: depending on team, may or may not be flexible
- Experience very dependent on team and manager
- For marketing in particular, there is a major focus on high-visibility events and sponsorships; these can be exciting, but the connection to measurable ROI is not always transparent
- Innovation is a lot slower than the brand suggests: operating rhythm of a large organization relying on legacy systems and processes can feel constraining
- Commuting to Purchase if you live in NYC is an hour-plus trek - with hard RTO policies and limited shuttles to and from the office at set points in the morning and afternoon, this can feel very restricting (especially if you're a younger employee early on in career - your weekdays in the city will be limited by this for sure)
- Purchase has a different culture from the Manhattan Tech Hub; depending on your background, career stage, and lifestyle, it may feel more suburban, established, and less dynamic
- Some parts of the culture can feel more traditional and tenure-driven, which can make it harder for new ideas to gain traction
