It's just like high school - complete with the in crowd, gossiping and bullies!
Pros
I had the opportunity to travel for meetings and trainings. The opportunity to attend the annual meeting in Amsterdam is really fun - however it is not guaranteed and still promoted as part of your overall comp/benefits. Free monthly lunches and team socials were nice.
Cons
The base salary is very low - don't let them tell you otherwise! Management will say that they are on par with the market and data was studied but will not explain any further. So you are left to blindly accept them at their word. They will include other benefits in your overall deal but they are standard and often not monetary so it doesn't help you with your actual life. If you can tell me how to invest apples and pay your rent in coffee, I would love to know the secret! Bonus structures can change at any time and will become increasingly hard to achieve. If you are not part of the in crowd, you will go absolutely nowhere in the company. Just like high school, it's a popularity contest to see who they will invite to sit at their table. Managers even have the same inflated sense of power and importance as a 16 year mean girl. The company expects cult like devotion and adoration from all employees. They will find various ways to mold and shape you into what they want - carbon copies of the same person who stare blankly, do what they are told without question and passionately display adoration during team meetings and sessions. Don't drink the kool aid! Managers in Toronto and the NA Office Team senior team management are wolves in sheep's clothing. At first they will appear friendly and will encourage you to open up to them and feel free to speak up. WARNING - Do not confide in them, never challenge them or speak up in any way that does not align with their plans. Doing so will create a target on your back - they will find ways to make your job more difficult, you will suddenly be told you are under performing during 1:1s or reviews, placed on performance improvement plans, and asked to consider whether the job is the right fit for you. They will incessantly harass and bully you, find non-existent problems to blame you for, and ignore any of your achievements because they do not like you - not because of your job performance. It has forced great employees to leave so that they can work in a place where they are treated fairly and with simple respect. There is an expectation to do anything and everything you are asked of regardless of your own workload or if the person asked last minute. which often happens. You are seen as not being a team player if you don't always say yes. You will learn a lot but will have no where to apply your knowledge/skills. There are little to no opportunities for promotions at a local level. If there are promotions, they are not given to the right people : external from the company or not from the local office, unqualified, unprofessional, and immature. Basically an employee would only be promoted because a higher manager liked them more than other candidates and not based on professional merit. Managers in the Toronto office will gossip among each other and continue to play favourites. Also, it is often a very uncomfortable and unprofessional environment when some managers decide to speak in another language while others are present and part of the conversation. Just plain rude. The office team is expected to do many tasks that will not be recognized, rewarded or compensated. They are often the tasks that don't fit neatly into someone else's role and it gets dumped onto the local Office Manager. Upper management of the Office team is a joke - they are unqualified, have no people management skills and act like a clique.
