Avoid unless you need a visa or are truly desperate for employment
Pros
Convenient office location. Paychecks successfully deposited twice a month. No life-threatening office hazards. The doormen are nice. Standard, but not spectacular health and fringe benefits which includes a good amount of PTO. You will form a genuine, if not somewhat morbid camaraderie with your coworkers and feel tremendous happiness for them when they escape for better opportunities. The design team is filled with creative, talented and beautiful people.
Cons
The company and its management yearns for relevance, credibility, and publicity, however most of the time and energy in the building is dedicated to appeasing the egos of a select few in senior management and not working on the products or delivering value for clients. Ultimately, your time at L2 will be a setback, not an accelerator in your career. Opportunities to learn and develop professionally are neither encouraged nor supported. The work is mind-numbingly repetitive, boring and inconsequential. Compensation is egregiously below market rate. Your sole avenue for advancement is based not on merit or accomplishment, but on your ability to impress the aforementioned cadre. Everyone here is looking for a new job including those who started last week. As others have written: the company culture is best described as toxic, but hollow, disorganized, directionless and shortsighted would be apt additions to that list. To the new graduate: I know what you're thinking. "This is a great opportunity to move to NYC and do fun, interesting work at a startup with a track record, strong brand equity and attractive team. I won't be like all my friends who go off to work for big companies!" Congratulations: L2 will exploit this line of thinking to lowball/underpay you, then act like they're doing you a favor because they know that you are in a position with next to no bargaining power. On top of that, L2 was acquired by Gartner in March 2017, so you won't be joining a smart, agile, nimble startup where you can grow and have an outsized influence on the direction of the company. You will be joining an old, bloated organization known for buzzword creation, questionable research quality and aggressive sales tactics. Please. I implore you: this is a big city filled with fantastic opportunities. You have worked hard to get where you are and deserve to kick your career off right. To the experienced candidate: You should know better. To top it all off, the lobby is objectively blindingly hideous and the the elevators are often broken.
