Skip to contentSkip to footer
employer cover photo
employer logo
employer logo

AKQA

Acquired by WPP

Is this your company?

AKQA reviews

3.9

76% would recommend to a friend

(1,064 total reviews)

Baiju Shah

99% approve of CEO

53% positive business outlook

Ratings by category

3.8

Culture & values

3.8

Diversity & inclusion

3.7

Career opportunities

3.6

Work/Life balance

3.6

Compensation and benefits

3.5

Senior management

AKQA has an employee rating of 3.9 out of 5 stars, based on 1,064 company reviews on Glassdoor which indicates that most employees have a good working experience there. The AKQA employee rating is in line with the average (within 1 standard deviation) for employers within the Media & Communication industry (3.4 stars).

Ratings by demographic groups

Reviews by job title

1K reviews
1.0
Feb 4, 2017

AKQA SF HATES CREATIVES

Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

You can say you survived this place.

Cons

Are you a creative? Do you love abuse and neglect? Then this place is for you! Here's what it's like to work as a creative for AKQA here in good ole San Francisco. You'll have the opportunity to work with a group creative lead that has no idea what being a creative is about (project manager, maybe). You'll have a leadership team that only cares about money and is willing to work creatives until they're burned out. You'll have project managers who only want to do the bare minimum, give creatives ridiculous timelines, and then try to blame you if you miss a deadline (especially the on the car account they have). Oh yeah, creatives are then TOLD they can only work a certain number of hours and then when you work over those hours because of the ridiculous schedules, you're basically told to LIE on your timesheets. This is RAMPANT on just about every team. Then you have a fantastic UX lead who has the uncanny ability to suck the life out of anyone she meets — most teams have a complete lack of faith in her because she talks a lot but really isn't saying anything. And then to top it all off, creatives that deserve promotions don't get them, even if you've helped win pitches, etc. It's no wonder clients have been pulling their business out in the past year. They can sense the BS.

avatar
AKQA Response
9y
Thanks for taking the time to share your opinion. We absolutely do care about running the business responsibly. It provides job security for our team and allows us to invest in both our people (development, pay, benefits and environment) and our clients. If you spend time with our leadership team, you’ll know that what excites us most are innovative solutions that inspire our clients’ consumers and lead to improved business performance. Experience shows that the most innovative work often comes when timelines require an entrepreneurial mindset. We work closely with Glassdoor who have a sophisticated system to stop fake reviews, their platform is dependent on honest and reputable feedback. We’d love you to contribute to making AKQA a better place to work, so please drop me an email directly. Best wishes, Simon.
2.0
Jun 18, 2015

Smoke and Mirrors

Associate designer
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Great people to work with

Cons

Difficulty recognizing valuable assets within the work force and rewarding them. Which kills morality as well as motivation. Account and project management constantly and readily disregard timelines and overwork creatives. They never say no. Hardly ever brought in exciting motivating creative work. At times would even let other agencies or clients collect credit for portions of work, in order to "keep up relationships"

1.0
Mar 13, 2018

Be Careful

Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

- Nice names on resume - A lot of young and hopeful creatives to work with

Cons

- Advancement based entirely on nepotism, promotions are handed out like candy if you are in the right circles - Inexperienced leadership in every department - Clique culture/High School mentality - Leadership is totally lacking in the charisma/leadership skills needed to lead company during difficult periods - Management more focused on external image (fake PR stories, fake Glassdoor reviews) than internal change - Account services is the worst I've ever worked with, will cave to the client, then lie to the team about how negotiations went down - Back biting and political maneuvering is rampant and seems to be encouraged. - Sexual harassment is not uncommon, a team member's career progress was essentially halted for turning down a sexual advance from a director-level coworker from another department. - Company will try to overwork you, and don't be fooled into thinking those extra hours will be rewarded. There are no bonuses, and comp days will be distributed stingily. A year of weekend work will MAYBE result in one extra vacation day as compensation.

Viewing 16 - 18 of 1,064 Reviews
Related searches: AKQA jobs | AKQA salaries | AKQA benefits | AKQA interviews | AKQA conversations
ReviewsAKQA reviews

Glassdoor has 1,267 AKQA reviews submitted anonymously by AKQA employees. Read employee reviews and ratings on Glassdoor to decide if AKQA is right for you.