Growing up fast, imperfect but improving
Pros
If you're smart, young, confident and willing to work hard, C-4 is a great place to get ahead relative to your peers. You'll be exposed to a lot of smart people, a lot of new ideas and demanding clients that will prepare you for the real world. If you're just out of school it's a good first job, and I think it's now a good place to be in your mid/late 20s now, too. There's a lot of promotion from within when it comes to middle management jobs, which is a powerful incentive for employees. The flip side of that is everyone thinks they should be promoted, which can lead to conflict. A lot of the bitter reviews you read are from people who were passed over (some wrongfully, some rightfully) and couldn't deal with it. The atmosphere here can be really fun. You'll form close friendships and get drinks with people after work. We get free beer on Friday afternoons and bagels on Tuesdays and bi-weekly free lunches, plus each department gets seasonal sponsored outings. These aren't reasons to take a job, of course, but they're little positives nonetheless, and even the people who truly disliked C-4 will admit that many of their co-workers were really thoughtful, fun and talented, which makes for a fun environment. I cannot emphasize this enough: A lot of the negative reviews you'll read are from people who worked (emphasis on past tense) here, and sure, some are legitimate. C-4 doesn't have a perfect past. But there's also a solid base of ex-employees who live to haunt this company from the grave, and they no longer have any clue what goes on here. C-4 is growing up. Benefits now include vision, dental and voluntary life insurance, raises and promotions are more structured and more fair and production departments are finally being built out. A lot of the salaries are decent, too, and the partners are generally open to negotiation. Right now, it's a good time to be here, and if the old reviews are scaring you off, at least come in for an interview and ask some of the veterans why it's different now. It's easy to forget that this is a young company, but it's certainly trending up.
Cons
If you're an account manager, expect all the praise when you succeed and all the blame when something goes wrong; you're the star of the show, for better or worse. Upper management pays more attention to the production teams than they used to, but there's still disparity. In some ways, this has its advantages (less daily pressure, better work/life balance) but in other ways, it's a challenge (you can feel anonymous, slower to hire help). Daily tasks can feel repetitive. If you come in at an entry-level position, there's going to be a focus on production. Finally, don't expect flexibility when it comes to work hours. But, you do get a work from home day per month and if you're generally respectful of the (pretty lenient) rules, you earn a longer leash.