As incredible as the employees are at CT, upper management is another story. To begin, there was no HR department at the company (this may have changed but unlikely). There is one employee who handles HR-esque tasks, but any and all complaints or suggestions about/for management goes directly to the CEO and President of the company (who are brothers). Nothing is anonymous. When an anonymous review/comments system was suggested at a monthly meeting of top-performing employees, the President responded, "I don't understand why we would need this. People can just say what they need to say to my face." This is definitely one method of executive open communication, but it led many employees to feel stifled and like they could not express their concerns without being directly named and penalized by upper management. Those who did express concerns were often shut down and told they were wrong about their worries. For example, it is more than likely the CEO or President will respond to this review and claim that it is false or written by a poor-performer/someone who was fired. That's a pretty standard reaction from upper management at CT.
This leads to the second biggest con of working for CT: the pay and bonus/promotion system. When you are hired, you will be given a very low salary per industry standards. Many new hires are told this is temporary and that pay will increase exponentially as you accomplish your career goals and receive the monthly profit share. For new hires/people who have been at the company for less than 2 years, the monthly profit share is rarely over $100. This can absolutely change if the company has had an incredible month, but for the 2 years I worked there, I maybe only had 4-6 months where my profit share was over +$100. It is definitely more for long-term employees, so if you stay on, you are rewarded. It is also widely known among employees that accomplishing your "career development goals" needed for promotion is notoriously difficult. Many are often be able to accomplish their first goal within 8 months - 1 year of starting at the company, but after that, it becomes increasingly difficult to reach the next "development" goal because management encourages Team Leads to grade-down on monthly ratings. The logic here is that this stringent grading helps curb over-generous grading, but even for a top-performing employee, this can add months to your career development timeline, pushing your next raise perpetually out further and further. Promotions shouldn't be given out willy-nilly, that's true. But this delayed promotional system becomes an issue because the starting base salary, even after the first "career development goal" raise, is low. If you live in LA, it is a just barely livable wage. To put it bluntly, it's known throughout the employee base that upper management will fight tooth-and-nail not to pay you what you're worth.
If you're starting out in the field, this is a good place and salary to start, but if you're looking for a long-term, sustainable income or hoping to make 5k above your starting salary after your first 2 years there, it will not happen. That being said, some people are really happy with CT and really happy with the pay. It all depends on your expectations, financial needs, career growth goals, etc.
