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

      Costello Medical

      Engaged Employer

      Costello Medical reviews

      3.7

      62% would recommend to a friend

      (105 total reviews)

      Sophie Costello

      87% approve of CEO

      81% positive business outlook

      Ratings by demographic groups

      Costello Medical has an employee rating of 3.7 out of 5 stars, based on 105 company reviews on Glassdoor which indicates that most employees have a good working experience there. The Costello Medical employee rating is in line with the average (within 1 standard deviation) for employers within the Pharmaceutical & Biotechnology industry (3.5 stars).

      Reviews by job title

      105 reviews
      2.0
      Dec 1, 2021

      Good on a CV, but poor work-life balance and recognition

      Analyst
      Recommend
      CEO approval
      Business Outlook

      Pros

      Reasonable starting salary on paper, exposure to big projects, occasional perks and team bonding events which are thoughtful. Quick career progression, for those who fit the profile. If you're really keen to get into medical communications, you can do a lot worse than starting here - it's a good name on a CV.

      Cons

      Long hours (even for this sector), stressful, cliquey and poor recognition. Naturally, teams work long hours when a project is nearing completion, just like any company in this sector working to deadlines. Unlike other agencies, this happens at Costello Medical all the time regardless of the project stage or client. Working over 50 hours a week is normal here – which is not mentioned in the glossy external projection of the company. I experienced unrealistic deadlines, a constant excessive workload and regular last-minute demands from my first to my last week here. In such situations, the responsibility was placed on me to give feedback to project managers - which in itself is reasonable - but nothing resulted from these conversations. I felt completely unsupported and that my work was taken for granted, so I got a better offer and left. The worst part is that senior management say that planning methods (a big spreadsheet) give colleagues a sustainable workload, despite evidence suggesting that the opposite is the case. It feels like with the rapid (and impressive) growth of the company, internal processes have fallen out of date, but aren't seen as worth fixing - with such a large pool of applicants on tap, Analysts are basically disposable. On the culture itself - it's worth pointing out how well you conform to the culture forms part of performance reviews. This could be why it feels shallow and insincere, almost a popularity contest, and why saying anything that isn't unilaterally positive is just not the done thing. The company as a whole is very cliquey. Performance reviews are based on 360 feedback, which is ineffective - few people will share truthful non-anonymised feedback about the people who decide their promotion prospects. On recognition - they say that people who contribute to the company's success should share the rewards, but seemingly this doesn't extend to the Analysts and Medical Writers working all hours to finish deliverables - this gets demoralising pretty quickly. Teams shoutouts and GIFs are lovely but a lot of Analysts might prefer a bonus (!) or something more meaningful. Ten seconds reward costing nothing in return for months of unpaid overtime is derisory in the cold light of day.

      avatar
      Costello Medical Response
      4y
      Firstly, we hope that you have found an organisation and role that are a better fit for what you are looking for and that the experience you have gained at Costello Medical serves you well in your future career. We have worked hard to maintain our company culture which is friendly, supportive, recognises every individual’s contributions, and which encourages employees to challenge themselves and progress their careers. We are proud of this company culture; the fact that so many colleagues choose to build a long-term career with us is we think testament that it resonates well with many. That said, as a People team, we are always eager to collate feedback from current and former employees via Glassdoor, exit interviews, our employee survey and more informal conversations. We consider all the feedback submitted via these channels and act to make changes where we can. We will take your suggestions onboard, assess if other colleagues feel the same and continue to provide a place of work which colleagues are feel proud to work for and would recommend as a good place to work.
      2.0
      Jan 22, 2024

      Amazing in theory

      Medical writer
      Recommend
      CEO approval
      Business Outlook

      Pros

      The core values of the company are amazing, unfortunately this doesn't match what it is actually like. I have worked with some fantastic people, many have had similar experiences

      Cons

      There is a chasm between SMT and the Core team. Core team are set impossible timelines and if they don't meet them, are told it's down to their own bad planning. There is no time allocated for meetings, admin, training or emails, so you have to just work longer to fit this in. There is a culture of 'stealth bullying', passive-aggressive remarks, and shifting the blame downstream.

      avatar
      Costello Medical Response
      1y
      Thank you for sharing your feedback about your experience at Costello Medical. We're glad to hear that you've worked with fantastic colleagues and appreciate our core values, though we’re sorry to hear about the challenges you’ve described. We have several measures in place to help with managing workloads and balancing projects effectively, including the weekly planners that you describe. However, weekly planning is not an exact science and planners are intended to provide an indication of time required in a given week, not an exact plan. We strongly encourage you to reach out to your line manager or Division Head to discuss how we can best support you in these areas. Additionally, our People Team is always available to offer further assistance and we would encourage you to reach out to discuss your concerns further.
      3.0
      Jan 9, 2022

      OK if you’re starting out right out of university

      Anonymous employee
      Recommend
      CEO approval
      Business Outlook

      Pros

      -Get to work with some nice people -If you are working on a good account there’s some interesting work and subject matter

      Cons

      - Senior leadership would openly acknowledge that they were aware employees could have better remuneration at other companies but believed employees were with them because they believed in the company vision. As a junior member of staff working over contracted hours who was no doubt earning one of the lower salaries in the company, these comments felt a bit tone deaf as not everyone sees the company as a ‘family’. Appreciate some people can get behind this, and others won’t. - Saw a brain drain when people reached mid-level 2/3 years experience and knew from colleagues that there had been an issue with senior retention over the years where people have chosen to leave for better opportunities as it was not going to be met by Costello. The junior to senior ratio and loss of experience was sometimes quite noticeable - Some teams seemed to over do it with the forced fun on company channels. Difficult to engage with as it didn’t always seem genuine but know it was probably an attempt to capture those not dealing with wfh as well as others

      avatar
      Costello Medical Response
      4y
      Thank you again for your time working with Costello Medical and we hope you have landed well in your next venture! We use different phrases to describe our company culture but ultimately it’s how you experience it that will have the biggest impact, not what we say about it! We know that it’s because of the great aspects of our culture that many colleagues chose to build a long-term career with us. All our starting salaries are published on the job adverts and we give information about the typical increases that colleagues can expect as they progress within the company. Competitiveness of rewards will depend on the roles and organisations that you are comparing to, but the most direct comparisons show that we are able to offer rewards aligned to our industry. We are committed to improving rewards at all levels as the company continues to grow and are planning to share more with the team on what this commitment will mean in practice for 2022 soon.
      Viewing 16 - 18 of 105 Reviews
      Related searches: Costello Medical jobs | Costello Medical salaries | Costello Medical benefits | Costello Medical interviews
      ReviewsCostello Medical reviews

      Glassdoor has 120 Costello Medical reviews submitted anonymously by Costello Medical employees. Read employee reviews and ratings on Glassdoor to decide if Costello Medical is right for you.