Used to have an amazing culture. Limited international career opportunity. - Senior Consultant Edelman Employee Review

2.0
Sep 9, 2018
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

* A very good culture that help you to feel like you're a part of a "family" (at least until the end of 2017) * Smart and helpful co-workers. * Working with some of the biggest clients in the world * Strict policy against bullying. A pro LGBTQ rights company. * Facebook for work made you easily connected with your co-workers worldwide and allow you to gain insights of the latest news. * A horizontal work structure. Your opinion matters as long as it makes a sense.

Cons

* A little to no opportunity for regional/global mobility. Any program of mobility is temporary (e.g: 1 month assignment to other office) and the salary is paid by the home office until the host country decided to hire them permanently. Thus, people from developed countries are more likely to get transferred because their currency is stronger. * The global mobility program, "Edelman fellowship" only opens for manager positions or above, and so far no Indonesians ever got admitted. There's a higher enthusiasm by non-manager senior staffs, but they are not eligible to apply, while those who are in managerial positions or above avoid applying the program because they look for a stability. Ironically, 80% of the workforce is either senior staffs or junior staffs. * Other offices only sponsor working visas for high-ranking directors. In 2017-2018, Edelman Indonesia hired directors from UK and Malaysia, but only transferred a senior staff for a one month to Bangalore office under the Edelman explorer program. In the long history of Edelman Indonesia, only one person offered a job offer from Edelman UK. * A very large pay gap between the expats and the locals despite the fact the expats cannot speak the local language and lack a distinctive trait other than offering a different cultural perspective. * No clear purpose why hiring senior management from other offices as the part of client management team since those functions can be handled by the local account directors just fine. As they lack of expertise and the local market, most of them haven't accomplished anything extraordinary. * Different divisions now have their own subculture. Since moving to the new office in the late 2017, everyone was working in a silo. * Internal communication was practically non existent. * No training program, coworkers from internal offices or other regions regularly share they experience regularly in a forum. There's lack of will to pay trainers because you can ask the internal staffs to do it for free. * The company still uses an old web-based infrastructure to log working hours with a clunky interface despite the fact it uses Microsoft 360 to integrate its employee's database globally.

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5.0
May 7, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
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Pros

good people and cool clients

Cons

not a lot of work life balance

2.0
Jun 18, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

I worked with some of the brightest and best people in the business. Most of them are no longer with the company. Some good clients, and nice office space.

Cons

Very limited opportunities for growth. During my time they reduced promotions to only once a year, and made many excuses for promoting as few people as possible (despite becoming the first "$1B" agency at that time). Morale was extremely low. People were forced to come into an office with nobody they actually worked with. Common to be passed from manager to manager. At one point I had 6+ managers within a 10-month span.

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