Pros
Teammates are young 20s year olds, eager to land a well-marked role at a website design company. My cohort had really interesting people, not gonna lie. It's refreshing to have collegues around your age, however, there's no one to step up or have forsight when you're being taken advantage of or explain how things should rightfully be done. Generally, you can work online on a semi-flexible schedule. Instead of 8am- you can log on maybe 9:30am. If you happen to be a personal favorite of a manager, it is a good place for you. If you're not, you will probably know it fairly soon.
Cons
Was totally wrong for a first impression of this company. Before I was so dazzled by the first impression of this company-- the luxury websites, photos, high-value clients, so I fell in love. Boy was I wrong as I learned more. If you're a client, read this as well: 1. Illegitimate Job Titles- as an IM- you are actually a UX Designer. The Manager, Implementation is a Manager....and the mismatching titles and job descriptions goes on. They expect you to build a whole website first few weeks you're here---YOU WILL BE HEAVILY graded on this, even though it's not part of your day-to-day task you were hired for. At first it's fun (the first 2-3 weeks), but then you'll find yourself consumed being a Project Manager, Client Specialist, UX Designer, Web Designer, Brand Expert, QA Team, Product Expert, etc AND having to perform at perfectionist level for each one (literally, because they dock points even for the best person on your team). 2. Overworked Roles - It's not even that nature of the work is crux of the hardwork-- it's the unrealistic, over perfectionist expectations and pressure, put on you that makes you overworked. You will get fired for their unrealistic expectations. They will send a 'fellow' email out of the blue saying "Amanda X' has left the company today....we wish them well!" when you leave. Those people either left or were fired-- most likely bc they were overworked or underperformed because they were overworked. Phony projection either way. 3. Petty Feedback- feedback is good, but not when you're nitpicking to DEATH. The OVERDONE feedback. I got docked points for taking 30 more seconds to report build, for not answering Slack within 3 minutes of a random post (that was not urgent), for getting a bit creative with using the product tools, even when 'creativity' was encouraged for the website build out. Some I feel is just so manager could feel like she is in control. You will get picked on for everything you do, even just on mocks. Even worse, they might tell you what to do for your feedback. Again--'feedback' is codeword for 'Performance Review'. They PR you for every little thing, until you question your own sanity. 4. Lack of Leadership-- For the implementation team, you might notice the leaders are the worst bc they lack fundamental interpersonal skills and a level of emotional intelligence. You might find them to be more 'micro-managers instead of 'leaders'. The titles are also misleading. Feels like there's a clique with leadership, who's long needed to go, but flatter the ears of the relatively young CEO. Not sure, could be wrong about this, but seems they go of the colored people first. So although they may hire some diversity, what I see in team meetings and leadership is not diverse. They regard their clients as superhumans, and impose guilt, frustration, fear onto you. You'll feel it. Please, document yourself, even at onboarding. 5. Contracts- BEWARE, wonder why you don't see a bunch of reviews online? It's because this company forces it's talent to sign documentation, contracts, paperwork even when you leave- so this company gets away with almost anything. Since, it's creative field as well-- they can let you go for let's say 'performance' (they will call it this) however, it could be because they didn't like your choice of turquoise for the website you designed, or a trivial matter that is subjective, depending on who's viewing it. However this is misleading and inauthentic, and just wrong. 'Performance Improvement Plan', 'Feedback Review', toxic 'Yes' culture as the the sales guy mentioned-- learn the codewords they use. Again most people hired with you will be young, so they honestly might not know as much as you do. You really have to guess for yourself what is right-- but you might be deducted points or penalized for this as well. 6. Product- the product (the website/builder) is not an easy use at all. Sure, there are 2-3 people who grasp things really quickly, but it's not an easy learn like some other website builders out there, with jargon you must be well trained on. If it were easy, clients would be able to use it easily themselves-- yet they rarely do. Basically they are overhyping their product and then guilt-trip you when their own talent can't use their tool well or doesn't know it perfectly. Personally, I'd say it's worth maybe $200-$3000 max, but that's actually what they charge clients a month. If you're a Real Estate agent -- shoot for hiring a freelancer or another established platform (Squarespace, Wix, Wordpress, etc). The pretty website may be nice, but this company encroaches a toxic team culture run by narcissists and your being oversold-like by a long shot . Your resources are better utilized elsewhere.