Culture is great, but questionable long-term outlook
Pros
There are two main reasons why I continue to stay at Nielsen: 1) Access to data and breadth of opportunities. Being constantly challenged is really important to me in a role. The variety of data we work with and the wide client base means that the work can be quite varied, and it's easy to get involved in complex projects. There are obviously roles at Nielsen where you can do the same thing day in and day out for years, but there's also a lot of opportunity to grow if you look for it. 2) Culture. This is huge--probably the biggest reason I stay at Nielsen. Overall, the culture is very relaxed and meritocratic; people who are helpful, kind and engaged are the norm. The company truly recognizes and values from top-down everyone's achievements and individuality; I've never felt like a cog in the machine here, and I feel evaluated on merit, not my title or tenure. I really like the people I work with, too, not just on my immediate team, but more broadly. Nielsen hires a wide variety of people, but a common trait throughout (and encouraged through the culture) is being engaging and supportive. Net net, I look forward to coming into work every day.
Cons
Do I see myself leaving Nielsen someday? Possibly, yes, but it would be as a result of the company's health if they can't right the ship. For a self-titled "technology company", Nielsen leaves a lot to desired across multiple levels, which is frustrating because I want the company to do well. Developing measurement capabilities is incredibly difficult, and I don't want to understate that, but I wish we were pushing the gas pedal even harder on measurement capabilities. TV is dying; so, too, eventually will much of our revenue. If we can't get digital right, then Nielsen is going to become quickly irrelevant, and much of pro #1 is going to dissipate for me. Also, a huge con is that Nielsen is already suffering financially, with no immediate end in sight. Layoffs, reorgs, the mad scramble to hit impossible revenue targets-it gets wearying. There are a lot of reasons why Nielsen isn't doing well, but one area that jumps out at me and frustrates me to no end is our technology (beyond measurement). Some of our products are, well, terrible. If you have to hire people to pull reports for clients because your products are so hard to use (there are -many- teams that do just this), it's arguable whether money might be better spent on improving the product? Relatedly, even in my department alone, there are a ton of things that could just be straight-out automated. Why should someone spend a week on highly canned decks that can be populated by a script in less than a minute? When Nielsen considers how to trim the fat, there's plenty of fat in inefficiency that never seems to be trimmed and should be. Throwing people at problems that should really be solved with technology is a recurring theme and one we need to be careful of.
