Pros
Nielsen offers great brand recognition for your resume making it a great place to start your career. There are a lot of young people working there which creates a good workplace atmosphere--if you don't mind being supervised by people 1-2 years your senior. The company is turning around and might be profitable again soon. Their business model is changing rapidly; this could create some good opportunities. In Chicago, they have an office in the burbs and the Loop making it easy to choose which office to work from. Also, it seems easy enough to work from just about any major city in the US.
Cons
Frat-house management techniques--for example: my first week there, the VP noticed i left my computer on my desk over night, so to "teach [me] a lesson," he hid my computer so I'd think it was stolen. When I complained to HR, they just said, "that's the way he is!" Benefits are terrible--They only match 1/2 of your 401k contribution which vests after 3 years. Health insurance has a $1000 deductible. This makes it impossible to work here if you have kids or ever plan on retiring. Pay is also on the low end. Highly political atmosphere. Because they hire an army of young people, supervisors do not critically evaluate performance. Instead they rely on superficial traits and biased feedback from directors. I never really had the chance to work with people who were really experienced and knew a lot about the industry. All the people I interacted with were young folks hired out of college with no real-world experience. Way too much outsourcing. I almost think then next move will be to hire IRI to do their analytics! And the worst part of the job: you have to work with clients who don't give a damned what your reports say.
