Pros
The culture is great, its a relaxed environment, and the people are very passionate. You learn useful skills like DFP, SalesForce, customer service for large and small scale companies, and the basics of advertising best practices. You work for and meet some of the most experienced people from a variety of industries which isn't always the case at larger or more structured companies. I could never work for a company wherein I don't believe in the CEO. Warren St. John is the most kind hearted and sincere leader I've ever had the pleasure of working for. He knows whats going on with everyone from the executive team all the way down to the interns. In addition, I've never met someone more excited about what they do for a living. The Hale Patch is nothing like what I've read about the AOL days. Charlie Hale takes a personal interest in his employees and is an exemplary business man. Every morning he comes into the office with a giant smile on his face, laughing, and lightening the mood. Throughout my time at Patch, I've seen people get hired and fired. I cannot say that anyone who was let go was unjustified, but I can say with full confidence that everyone who is hired is received enthusiastically.
Cons
The company is top heavy. I am one of two individuals in the Jr. AM role, yet I have to report to 3 managers directly. Ive brought that up many times and was told to think of it in a different light. Normally, there is one manager and a team of support roles. I have a team of managers and 1 coworker in my same role. TOO MANY MEETINGS. I cannot stress this enough as a gigantic time waster. I've attended meetings about having meetings, I've had duplicate meetings (literally two days in a row we had to regroup to discuss the same topics), I've had to attend meetings where we sit there and read a document which could have simply been distributed. I have weekly meetings with 1 manager, monthly meetings with another manager, and weekly meetings with all 3 managers.
