It's slowly become a corporate puppet of WPP. Sure, it was purchased in 2001, but it's been said that since the economic slump of 08 WPP decided to juice their profit center turnips such as VML while giving their large, slow, clueless traditional agencies on Mad Avenue a break considering who is growing and who is shrinking. Over time it seemed like the only focus ever was Cannes Lions and projections, which were often over-inflated by senior management before the fiscal year began, then blamed on the teams for not being met.
Again, as a company it is an amazing place to work, but no cost of living raises......ever? I never received one in my entire time there. So unless you get promoted annually, you will make less money every year as your salary gets chewed on by inflation. Supposedly there were annual bonuses for all employees at end of year. Never did we receive - last was in 2007, I hear. Add that to relatively low salaries (compared to most other employers) and you quickly realize that you're not being paid with money, but free sodas, beer and foosball whenever you'd like. I'll take the money please.
In terms of the WPP corporatization mentioned earlier, the senior management is all very established (as they should be, they earned it) and all in their 30's and 40's. This means there is virtually no room for advancement beyond middle management. Therefore, referencing back to the I-need-a-promotion-to-get-a-raise situation, you end up stuck in the middle. I'm also sure they have 26 "C_O's" - one for every letter in the alphabet. This further proves their need to make room so they don't lose talent.
Biggest concern when I was there was watching the massive amounts of extremely talented, long-term VMLers leave. This was the true harbinger of where the company was going and helped me with my decision to move on.
Finally, it seems like there are a lot of smoke and mirrors when it comes to how the company is really performing. You hear that no clients are meeting budget expectations, yet you're bringing on new clients left and right, often with the creative team blowing the budget to three times what was estimated. This means write off, after write off, after write off, to a point where you don't know if any client is actually making any money. It feels like there's a lot of book cooking going on and when you don't meet the unrealistic numbers set by senior management, guess where the fingers point?
This seems like a long complaint list about VML but it really is a wonderful place to work and it makes sense why things are the way they are, given the circumstances. You just need to know what you're walking into and what to watch out for and you'll thrive there. It's the agency life I imageined and lived and wouldn't trade it for the world.
