Pros
Career Opportunities Office Food Location Company Socials (although they seem to be dying out)
Cons
- Elitism/Lack of diversity: Whilst Brainlabs has been hiring outside of Oxbridge for a many years, an elitist culture has manifested from our reputation as an Oxbridge dominant company amongst a large group of Brainlabers. As an Oxbridge graduate myself, this mindset is quite appalling when I come across it - a degree from Oxbridge does not ensure kindness, genuine or goodness and whilst I agree there is a growing negative, gossip fuelled group, the ones involved include a group from oxbridge. Understandably, Brainlabs wishes to hire the best and brightest, but I think a more diverse work force in terms of different institutes, ethnic backgrounds, religious and able bodiedness, all benefit Brainlabs greatly. A diverse and balanced work force has greater creativity, idea pools and life experience - Expanding too quickly: Amazing growth, but it seems the company is constantly playing catch up and unable to keep up with the growing amount of new staff members and new work taken on. As a grad you are rushed through your training and then rushed into managerial positions to keep up with the growing workload, but are not given the support you need to manage the work or your team. Everyone is overstretched, many are stressed and it's having a negative impact on many of the staff members lives and mental health (in and out of the workplace). - No experienced hires: Whilst hiring only graduates for the sake of moulding them to the "Brainlabs way" is great from a branding point of view and for company growth and, it can and has lead to a "university clique culture". There are a few groups of people who cannot distinguish between acceptable and professional mannerisms and behaviours and manners best left at university. There are a number of Whats App groups which can spiral into unacceptable discourse based on ones colleagues and promotion of gossip even whilst in the office. I feel staff members would benefit greatly from older, more experienced staff members from whom they can learn from the start that this is not acceptable behaviour outside of university and provide a better knowledge pool for the whole of Brainlabs. Lack of managerial training - Length of time spent at a company should not dictate when someone is ready to be a manager. Whilst their technical skills skills may be strong, many of the current managers lack people skills and are incapable of empathetically leading their teams. This leads to members of their teams feeling ignored, alienated and at times "thrown under the bus".
