Pros
People Are Great o Even when things are not fun, the people are good. I had wonderful managers who I learned from and supported me in thick and thin. I had mutually supportive and positive relationships with coworkers and enjoyed going to the office. Really top quality people, many of who I will keep in touch with. Some new things were implemented, some for cost saving reasons, some because they're right to do. o We now have Juneteenth off. Limited in scope and applicability, but a step in the right direction. New diversity programs have been initiated, and the CEO hasn't shirked from beginning to talk about diversity and equity and equality. He might even care from what we can tell on the ground. All are positive signs, but beginnings and not destinations for more corporate diversity, accountability, and awareness. o Several offices are moving to fully remote. This appears to be swiftly becoming an industry standard and getting ahead of the game will continue to make Comscore an attractive place to work. Depending on the team you land on you can just drift along and earn a paycheck without too much effort. I was never afforded the luxury of being carried, but it is a possibility depending on your luck. Sponsorship o Comscore has traditionally offered sponsorship for non-US nationals and this is clearly a positive. I cannot stress how great it is to work with quality people, regardless of who they are and where they are from. Great Learning Curve for junior Analysts o You will learn SQL if you don’t know it. You will be given opportunities to take on projects and shine. You will have experiences with technologies that will give you an edge on the job market. This is a great job for people coming out of college seeking to entire the field of data analytics.
Cons
So far as I can tell, many of the "Cons" go back years to one person- Serge Matta, the CEO before I joined. Mismanagement and fraud by Serge have caused years of pain and trouble for Comscore, and I suspect it will be years before Comscore is able to fully lift itself out of the mess it was left in during his tenure. The below reflects this and the ongoing trouble the company has been in for nearly 4 years. Lower Pay Compared to Other Companies o A lot of reviews by Data Analysts say this- it's very true. I've observed multiple people leave Comscore and consistently increase their salary by 20% or more and be incredibly successful in their new role. People consistently leave for big tech (Amazon, Facebook, etc.) and startups. Their salaries increase from 75k to 90k+ instantly. I've seen larger jumps too- $25K+ increases at times. Increasing Work Hours o Many people are working 50+ hours a week for months on end. If a big enough project comes in, management and sales will just tell you to do it and figure it out. There are not enough knowledgeable individuals put out all the fires and to generate new revenue streams at this time. Layoffs o I do not know the exact number of layoffs I survived at Comscore, but it’s high single digits if not 10 or more over 4 years. Some layoffs were large- hundreds of people. Some have been small- 5 to 10 people interspersed throughout the company. Shifting Costs of Healthcare to Employees o My healthcare costs doubled while my salary stayed the same- this is a pay cut spread over 2 years of service. Healthcare costs were directly shifted to employees: employees paid 20% of total healthcare costs in 2017, but now pay 30% of total healthcare costs in 2020/2021. HR’s only reply was “bUT wE’Re pAyInG mORe ToO!”. o Comscore cannot or will not provide cost of living raises right now so far as I can tell. Years of litigation, poor sales strategies, and shifting landscapes across TV and digital spaces without effective product pivots have caused decreases in revenue year over year. Inefficient use of resources o VPs and senior management tend not to share resources across teams. Expectations in terms of technical expertise are unequal across teams within the same business pillar. Teams are expected to support workflows or entire projects owned by other teams when they lack technical expertise, but refuse requests for bandwidth reallocation. Another of those “if you’re (un)lucky” type situations. o Teams are put together to align with Sales, forcing expertise across a breadth of technical systems and data sources. While sometimes a positive (see “Learning Curve” section above), complex projects with tight deadlines tend to fall on the few remaining more senior individuals who can develop, therefore creating a bottleneck of resources and time. Technology and 3rd Party Relationships o There have been rumors for years that Comscore cannot pay their vendors on time. Technical systems go unsupported for years at a time with employees barely keeping things moving. Data contracts are never long term, lending to the feeling that everything is temporary and unstable. Career Advancement o I was promoted in the spring of 2020 just as the pandemic kicked off. This was then retracted several days later out of an abundance of caution by the company when it became apparent to them that COVID was not a short-lived experience. At the time I was unhappy but understanding of the situation. I was happy to keep my job considering the layoffs I’d survived (see above). Leading up to late fall/beginning of winter, I was consistently told I was next in line for a raise and promotion. Promotions come and go and I win awards for my performance and work ethic, but I am not promoted. Several individuals across my organization experienced the same- this was not limited to just me. Direct conversations with management yielded no tangible reason for the slight except that there was supposedly not enough budget for my promotion. The lesson from Comscore in my mind- do not expect career growth anytime soon.