Pros
Summit has always had a great mix of people - it's a reoccurring theme when anyone leaves they mention how good the people are, and I agree. Large clients to work on and a sales director that is very active and excited about obtaining new work - great to work with and they'll continue to do a great job I'm sure. I had a lot of autonomy to do my work and had a lot of trust from my manager to do it right. which felt good. Training was great, albeit somewhat limited to the channel I was in. There were opportunities to self learn further, but nothing that was set out bespoke to the individuals goals - however the initial training and support for the channel I was working on was really good. Compressed working was convenient, getting to choose between every other Friday off or shorter days was good, and flexible working around the core hours was also convenient, with 10am - 3pm being the "core" times that must be covered. It does come with a caveat that this "perk" is paused during busier times - so it's not exactly an always on perk, but it's better than not having the perk at all. They're fairly open with business goings on - employees were kept in the loop regularly via company meetings that were typically delivered by the CEO's or upper management - it helped feel more connected with what was going on in the business holistically, and they were very open about business performance and any new clients they were working on. Office location is awesome - being super close to the marina and next to The Deep, with plenty of great coffee and food spots around.
Cons
The business culture used to be fantastic - with everyone seemingly working for the same team, in a great office environment. They hosted multiple events a year, had breakfast for staff each morning and lunch a few times a month (either via catering or ordering in from a local business) and lots of team bonding happened after work i.e. drinks or things like 5-a-side football. That depleted over the years, and it's somewhat a shell of its former self in that regard, in my opinion. I appreciate the why's somewhat, with the pandemic and expensive office costs - but so much more could have been done with the building they're in, and in developing the culture, inspired by what it was pre-pandemic. People are individuals, and should be treated as such - not just with a copy and paste approach, which got rather frustrating at times. For example, certain people couldn't be promoted because of how it may look to someone else who'd been in the same role for longer that hadn't been promoted. A people first approach would be recognising and working with employees as individuals, bringing those up that needed to be and embracing/rewarding those employees that showed higher promise, or were just working to a higher standard - despite the amount of time served in that role. The office itself, of which you are required to be in 2 days a week minimum (although it doesn't seem to apply across the board and some get treated differently), doesn't have enough seats to accommodate everyone should everyone come in (such as for mandatory client days or company meetings) - meaning people had to sit uncomfortably on lunch tables, or even go to another building or sit in a coffee shop to do their work. First come first serve approach to office desks. The space itself could be vastly improved - as it's a little bland with the odd splash of Summit branding - but I come from a time where they used to have very high office standards and personally I had higher exceptions for what a Summit working space was. I had to fight for every single pay rise or promotion - to get recognised for my contributions outside of my line manager i.e. they were always onboard with any pay rises/promotions and fought for me, but getting that through to upper management to take onboard and action was sometimes like getting blood from a stone. For example, I was a manager for a number of years and was working at a high standard - and by their own internal barometer, I was doing all the tasks of someone that was "top of the band" so to speak - but I was being paid just above the bottom of the band. It was only recognised when my manager handed their notice in, for them to realise they were not paying/treating me the way I should have been, hence why it went from the bottom of the band to the top in what seemed like such a snap, easy decision for them to make - almost admitting they were underpaying me. Had they not handed their notice in, I'm not sure how long it would have actually taken them to recognise my contributions. This happened at every level over 6+ years - ultimately resulting in me leaving the business due to the frustrations of being valued the way I was. I had intentions, and expressed the desire to continue working their, but I needed them to show me that they valued me the way I needed them to, after putting up with so many frustrations over a number of years. It's a shame, but you don't always get everything you want in life but I needed that balance back, and I just didn't see that happening at Summit, despite my best efforts to make it happen.