most toxic workplace i've ever experienced
Pros
Your coworkers are your lifeline and they are really some of the most supportive, interesting, and kind people you'll meet. You move through projects quickly and pick up a lot of skills quickly as a result. I have to give credit where credit is due that without this job, I probably would not be where I am today (happy, healthy, fairly compensated, good work/life balance, doing fulfilling work).
Cons
Promotions are based on a timeline, not on merit, so as a result, there are a lot of young managers who rise quickly that have inflated titles. This is fine, but management does not give them the necessary training to be able to manage other people so quickly. All of this leads to poor communication, feeling like your concerns will never get through, and poor people management. This lack of experience also leads to micro-management to the worst degree. From a project standpoint: due to the poor project management and poor decision making, the people doing the work (designers, associate consultants, engineers) have to work overtime. What I found most frustrating is that most of the time, management/leads are not on the same page as the client, and when faced with client feedback that tells them that what the team has put forth is not what they're looking for, leads/management think that the solution is to add on more designers/consultants to the project. This leads to months of redesigns, scrapped concepts/designs, starting over again and again.... a huge waste of time/resources. Working here was very demoralizing and most people, if not everyone, is overworked/burned out. Upon joining, it was clear there that this place was built on nepotism and favoritism and they don't treat every employee equally.