Designworks Reviews

Lies told in job interviews. Extremely profit focused; lots of management politics and infighting; behind the curve with UX; office is in the middle of nowhere; overly conservative and corporate culture; inability to make decisions quickly and operate in an agile way. Selling out to BMW was a terrible decision for everyone except the Beverly Hills dwelling senior management.

The post here titled 'A design icon struggling with operational issues’ got a lot right, especially relating to culture, communication, and work environment. There is essentially no culture, beyond occasional gatherings around food trucks and stiff company meetings where no one dares to speak up if they're not on the strict, top down agenda designed to make senior leadership look good. Beyond that, many in the studio are relegated to sitting with headphones on, in between unnecessary meetings that seem to be scheduled only to make management feel like their trip to the office was worth it that day. External clients are the lowest on the priority list. When it comes to staffing projects and taking interest in the work, senior management cares about BMW and making the parent company happy above all else, and very often at the expense of external clients. They are promised "BMW" but are really getting nothing more than bare minimum engagement from management, combined with project staffing that maximizes interns and short term contractors who have little or no actual knowledge of BMW. This is primarily to minimize costs in an effort to pay for the massive overhead of LA studio management that constantly bills to projects, no matter how much involvement they have, which is highly selective and based on personal interests. As long as outside clients prop up the balance sheet, management is free to focus on getting ahead within BMW, and that has only gotten worse as the company has grown. The new business team works hard to bring in good projects, but then studio management and many departments struggle to deliver on the promises due to infighting and jockeying for attention. Some on the staff are expected to regularly work long hours to complete the work, but can never report more than 40 hours/week. Management also provides little to no formal training for most. Many of the more talented and vibrant minds have left over the past several years, and they continue to struggle with keeping good people. People, careers and development are secondary to the nearly constant rebranding that seems to happen every time a new president takes over, as they care more about making their mark, and their own careers within BMW, than they do about the people managing projects and doing the actual work. Anyone other than interns up for a short stay in California should look elsewhere, and instead seek a company that values people and empowerment, and also is not in constant fear of approval from a parent company.