Pros
- Overtime Pay - Low barrier of entry - good way to get your foot into the "creative" door. - Your work is seen by a wide audience. - Occasional free grocery items - can be hit or miss. ★★★★☆ - Diversity & inclusion (optional 'rating by category' item) You work with a pretty diverse group of people.
Cons
To keep this section focused and better illustrate my experience. I’ll walk through the reasoning behind the remaining 5 optional ‘ratings by category’ Glassdoor asks for, which point to the most significant challenges I faced. ★★☆☆☆ Compensation and benefits Starting pay is somewhat competitive for the market it is in. Deviations among peers come down to how much you negotiated at hiring (those who are comfortable sometimes discuss pay, which I think for this company is a good thing.) Raises can be given on a yearly basis (Spring) and range from 10 cents to 5% of salary. If you were hired any time after Spring they will say you need to be employed for a full year before you become eligible for a raise. You will have to wait until the following year. As stated above you get paid for overtime, you can easily have 50+ hour weeks. Most of the benefits are just ok - health insurance is expensive and you will probably have issues using it as it is not well known. The 401k match is an abysmal 1%. You get 2 extra days off a year near the holidays because they accidently purchased a company that had that benefit and it was a bad look to try to take it away from them. ★☆☆☆☆ Culture & values The culture is very much to embrace the suck. You trauma bond with a lot of your coworkers and it is definitely one of those “the best part about it is the people” kind of companies. As far as company values, the only one that comes to mind is “Make the client happy no matter what.” I challenge you to go try and find where Mittera clearly lists their company values, even on their own website. ★☆☆☆☆ Work/Life balance Burnout is very common and will likely set in between 6 months a year for most people. Working remote is frowned upon unless you’re upper management. You get an hour for lunch but many opt to stay clocked in and eat at their desk to continue working in an effort to go home at a reasonable time. Working 8 hours is not enough in the eyes of the company. People who work 8 hours and go home are considered dead weight and not team players. When you clock in you never know when you actually will be off work due to frequent “emergencies” so making plans after work is very challenging. You are truly at the mercy of the client and no mercy will be shown because Mittera has set 0 professional boundaries for their client and let them walk all over them. I often had to choose between making dinner or going to the gym after work because there was simply not time to do both. Ad approval days are grueling and can exceed 12 hours. On two occasions I pulled 16 hour shifts and my manager was still asking if more work could be done. ★☆☆☆☆ Senior management Management has no clue what goes on day to day and are totally disconnected from their employees. This leads to painfully inefficient disorganized direction, inaccurate yearly reviews and overall recognition. Management will have you do extra work because it's billable time to the client then act confused when their boss asks them why there is so much billable time. When the going gets tough the senior management gets going! They will relocate to go home early to mid afternoon every day. I’ve even seen them put their own PTO on the calendar around the holidays and then make those dates black out dates for everyone else. ★★☆☆☆ Career opportunities There are some growth opportunities, but they are far and few between. There is no proper training. You are onboarded in the sink or swim manner. You can set yourself apart and be noticed by working the most hours, doing other people's jobs and having a yes man attitude. I caution this route though, as once you are noticed the work that is dumped on you will be never ending. You are expected to show that you can do the extra work for 6-12 months before they consider paying you for your troubles. Getting one promotion is essentially the highest you can go as a designer. Your best bet for career advancement is to stick around long enough for someone to quit (usually a year) and absorb their responsibilities or better yet find a new job. As far as I know it’s impossible to switch teams to work with a different client. My job title had “creative” in it but you acquire and demonstrate very few portfolio worthy things to help you get a new job. If you don’t find time to make things in your limited free time outside of work, you risk getting stuck. THIS IS A JOB NOT A CAREER.