-Understaffed: This is a tough one because the nature of the market after COVID combined with such fast growth in client-leads means we can't keep up with our hiring needs. This put a lot of pressure on the entire team from upper levels of management down to associates, though I do think most of us try to keep our senior associates and associates within a reasonable balance and take on more to prevent them from burnout.
-Knowing when to fire a client or not sign a client: This is an area that any and all growing start-ups or service groups face at some point. We have enough clients coming in that we need to start being more selective about knowing the flags for when to avoid clients.
-A little chaotic: I'm putting this as a con because when I started it truly was a con, but since then I've seen tangible and major steps by the company to fix some issues in this area. Onboarding is improving both for new employees and clients, balance is something everyone is striving to achieve and working towards small changes with big impacts.
If it seems like I love GFG, I do. I think its a unique experience that for the right people offers an amazing opportunity to get-in on the ground floor of a financial group with amazing growth and future potential. I think the only CONS that hold weight are tied to that growth and the growing pains of a young company trying to figure out what works best and what doesn't. I've personally sat with our CEO and had conversations around how important employee happiness is to him and not just the client happiness. I believe fully that everyone at the group truly cares about all levels of team members and I've seen first-hand on several occasions team leaders putting a ton of effort into growing talent. Unfortunately, a part of this industry is knowing that not every person is suited to billable, client-driven work and not every person can learn and grow at the pace or be the type of self-starter that this environment is best suited for. I think unfortunately those are the individuals who leave unhappy whereas the ones who can understand their own blind spots and how to grow are the ones who move one to other opportunities with fond memories. Sorry for the super long review, but anything less than detailed isn't fair to Graphite.