Pros
-Pretty office. -Free lunch (twice a week) and breakfast (once a week) by reps not the company. -Cool projects. -Some of the most amazing coworkers. -10 PTO days (first two years) 15 PTO days (after 2 years), 1 wellness day per year, and 5 sick days. -Week between Christmas and New Years off / Summer Fridays (3 PM release). -Good health/vision/dental/life insurance. -401K and phone plan after one year of employment. -Christmas bonus is an extra month of pay, but it's already budgeted in your salary. No extra money just your salary divided in 13 months. -Commuter benefits. -Can get a job almost everywhere after working there for longer than a year.
Cons
-Extremely toxic work environment. -Really high turnover rate. Worked there for 2 years 7 months and saw 35 people leave or get fired. The firm is between 25-30 employees. -Very long hours. You're expected to work 10-12 hour days with no thank you or recognition. Sometimes you're "recommended" to work weekends as well. -You have the option to work from 8-5 or 9-6, but leaving on time is extremely frowned upon. Most people that leave at 5 or 6 eventually get in trouble and sometimes are let go if they don't stay late just to show your commitment to the firm. If you have no issues staying late even if it isn't necessary, then this firm might be your home. -You're micromanaged by the seniors at all times of the day and they're constantly talking bad about designers in their secret chat. -The senior staff is unqualified to lead. They're young, petty, and have almost no experience. Became seniors by being the owner's favorites, drinking the "kool aid" and also being mean to the junior staff. One of them doesn't really know AutoCAD that well. -You're judged by how you dress and other petty things. -HR is pretty much non- existent. It's a 25 year old girl who used to be their accountant and is now the owner's pet. Tells her every single thing that happens in the office. -You have to be at your desk working for 8 hours. If you walk in at 9:02 you will get in trouble since the seniors keep track of the second you sit down to the second you leave. -There's an overall lack of trust. Everything you do has to be reviewed by a senior. If you do something wrong you'll never get tasked that again. Which leaves people doing one task for many months. -Working in a restaurant project is pretty hard since those teams are usually the ones the owner cares about the most. Most people start on their student housing projects which are the ones the owner cares about the least. -You never really go to site visits. It's mainly the seniors/job captains. -The owner is extremely manipulative and emotionally abusive. When she needs something from you she'll be extremely nice and complimentary, but the second you do one thing wrong she'll give you a lecture about how bad of a designer you are. She'll also never tell the client no, which means design is constantly rushed and not well though out. It's impossible to know what mood she'll be in that day which makes the approval process very difficult. She has to approve every single thing for all projects. Which takes a week or more to give a response to the client/architect. -Coming in sick to work and showing you dedication is what most people do which means viruses spread around the office resulting in 3-5 people sick at most times during winter. -If the owner gets suspicious about you leaving she'll make your doubt your abilities and overall make you believe you'll never get another job. -The pay is pretty awful. 2 years experience start at 37-40K per year. -You're responsible to clean up after the owner's dog. -Slow and unfair process to move up in the company. You'll only move up if you drink the "kool aid". -Can't never really work from home. -Very young staff. Not possible to work at Studio K if you have kids/family since you work late about 85% of the time. -Most employees are seeing as replaceable and are constantly leaving/being fired. -Don't ever intern there. You'll do pretty dumb tasks and learn almost nothing. -This firm has a horrible reputation in the design community. Just ask any of your sales representatives. -No one in the firm is NCIDQ certified. The company doesn't really care about the certification and doesn't encourage people to get certified. -Expected to do daily chores which of course the seniors/job captains never do. Which falls on the junior staff. -You must drink the "kool aid" if you plan to survive Studio K. -You can't use your headphones/cell phone since you can get in trouble for doing so. -You can't talk too much because you'll get in trouble, but you also have to socialize because if not you'll also get a talk about being part of the group. -Office location is inconvenient for most people. Very few lunch options.
