Forrester Research Reviews

Current Employee – been working at Forrester Research full-time for less than a year

Pros – New sales leaders have provided new direction, strategy and energy into the salesforce
Products and services and highly respected in the industry
Senior leadership seems humble about past mistakes
The events have been upgraded both in terms of content and style
Dramatic increase in interest from the market in working here

Cons – Some legacy employees still affected by past two years of underperformance

Advice to Senior Management – Keep making changes that are based on input from clients and field personnel versus the boardroom.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend – I'm optimistic about the outlook for this company

Former Employee – worked at Forrester Research full-time for more than 7 years

Pros – Smart people, supportive culture, interesting work.

Cons – The IT industry often resembles the fashion business. Trends rule.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend – I'm optimistic about the outlook for this company

Former Employee – worked at Forrester Research full-time for more than 3 years

Pros – Company has a great reputation that they need to live up to. Good benefits. Sharp analysts, but their availability is limited. Health benefits are excellent, as is vacation and holidays, but there is not enough time to take vacation.

Cons – No work life balance in sales. Revenue has been decreasing so the pressure on sales is amazing with constant updates. Pay is low for the industry. High turnover in sales and analysts for a reason.

Advice to Senior Management – Time for the founder with his outdated ideas to retire.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend – I'm not optimistic about the outlook for this company

Current Employee – been working at Forrester Research full-time for more than 3 years

Pros – Great place to start career

Cons – Absolutely zero training in core competences.
Culture that encourages analysts (the core business) to be primadonnas
An amateur HR department
Below market pay

Advice to Senior Management – Hire from the outside for senior mgmt.
Middle mgmt should be restructured to be more than a buffer and overhead

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Former Employee – worked at Forrester Research full-time for more than 3 years

Pros – Great low and mid-level people to work with. Analysts are a bit entitled but mostly good colleagues

Cons – Bad habit of internal promotion as a reward for long service, rather than getting the right person for the job. Evident at higher levels of management in the company, at the director level and above.

Advice to Senior Management – Great analysts do not make great managers or leaders.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at Forrester Research full-time for more than 7 years

Pros – - As an analyst, you get paid to research and help clients on topics your passionate about.
- The work can be incredibly fulfilling and access to top tier press and execs is unparallel.
- A very strong promote from within culture and somewhat of a meritocracy for analysts.
- Great benefits and personal time off; but tricky to use all of the time given.
- Excited about recent leadership changes and hope we continue to hire execs from outside.

Cons – - Too many priorities that makes it difficult for research managers and their teams to focus.
- All research teams and analysts goaled but some get more marketing support than other.
- Lack of investment in the core product and website that,hampers analyst and sales performance.
- Recent sales changes have impacted company wide performance; but optimistic it's fixable.
- Lack of product marketing making it difficult for sales to sell without tapping analysts for help.
- Long hours and travel like a consultant but compensation isn't as comparable.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend – I'm optimistic about the outlook for this company

Current Employee – been working at Forrester Research full-time for more than a year

Pros – -Best management chain of my career. They sustain trust, uphold integrity and encourage risk-taking. Bravo!
-The visibility is incredible, and we have the opportunity to influence and inform people at all levels of industry.
-Many opportunities to pursue new areas of research and engage with clients.
-Leadership team asks for and responds to candid feedback, and owns up to mistakes.
-Fantastic clients and the nature of the work makes keeping them happy a natural outcome. It's truly inspiring.

Cons – -Time management is hard. You will work very hard and the pay is only 'just enough' (but if you're in research for big money then you're in the wrong career!).
-Constant context switching in the analyst role (research, consulting, inquiry, internal) is inefficient. Needs more focus, less clutter.
-Bureaucracy can get a little out of hand. Takes months to get new research through the laborious editing process despite having fabulous people doing the editing.

Advice to Senior Management – -Invest and mature the HR org so they can actively help employees find and develop their strengths.
-Perfection is the enemy of great - shorten the research value delivery chain.
-Recognize the inherent inefficiency of constant context switching, and focus the research role on fast, collaborative, high-value research delivery.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend – I'm optimistic about the outlook for this company

Current Employee – been working at Forrester Research full-time for more than 7 years

Pros – Great culture, amazingly smart people to learn from

Cons – Vision is sometimes not so clear. Lots of changes for the sake of change.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at Forrester Research

Pros – Valuable exposure, learning and experience

Cons – Training can be stressful because there is so much to learn. Pretty big learning curve

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend – I'm optimistic about the outlook for this company

Current Employee – been working at Forrester Research full-time for more than 7 years

Pros – Smart people. Great work culture. Not too much bureaucracy. You are often what you make of yourself.IT

Cons – Constant change. Forrester has never shied away from changes. It's surprising that it still has not mastered change management. To many projects. Too many moving targets. But all the same people spinning around doing them all.

Advice to Senior Management – Need more definitions around career path to keep self-motivated employees.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend – I'm optimistic about the outlook for this company