Dentsu takeover changed everything - Anonymous employee Character SF Employee Review

Great studio culture, work and people

The business was bought and shut down

You'll get a lot of experience, but don't expect any direction.

This place is a wreck. If you read anything, just read the first point below. The turnover was huge. Out of 15 people in the NY office, only 1 remained after 6 months. They have very real problems with people disliking the principals, do not expect to be mentored but do expect to get burned out. This is the main reason they have turnover problems. The values of the company as a whole were the worst I've ever seen. We would regularly get projects for companies that the principals had invested into, and then be forced to put up with bullying and do free work. Unlimited PTO was a sad joke. One of the directors hadn't taken more than 2 days off since 2019. The leadership team say they want people to take time off, but with the unending turnover there were never enough people to do the work so PTO never happened. Pay equality was shockingly bad. But, when you consider how for the past 20 years that there's only been one female principal (the wife of a founder), it's not surprising. As a woman you'll get lots of work, but zero promotions.