Pros
Really great team to be a part of, who are all very capable. Events have fantastic content, run very smoothly and have greater calibre of audience attendees. Opportunity to become a real expert in an area of institutional finance and chance to build strong networks with experts in the field. Nice office in a lovely area. Small company so ability to learn from all areas of event production, operations and marketing. Independent work environment, which allows quick learning of topics and concepts and ability to shape events and agenda. Event topics which are of interest to people within the industry and therefore able to work with some big names and companies very closely.
Cons
There is a real lack of support from management with very little praise, or consideration into individual career progression. Management does not advocate for you internally, and does not defend you externally. Pay is lower than it should be for entry level / graduate role in London with bonuses few and far between, having little impact on overall earnings. Not a competitive salary with lack of structure for when pay rises might be available etc. No HR means that when issues arise internally between staff or with management, they are not addressed or dealt with appropriately. This will continue to be a significant issue until someone is employed to take on HR matters. When staff raise concerns or are asked for their opinion these are shut down or ignored. This is difficult when staff have so much ownership of their events as can be difficult to watch management not handle situations appropriately and see events suffer as a result. Terrible database with out of date contacts or leads - very difficult to keep up to date as free software which requires huge manual input. Seems little considered strategy for the business - growth plans are too ambitious and instead of a 5-10 year plan, they expect to complete in 2 years. Think there is little understanding from management of what it actually takes to grow a business to that scale e.g. reinvestment into the business, securing and producing successful events for several years before growth etc. surviving a pandemic is not justification for rapid growth. Management are very reactive - if they have a member of staff capable of doing something they plan 2 years of growth on that one skill / capability, similarly if one person mentions an area of growth this is seen as a niche to focus on for the next event etc. Things need to be established and show security first, before expanding. Inappropriate boundaries from CEO family members - there have been family members attend work dinners / activities etc. when they are not staff and then make comments about paid employees to other staff, highly inappropriate and does not go unnoticed by the wider team.