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      Constant Layoffs - Associate Art Director Curiosity Employee Review

      1.0
      Oct 13, 2019
      Associate art director
      Recommend
      CEO approval
      Business outlook

      Pros

      Culture, clients, work life balance

      Cons

      Unstable, caters to the "fun" employees who prefer to play ping pong than focus. Do not seem to value actual talent or hard work. I was only there 2 years and there were 3 rounds of layoffs. I did not make it past the third nor did 9 other hardworking talented people. In the last year I've seen them hiring for all the positions they've laid off.

      avatar
      Curiosity Response
      6y
      Thank you for taking the time to write a review. While I disagree with your perspective, I appreciate your candor. Curiosity is exceptionally stable. We are experiencing a record year in new business wins and organic growth with existing clients. I believe this is the direct result of our "culture of curiosity" in which we continue to invest our time, talent, and resources back into Curiosity and our staff. We are proud to be the most successful independent agency in Cincinnati. Our independence allows us to put our client's needs first and reward our talent appropriately. Unfortunately, many agencies are forced to layoff staff when there is a business loss. We are no different. Often the reasons for the lost client are beyond an agency's control. No agency is immune to these situations. It is true that we have had to navigate this situation in our recent past. The ad business is continually changing because of technology, consumer behavior, and new client needs. Any of these events collectively or individually can cause us to revaluate our staffing needs and make adjustments as necessary. These decisions are always tough to make and not taken lightly. We do our best to make these transitions and outcomes as good as possible for the employees affected by these decisions. Despite the sometimes fragile reality of our business model, we continue to try and create an environment that promotes innovative thinking and, ultimately, great ideas for our clients. Allowing our staff to be happy and engaged is a great decision, and the business results prove it. Sometimes that takes the form of game-playing and other times that takes the form of open ideation sessions. We like to focus on the activities that we believe drive a better experience for our staff and a better product for our clients. While I can understand the frustration surrounding the experience you describe at Curiosity, I can assure you the decisions made were driven by dynamics outside of our control, and are the unfortunate reality of the agency business. We certainly hope you have found success in a new career path, and we wish you the best in the future. Please feel free to reach out to me directly if you would like to discuss your concerns with me further. mfischer@curiosity360.com

      Explore other reviews about Curiosity

      5.0
      Jun 25, 2025
      Project manager intern
      Recommend
      CEO approval
      Business outlook

      Pros

      Great nothing much to say

      Cons

      Nothing much to say it was a good experience

      3.0
      May 16, 2025
      Senior creative
      Recommend
      CEO approval
      Business outlook

      Pros

      90% of the people at Curiosity are the best humans you will ever work with. They take work/life balance seriously and do it very well, especially considering the industry. The agency has some great clients and gets fun projects regularly. People are (generally) kind and incredibly talented. Great benefits package overall.

      Cons

      Pay is below industry standard, even for the midwest. Managers are not trained or coached on how to manage well, which means they lose (or let go) a lot of really excellent junior and midlevel employees for things that normally would be coaching or growth opportunities. That also contributes to their high turnover rate of people, which makes processes and client onboarding slow, clunky, and inefficient. They also have zero transparency around career growth, with promotions often feeling like playing favorites for titles rather than true career growth and skill fits. There is still very much a culture of "old boys club" masked behind their many DEI certifications, which struggle to hold up once you're there for longer than a couple of months. While the majority of people at Curiosity are total gems, the small handful who are not are mostly in senior leadership levels and trickle down a lot of toxic and harmful behavior. Managers are not held accountable for how they coach their employees, rather, it is incredibly common for junior employees to take the fall for a manager's poor direction and leadership. If you are already at director level or above and are content with where your career is at, Curiosity might be a great fit. If you are at anything lower than director level, you can and should find much better places to learn and grow.

      3
      avatar
      Curiosity Response
      1y
      TL;DR – Thank you so much for your feedback. We’re proud of the culture we’re building and the incredible people who make it what it is—and we also know there’s always room to grow. We take your concerns seriously, appreciate you taking the time to share them, and wish you all the best ahead. The EP (Extended Play) Thank you for sharing your experience. We're glad you had positive interactions with our team and appreciated the work/life balance. We also hear all of your concerns and take them seriously—especially around management development, transparency, and accountability. Senior leadership recognizes it's our responsibility to model the right behaviors and ensure clear goals and mutual support for development are in place. That includes individual coaching for our leaders and real-time coaching insights through Cloverleaf. We also use a talent calibration process to guide fair and thoughtful promotion decisions. Over the past three years, this has resulted in eight team members being promoted into new non-director roles. This business and our agency aren’t for everyone. We’re proud to average around 90% voluntary retention annually, and we want talent at Curiosity who align with our values and actively demonstrate the six key attributes that lead to success here: being a quick and curious learner, courageousness, relentlessness, authenticity, humility, and self-awareness. The standard is high because we believe that’s what it takes to do our best work—together. As you know, Mandatory Courage is one of our core values. We wish we’d had the opportunity to hear this feedback while you were here, and we appreciate you taking the time to share it now. We’re committed to learning and growing. Wishing you all the best ahead.
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