Everyday coworkers are great, but management issues stem from the top - Senior Creative Curiosity Employee Review

3.0
May 16, 2025
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.

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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.

Explore other reviews about Curiosity

5.0
Jun 25, 2025
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Great nothing much to say

Cons

Nothing much to say it was a good experience

2.0
Jan 24, 2025
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Nice office, hybrid work schedule

Cons

They grew too much on a small amount of time and cannot keep up with procedures to accommodate the growth. Their procedures are to just get it done, even if it is not the best way. Half of the people are clueless and they do not do what is in the best interest of the client. I feel for their clients...if they only knew how things were being handled there.

1
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Curiosity Response
1y
We appreciate you offering your perspective on your time with us. Admittedly, we’re not perfect and want to be more self-aware. A part of improving in this area is taking feedback that may not be easy to hear and growing from it. We do make every effort to be transparent in what’s happening across the agency and are constantly working to anticipate growth, make the adjustments we need to create great work and not have sustained periods where our people are overwhelmed. It sounds like there were some challenges you faced. Hopefully, you have found a role that better aligns with your beliefs. Thank you for sharing.
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