Pros
The ideals behind this company are solid. The founder of the company is a very solid guy and he has my respect. There is a very strong mission here, and I really wish that they lived up to it. He wants this to be a world class design firm, and as such, he "borrows" quite a bit from Ideo. There is nothing wrong with standing on the shoulders of giants. There is a tremendous desire to develop a strong culture, and it's probably not a bad place to go for a first job. In fact, I would say that a vast majority of the younger people here are quite happy, and I appreciate that, as it is those younger people who are the real heart of the company...people go into this company truly wanting to make a positive difference, and it's great. that desire is honest, and i love it.
Cons
In a general sense, salaries are somewhat low, and it's really more of a contract labor firm (think manpower) than a design firm, despite the flashy marketing. More to the point, there are some tremendously bad apples in the upper management here. There's a stubborn pompous pride that's destructive. In order to expand beyond the west coast of the state, there needs to be a willingness to explore the distinctly market differentiated mentalities of the customers. However, what we had instead was an oblivious over-stepping that limited the success of our local branch, which was ultimately dissolved. Personally speaking, I was released under terms that, at best, go against the mission of the company. more realistically, there were certain dishonest actions taken by the company that resulted in legal evidence being collected and a lawsuit nearly filed against the company. This action was never taken because, frankly, I do want them to succeed. I'm not writing this as some sort of grievance, because I feel like it's unlikely that anybody of that sort will ever read this, but to people inquiring into joining the team...just be careful. 95% of this company is fantastic, but that last 5% can really bite you. This is a nice juicy apple with a worm inside. Don't eat the worm.