Pros
Because of the high turnover and low number of design staff you will be handed a lot of responsibility and a lot of work regardless of your previous experience. And this is a really good thing if you are willing and able to learn quickly! I would say that my biggest takeaway from working at Denton House was the experience I was able to gain right out of school. Another pro is the opportunity to travel. DH has projects in New York, Montana, Idaho, Mexico, Bahamas, Hawaii, and probably more since I left. If you are willing to travel it is likely that you will be able to travel. The clients you will work with and the homes you will help design are so luxurious and so huge that you will not believe they exist. The caliber of design is astounding. A huge item in the pro category are the people who work at Denton House. The designers, architects, purchasers, and operations staff at this firm are truly fantastic - you could not ask to work with more caring and passionate people. I miss you guys!
Cons
Denton House is a terribly stressful place to work, with a very low emphasis on work-life balance. Impossibly short deadlines were standard, so expect to pull a lot of long days and long weeks to keep up with the workload. While I worked there it seemed like management took every single project offered despite the lack of available staff. This created really stressful situations where projects wouldn't be assigned until the last possible moment, making us have to play catch up again and again, and putting uncalled for blame on our shoulders for anything missed. There is a 0% focus on sustainability. Maybe less than 0%. The approval process is a mess. While I was there probably 90% of what we worked on had to be run by the president of the company for approval before anything could be sent to a client. But, because the president was so often absent from the office and a lot of the time, the country, it was really hard to move forward efficiently. Another thing to note are the hours. When I was hired I was told that work hours were 8-5:30 with an hour lunch break. This ended up being very far from the truth. It was normal for me to stay in the office until 7 or later with a 15 minute lunch break if anything. These hours were expected and anything less was seen to demonstrate poor work ethic. There was also zero compensation for overtime, and it was standard to be on salary vs. hourly. I worked an average of 55 hours a week.