Pros
Some great people within the ranks
Cons
I had a terrible experience on the digital team at DC. If you want to innovate and be part of cutting-edge digital marketing and engagement - look elsewhere. If you show ambition on the digital team, you run the very real risk of being attacked and bullied by team leadership without the support of HR and agency leadership to protect you. Drake Cooper is shockingly behind the times with digital marketing, even though they talk a big game. There is flippant attention paid to data and results (or results are selectively manipulated to 'tell the story' that benefits the agency), and an alarming absence of engagement strategy and optimization testing in digital projects. The digital team is overshadowed by inexperienced, competitive, toxic, and manipulative leadership who has zero experience outside of Drake Cooper. It shows. Leadership has a very minimal understanding of digital marketing, refuses to let managers own their duties, and actively cultivates a 'boys club' mentality among the team. Information flow to and from senior leadership is manipulated to to the supervisor's advantage as he actively undermines those with experience. Digital leadership cultivates a hostile environment on the team as the supervisor regularly derided those who differed from him, poked fun of and openly attacked people - calling them names if he didn’t agree with him. I regularly heard him call one teammate illiterate, another useless, and women throughout the agency ridiculous. When I gave a presentation to digital leadership and the CEO about some strategic ideas, the supervisor pulled me aside to tell me that I ‘disgusted him’ and that he ‘couldn’t look at me’. Threatened bullies lash out. The agency’s values of ambition, truth telling, etc. are mere lip service. When employees demonstrate these values (as I did with my presentation), they are told to sit down and shut up by unqualified fast-tracked leaders who grapple for power and prestige at every turn. The digital team's interviewing process is alarming and discriminatory. I participated in interviews where job applicants were not considered because they were a woman with a young child, they had too much education and the supervisor said "people with multiple degrees don’t do well here", or they were simply older than the average age at the agency and they "wouldn’t ever fit in". At Drake Cooper, there is a lot of talk about 'culture fit’, yet I have seen many, including myself, get slapped with the 'lack of culture fit' label - despite fitting in well with their colleagues and doing excellent work. It seems to be an easy, clean way for the agency to hire and fire as they see fit. Ironically, all of the digital team members that left DC within the last year and a half (who were incorrectly deemed 'unworthy' by threatened digital leadership) have gone on to score amazing jobs at Fortune 500 innovators in Silicon Valley - innovative and passionate digital movers and shakers clearly aren't welcome on this team. The CEO is much too distant from the ranks to understand what is really happening within teams, and extends far too much trust to his managers. It is very difficult to get time with agency leadership and, if you do, in my experience, your manager will always be there to control the flow of information in real-time. If you try to speak up and connect with the CEO, digital leadership will lash out. HR at Drake Cooper is uninformed and clearly pursues a ‘risk management’ rather than an ‘employee resource’ approach to HR. Despite claims that she is there to "curate" culture, in my experience and in those of many colleagues, HR was abrasive, manipulative, and unhelpful whenever approached. HR also lacked the savvy and maturity necessary to handle difficult employee situations professionally. But what about the agency's listing on Outside Magazine's top places? Take a closer look at the award methodology - it's a ranking of employee survey feedback among the companies that submitted themselves for consideration. Don't be fooled into thinking that this award reflects a national endorsement. Also, take note - they didn't win this year. Read these reviews carefully- I personally witnessed the digital team mocking negative reviews on here and writing fake overly positive ones (they are easy to spot here). There was also a reputation management task force created to look at and mitigate negative reviews. In summary, even though many folks within the ranks are talented and friendly, there are major problems with leadership that make working at Drake Cooper stressful, frustrating, and full of political landmines. Avoid it.