Pros
Interesting to work in heart of the city and service engagements for some of the top classical musicians today. On the whole the artists are very nice and grateful!
Cons
Although the artists are on the whole agreeable to work for and appreciative of work done to assist them, management and senior management are the problem. Impatient, proud, unsympathetic and with really unrealistic expectations, my managers clearly had forgotten what it's like to be at the beginning of one's career and to still have a thing or two to learn. They took training, follow up questions and the occasional need to break down instructions or for help with prioritising for granted and would easily become exasperated, reproach unfairly and disproportionately annoyed. It was the norm for my manager to go all day without speaking to me despite sitting close by in the office. The 'brand image' matters greatly, and should an employee not follow a procedure quite how management would prefer, the first concern is 'this makes us look bad'. I experienced being given vague instructions but when asking follow-up questions was met with exasperated response or snarkiness. And then when used own initiative, manager was displeased and would have preferred me to follow a very specific procedure! i.e. cannot win. No room for progression in terms of learning more about developing a good ear etc and the musical side of being a good manager, and excluded from listening in on conversations had about why or why not an artist is good for a certain engagement etc. Despite having a music degree being a criteria marked as "Essential" in JD, managers undermine musical knowledge when ACs share an opinion at all.