Pros
• Excellent opportunity for advancement in most areas of the company • Lots of opportunity to move to different groups within the company • Huge amount of autonomy and delegation of responsibility • Generous equity package extended to every employee (obviously more generous for higher ranking employees) • Fantastic benefits • Great work/life balance • Great people and culture for the most part I have had an excellent experience working at CSN for the past 4+ years. I started in an entry level marketing position. I expressed an interest in the advertising side of the business and was given an opportunity to work on an advertising project on a rotation basis. I worked hard during that rotation and was then offered a full time position in the group after just 4 months with the company. Since joining the advertising group I was promoted to Specialist, Assistant Manager, and then Manager. More recently, I interviewed for a Category Management position and will now be moving into that role. In my time at CSN, the leadership has always gone out of their way to put me in a position to utilize my strengths, improve on my weaknesses, and do important work that contributes to the success of the company. I see a lot of posts saying it is impossible to move up within CSN or move around within CSN which has not been my experience at all. I’ve never been involved in “clickiness” within the company and that hasn’t stopped me from moving up pretty quickly. Further, I know lots of other people who worked hard, did a great job, and were very quickly rewarded with more responsibility and better compensation. A huge portion of the people in non-customer service roles began in entry level CS positions which shows there really is opportunity for good people to move within the company. The advertising department in particular has a great culture. Virtually every person in the department of 40+ people is extremely smart, seemingly happy, collaborative and great to work with. The leadership expects quality work but that work is rewarded and individuals are given credit for their ideas and contributions. I couldn’t picture a better work environment.
Cons
• Low salary relative to comparable positions in other companies which makes it tough to afford living in or around Boston • Seemingly low morale within the customer service group (as evidenced by the glassdoor commentary) The company has had some growing pains. Strategies and goals do shift quickly but I think that’s more a reflection of the life-cycle and amazing growth rate of the company and that flexibility is necessary. Salaries in the past were far below market value and I justified that sacrifice because I knew I was getting better experience than I would in almost any other company. However, the salary problem has been improving in the last year or so and current salaries seem to be far closer to parity with the market. The establishment of an equity plan has also helped make CSN a much more financially rewarding place to work.
