Excellent Learning Opportunity - Potential for Rapid Professional Growth
Pros
Easily the biggest pro of eGen is its company culture. It's a group of young, passionate professionals who care about the work they're putting forward because they know that as a small team, everything you do is important. To foster a fun and collaborative environment, the company holds after work outings or other activities like bowling, darts, walking food tours, etc. eGen has gone through some dramatic management changes in the past ~4 years, which falls into the pro category. Far more consideration is put into an employee's work/life balance and personal well being than in 2015, 2016, etc. eGen offers a fairly comprehensive benefits package despite its small size: 401k, health/vision/dental/life insurance, STD/LTD, then ones you might not expect like paid maternity and paternity leave, paid jury duty leave, transportation costs, etc. Management is extremely approachable and specifically asks for feedback in group and individual settings. Employees are offered flexible working hours and a hybrid in-office schedule post COVID. Finally, it's a small company, so if you're looking to develop a skill set that's outside of the role you're hired for, you can almost always take it on. In my role as Marketing Director I worked with client services reps who wanted to take on more paid search or social media experience. I've had SEO Specialists get into email marketing or social media. If you have a talent and an interest, the company has a place for you to develop a skill.
Cons
There are rarely clear paths for promotion. Each department has an outline for where an employee can grow, but if a management role is already occupied or if you're already at the "top" of your career path, you might need to rely on company profitability to "afford" growth within your department/some form of promotion. In my role I went from an individual contributor to managing 3 separate departments and had dramatic compensation growth that followed, but this was not a reliable career path for all new employees. eGen pays fairly for a given role in the market, but I would not say it pays competitively. This makes it challenging for the company to hire outside of entry-level employees. The true "super stars" or top-performing employees can find a bigger company with higher revenue that can simply afford to pay more. My last con is that eGen is resistant to change in an environment that requires constant action. Digital marketing is an ever-evolving landscape, especially in a competitive industry like legal. Investing in a new product, migrating an outdated system to 2023 standards, or setting aside a budget for market research, is difficult to get past upper management. Any type of financial investment is a major hurdle for any and all departments. The employees themselves are incredibly talented and do everything in their power to have the most cutting-edge strategies and campaigns in place. That being said, there's nothing a great team of rowers can do if they're still sitting on the dock. eGen needs more employees who can sway opinions. If you're looking to win the hearts & minds of upper management with great ideas, this is an ideal opportunity.
