Critical Mass Reviews

I worked at Critical Mass

Pros – If you are just trying to get your foot into the door in the online space this is a great place to do it.
The salaries are fine for the jobs.
The culture is weird in that by 5:30 the office is -empty-. I've never seen a digital agency where everyone fled so quickly.

Cons – Honestly, the people you are working with are kind of idiots. Everyone I met was eager to jump ship during the 18 months I worked there. The programmers are overworked (and are frankly too skilled for the sweat shop conditions they are given), the designers are good but not great, and everyone else is just...a worthless parasite.
it is an office filled with marketers that go around calling other marketers douche bags (without realizing they belong in that same category) .

Advice to Senior Management – You have created an interesting business. People pay you a boatload of money for moderately interesting web experiences. There will ALWAYS be a place for that...so why change a thing?

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

I worked at Critical Mass

Pros – - Great people
- Office in downtown, with nice view
- Lots of social events
- Good clients for resume
- Typical American company

Cons – -Office is open space, sometimes too noisy
-Work is like a consulting for clients, no clients - no work
-Very bad management planning for projects and recourses (people), overtimes for employees
-Not much challenge from technical point of view, all the projects typical and rather simple sites to display/save to DB something
-Work with offshore services in Costa Rica
-Lots of games around projects with Canadian guys (they have offices there), sometimes it's annoying, aka family with top management as parents, and teams as siblings hating each other.

Advice to Senior Management – -Improve planning for projects
-Try not to share work among different offices
-Provide employees with performance review on a regular basis

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

I have been working at Critical Mass

Pros – great pay, flexible work schedule

Cons – no direction/leadership, lots of cliques

Advice to Senior Management – better recruiting

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

I worked at Critical Mass

Pros – The people are great and fun.

Cons – Bad project planning and management and employees expected to work their butts off to make up for it. No emphasis on career growth. Favouritism and cliques.

Advice to Senior Management – Evaluate people on more than just hours worked. Plan for the future instead of repeating the same mistakes over and over again.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

I worked at Critical Mass full-time for more than a year

Pros – The day to day workers (developers, designers and EA) are all very talented and hard working. Great people, who make an effort to make social events fun. Kudos to the social committee. Projects have the potential to be good, and as long as the leadership team don't get involved, one can produce good work. Well compensated. Always had a good experience when working in the Calgary office - lots of energy and desire to do good work there.

Cons – If you aren't from Calgary, then there is very little opportunity to advance into an exec roll. Strategy from a high level is very old and dated. Creative is all about tactics, with no appreciation for big ideas. Projects and pitches are a victim of internal politics, and suffer from it as a result.. All the good people leave as they are not allowed to shine. Business is no longer diversified. No GM and no "leaders" within the leadership team. Too much complacency and a high turnover of people.

Advice to Senior Management – Allow your employees to do their job and don't try and make every decision for them.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend – I'm not optimistic about the outlook for this company

I have been working at Critical Mass full-time

Pros – Talented people doing great work.
Clean
Well lit
Plenty of toilets
Vending Machine
New colorful chairs in awkward locations (corners, nooks)
Fridges to keep bagged lunches cold

Cons – Moved 4 floors into 1
Smaller desks
Closer together
No more bistro, gym, hairdresser, etc.
CM now has a standard office with art on a few walls.
Some talent seems to be hitting the road quickly after move.

I worked at Critical Mass

Pros – - High profile clients and projects
- If you last longer then 2 years you will have proven that you can survive in the most extreme toxic environments.

Cons – - Management cultishly insular.
- Long, unpaid overtime leads to eventual burnout
- High turnover rate, HR was on a permanent hiring blitz to maintain enough staff to complete projects
- Professional development largely involves coming to sobering realizations about where you will finally draw the line

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

I have been working at Critical Mass

Pros – Great clients, lots of fun people, great company culture, Calgary office space is really nice.

Cons – I have never worked with a worse team of Account Managers and Project Managers. No one seems to know what is going on at the project level. Communication from senior project leadership to the production teams is almost non-existent. When issues are escalated to department management and/or team management there is little to no action ever taken. When employees become disgruntled the general attitude seems to be "love it or leave". Unfortunately many people do choose to leave and the do so frequently. In general I would advise to stay away especially if you are working remotely. Salaries are sub par as well.

Advice to Senior Management – Communicate to your project teams and hire some decent Account Managers and Project Managers.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

I worked at Critical Mass

Pros – - Best people in the industry
- Endless opportunity to be innovative
- Laid-back atmosphere, no management/corporate BS
- Proud and seemlingly tight-knit company culture (at least in the past)
- Uber-efficient processes and technology
- If you can balance the cons and give up 2 years of your life, it will be great place to list on your resume

Cons – - Poor pay compared to similar positions in other companies/cities
- Complete disregard for work/life balance. CM cleverly circumvents the Alberta Labor Standards by forcing free overtime, with no time off in lieu. Nobody challenged this in court... yet..
- Cliques, rampant nepotism, unfair advancement opportunities, favoritism
- Very high turnover rate
- Abysmally long and complex performance review process
- Cult-like atmosphere. In a bad way.

CM is very talented in exploiting young, easily impressed recent grads who are eager to help and very naive. They will be hired, sucked dry, and replaced. My 3 year stint with CM felt like a brutally demanding internship rather than fully fledged career. On a bright side, this is a place where some will realize their value and learn how not to be exploited for the duration of their careers elsewhere. The experiences at CM will leave lasting mark on your psyche.

Advice to Senior Management – Treat your people with more respect, your policies leave lingering bad taste for those of us (the scores of us) who left.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

I have been working at Critical Mass

Pros – No shortage of lovely talented, decent people. Access to blue chip brands.

Cons – Surprisingly clueless about the conceptual industry, particularly in the cultivation and execution of ideas. Horrendous stifling, defensive and passive aggressive clique(s) that(s) promote the mediocre (who are willing to rut). Huge profits were once made from young hard-working graduates of nearby art college; this model no longer applies to the average digital professional.

Advice to Senior Management – Make an effort to allow individuals to exploit their specific talents; they are willing to make you richer. Demolish the closed fraternities/sororities that exclude most new talent. (Look in the mirror.)

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend