AKQA Reviews

Pros

It's a privately held, stable company, with lots of smart people. The work is strong and the brands are mostly fun.

Cons

They're somewhat conservative with pay increases. The hours can be long, depending on what role you're in. They're growing and run short of office space so it gets crowded at times. The chaos level gets high due to lots of new people on top of the typical turnover.

Advice to Senior Management

It's not too late for some of you to get out of advertising and use your talents towards the betterment of humanity.

Pros

AKQA has great clients and interesting projects.

Cons

Working over weekends and pulling all-nighters too much to get the work done.

Advice to Senior Management

Better structure and communication across disciplines

Pros

Creative, exciting work if you love your book
Great co-workers

Cons

Long hours
Underpaid salary
Promotions come rarely

Advice to Senior Management

look after the middle and lower management.

Pros

Great client rosters, talented and passionate colleagues, interesting projects and challenges. Ability to work on multiple/different accounts if you speak up or want a new challenge.

Cons

High burn and churn rate. Very little mentoring. Long hours - overtime and weekends. Pitches are the worst. Lack of resources to properly staff projects.

Advice to Senior Management

It takes more than beer to keep talent. Teach and inspire creatives to be better at their job. Demand the same level of innovation and creativity from account and project management that you expect from the creative department.

Pros

There are opportunities, if you're lucky you'll be awarded access to them.
There are extremely talented people at your disposal. Most of them very busy but they're all a great bunch.
AKQA has a very good portfolio, definitely one to have on your resume.

Cons

Easy to hit the ceiling in terms of carreer progression as it doesn't go very far in the Technology dept.

Advice to Senior Management

Give people that you say 'shine' more opportunities to 'shine'. It's difficult to outperform your competition if you're consistently handed something that needs fixing, rather than being allowed to play with the toys.

Pros

Great entry-level experience
Young and lively colleagues
Casual culture
Annual company picnics
Teamwork
Responsive IT department
Some managers care about their team

Cons

Management promises compensation, then beats around the bush, and compensation is never to be seen.
Low salaries
Good work is only recognized by verbal praise, "Pat on the back"

Advice to Senior Management

Do not talk to your employees like you are selling to a client. Be clear and detailed on what compensation will be if it is promised, not just "you will get what you deserve", which is ambiguous and misleading.

Pros

Talented folk
International opportunities
Interesting clients
Freedom to flourish (no micro-management)
Ambition
Strategic not production

Cons

Salary levels are poor
Difficult to progress unless you do great work AND have ambition + drive
(Work life balance really isn't that bad - been in much worse)

Advice to Senior Management

Review pay structures because they really are poor. Weed out the petty politics and under-performers. Bigger vision would be nice.

Pros

Great people, great company if you aren't in the search department

Cons

bad pay, no recognition for work that was done

Advice to Senior Management

Pay more attention to the search and media department.

They are very overworked and greatly underpaid.

Pros

Impressive client list, driven colleagues.
Great exposure to top brands.
Challenging and motivating projects.
Autonomous style of working
Work hard, play hard colleagues that are fun.

Cons

Be prepared for long hours.
Lack of support from senior colleagues.
You are stuck with your role.
A lack of a common vision and strategy.

Advice to Senior Management

If you want to keep talented people around, you need to figure out how to let them engage their talents and how to actively offer career development.

Pros

Best clients, driven people.
Smartest people I've worked with.
Great creative product.
Some of the brightest techhies I've worked with.
Pretty autonomous on the whole

Cons

Can be tough for those who aren't prepared to buy into the work ethic.
Focus on product is everything - there's not much of a soft-side to the business

Advice to Senior Management

Hold on to what matters: great creative product.