Arc Worldwide Reviews in Chicago, IL Area

Pros

Great Talent
Positive and energetic attitude
Challenging Work

Cons

Work/life balance challenging to maintain

Pros

Friendly people.

Good location.

Might open doors for other opportunities.

Cons

Crappy environment for creativity to flourish. New cubes are more like shoulders on the side of the road than offices. Shows how little employees are valued. Factory environment.

Work is getting dumber and dumber.

Relentless demands and no push back from account staff. Burn out all over but nobody cares.

Advice to Senior Management

Emperor's New Clothes syndrome. Self impressed upper management. Poorly managed and out of touch with employees, not remotely willing to take a stand for creative ideas or staff. Sometimes have a threatening tone when asking creatives to come up with better work ( always a motivator). Don't seem to understand they need to be clearing a path for good creative and making account staff more accountable and developing a backbone relative to clients. Advertising used to be fun. Now is completely mind numbing.

Pros

Happy hour on Friday in 2005. Don't know how or if that ever changed.

Cons

I was hired with a packaging portfolio and never permitted to work on packaging. Frustrating for all.

Advice to Senior Management

Do a better job in the interview process and hire for the job.

Pros

There are some very compelling reasons to work for Arc. They have great benefits, prestigious clients & they are in a great location. The majority of people who work there are talented, friendly & ambitious.

Cons

In my experience it was impossible to get any "actionable" feedback from my yearly reviews & unless you are in the management "clique" it is extremely hard to get a promotion. Wages were low. We constantly had the carrot of "Above the line work" dangled infront of us & would pitch for it constantly but it would go nowhere. Arc is a good "Below the line" agency & the sooner it realizes it the better. It shares the same building & holiday party with Leo Burnett but that is where the common ground ends. I get the impression that most Leo Burnett employees couldn't care less about collaborating on anything even though the Idea of the building being one big happy family is rammed down your throat.

Advice to Senior Management

Concentrate on what you are good at & own it. Stop trying to be an above the line agency. Try an integrate with Leo Burnett more successfully or not at all. Management needs to actively move people around to keep them fresh. Pay people what they are worth & recognize seniority.

Pros

The people within the Arc world get digital. They're a strong agency with a solid group of people that makes it worth it to work there. An excellent benefits package doesn't hurt.

Cons

You have to understand you'll always be the little sibling to the Leo Burnett folks. As long as Susan Creadle is the CCO, you'll struggle to win any sort of logical battle with the LB folks. Salaries are average, and it usually takes a threat to leave to get a significant increase in wages.

Pros

Good people. Great benefits. Challenging work.

Cons

Long hours. Clients cannot make decisions.

Pros

I have the freedom to do my job and access to help when I need it.

Cons

Limited career advancement and job variety

Advice to Senior Management

Communicate more person to person

Pros

Great brands to work on, lots of talented people within the walls of 35 West Wacker. Lots of growth potential. The benefits are unbeatable.

Cons

In our department it was incredibly difficult to get a promotion at all. The department is lead in a knee-jerk reaction kind of way, so bodies are thrown at projects with little thought.

Advice to Senior Management

Let Arc take the reins over Burnett.

Pros

Good to Great Benefits
Summer Days
Good Creative
Smart People

Cons

Lack of Proper Digital Process
Difficult to get the resources needed to complete projects successfully

Advice to Senior Management

n/a

Pros

1. Great benefits and Salary
2. Good management
3. Great client roster
4. Good worklife balance
5. Great opportunities for training.

Cons

Lots of people remote so don't have the team feeling. Easy to feel lost in the big place but like the stuff they do to keep people together like the big fuss over bring your kids to work day.

Advice to Senior Management

Continue with the good benefits and training opportunities. This place is so large its easy to feel lost. It may be good to think of ways to have teams feel closer to together when they are working remotely