BBH Reviews

Pros

Very entrepreneurial. Good environment to come to work everyday - better than most shops. Would recommend working here over other places.

Cons

Obviously - there are the typical annoyances of working on any advertising account. Long hours at times, difficult clients, etc.

Advice to Senior Management

I was not employed long enough to see some of the back workings that may have needed help. I think for the most part everybody is pulling weight.

Pros

-The barista is wonderful, perhaps one of the nicest people at BBH
-Interesting work and accounts
-Great vibe to the office and entrepreneurial feel
-Winner of many ad awards
-Free food and lots of team bonding events

Cons

It may have been the team I was assigned to but there was a definite lack of communication between teams. Interns either had nothing to do and suffered through a lull or were given tons of work with unrealistic time expectations.
-There were definite cliques throughout the agency and you could differentiate the "cool" employees from the others. Although this agency has won many awards and has a good name, members of the NYC office need to be more inclusive and be cautious about egos getting to large.
-Inefficient meetings that were held too frequently
-Drastic turnover rate and low morale
-Sometimes too laid back to a point where managers praised casual working styles over timeliness and professionalism.
-Hard working individuals and previous staff not recognized

Advice to Senior Management

Good senior management...sometimes you need to keep check on employees who are abusing the cool, casual system going on. Praise is usually given to the loudest and coolest employee rather than the hardest working

Pros

Great opportunities for client contact at all levels. Very flexible for work life balance, opportunities for top performers

Cons

limited budgets and investment, underperformers are not laid off, happy with status quo

Advice to Senior Management

Don't be afraid to lay off underperformers or dead weight who have coasted for years

Pros

You can have a life there. People here leave work around 7pm which is early in other advertising agencies. They have pool table, Wii and a quite decent library. There are some cool and nice people there so you wont feel depressed when tough time comes. They just moved to a much better office after occupying the previous one for over 10 years, this new office is designed to follow open space kind of layout so everyone can see and talk to each other no matter where you are seated. Everyone here is equipped with a personal laptop so you can work from anywhere, as long as you don't bring inconvenience to other staffs and must make sure you finish what you're supposed to do.

Cons

Sometimes people are just too free. You can't do scam ads here, which means there's no way you can win awards and recognitions easily since jobs coming in are not that many, plus the clients are always bias so it's even more difficult to perform a creativity breakthrough. All things aside, if you're at junior level, it's kinda hard to be appraised by the senior management and it will take a long time to get you promoted, like myself there, that was one of the reason I left, I was the one doing all the creative work in my department, yet my boss get the limelight.

Advice to Senior Management

Respect your employees more

Pros

The sheer density of incredibly intelligent and different people in one place, working hard toward the common goal of creating the best possible advertising could make BBH a daunting place to work. Yet its this very fact that inspires and motivates people at the agency to do the best job they can; there's just so much that can be learnt from working there. The recruitment policy of 'Good and nice' hits the nail on the head really. Did I forget to mention the amazing brands you get to work on, the offices in Soho and the free breakfast?

Cons

With high workloads and everyone striving to meet very high standards, its hard to maintain a decent work-life balance. Don't get me wrong, managers have a very flexible attitude to working hours, but it's not uncommon to finish at 7PM. Second downside - having a pub opposite the front door.

Advice to Senior Management

I can't imagine there's much I could advise them on as both the UK and group management teams do a very solid job. That said, (and this is a serious point) I think it’s fair to say that salaries in all departments at the lower levels are slightly short of the mark. As BBH is such an amazing place to work, people will suffer for a good couple of years if they start at the bottom of the agency and I don’t necessarily feel this is right given the effort put in is equal to their seniors and the profit margin the agency makes. My only other comment to them is quite a positive – with the industry changing all the time BBH needs to keep up and ideally lead this. I think in the past 2 years the company has stepped up to this challenge well.