Forrester Research Reviews in Boston, MA Area

Pros

The best reasons are: the ability to build your personal brand; work with some of the brightest people on your industry; a fun loving culture; and great post Forrester job opportunities.

Cons

The high risk of burn out; micro-management; and a convoluted org structure that makes internal navigation challenging. Forrester should focus on expanding the core offering to other functions and supporting the analyst to avoid burnout. While analyst are the core product they are also overloaded with tasks which require supporting some sub-competent personnel in other departments like sales, marketing and management.

Advice to Senior Management

Simplify org structures; don't overload the analysts; think five times before you decide strategy; rejuvenate the research product

Pros

excellent networking opportunities with clients
great colleagues, besides the management team
very interesting research and areas of expertise

Cons

if you're not in sales or in research, your work is not recognized by top management
the company thinks it's global but it is still very American. Fellow colleagues here don't have any experience in operating in a global environment. Company should teach everyone methods on how to deal with European clients or Asian clients
The bonus system is not a bonus system. It's 20% of your salary and even if you perform and the company doesn't , you don't get anything
Opportunities for growth and career path don't exist, it's more based on networking
A very individualistic company: analysts run their business, sales too but what if you're someone else

Advice to Senior Management

admit that you work in a global environment and don't treat all employees as if they were americans
have some true leaders who motivate their teams towards a common goal
change the bonus system and reward employees on their performance
review sales commissions: salary gaps between consultant and junior account management are too wide

Pros

Forrester is a resume builder. Not only does it have a good name, but you will also learn a lot. If you have the RIGHT manager, you will also enjoy your job and feel like you have clear career goals to work towards.

Cons

One of the first things a lot of people mention is the low pay. Also, I have encountered poor people in upper management who don't care about their employees and almost seem as if they deliberately hold their careers back. They make poor decisions and don't care for the input of their team. If you end up on the wrong team or with the wrong manager your life can be hell.

Advice to Senior Management

Listen to your employees. Give them more incentives to want to work harder for you.

Pros

Smart people---The research departments attract thoughtful and social nerds. That is a good thing.
Unique and creative work---There are not too many business jobs, where one can do nothing but step back and develop innovative ideas to communicate to their industry peers. It is a nice mix between academics, performing and consulting.

Cons

Forrester seriously underpays. I don't understand how they manage to attract quality people. They do have a problem with retention.
Also, when you are young it is a good place to get experience, but at some point you will yearn for hands on experience.

Advice to Senior Management

In fairness, some managers are great. The problem for someone entering is that is it highly variable by department and individuals.

Pros

Extremely smart analysts who are willing to push the envelope and take a stand on their research that might be contrary to popular opinion.

Cons

Out of touch CEO who surrounds himself with yes-men. They've lost touch with real business and employee issues and can't keep a coherent strategy going for more than 90 days.

Advice to Senior Management

Listen to your best analysts, ask for their feedback and ideas about growing the business. Pay for performance. You need the consulting revenue so stop decreasing pay for bringing in and delivery advisory and consulting business. You only focus on this when the company is hurting for revenue.

Pros

The people - wonderful working with such intelligent thought leaders. You're learning something new everyday. You also tend to work with very senior level clients which is an excellent way to learn and develop networks for future career opportunities.

Cons

As the company grows it becomes much more political and less entrepreneurial.

Advice to Senior Management

To solicit and serious consider the opinions of those below them.

Pros

The company has a better reputation than it currently deserves and good name recognition. So it's still not a bad company to have on your resume (at least not yet).

Cons

The current unimaginative management team is gutting the ranks of the researchers and few outstanding people remain. The good people will continue to leave. The recession is bound to make things even worse there as the inexperienced managers (most of them have never worked anywhere else) panic and take increasingly illogical steps to stem the inevitable loss of customers that will ensue.

Advice to Senior Management

George Colony is the only bright light at the company. It's too bad he's letting such second-raters run it for him. He needs to step back in and make wholesale changes in the management team.

Pros

Forrester provides its employees a very open horizontal plane for lateral movement across different areas of the organization, in order to promote individuals finding their niche. Benefits package is very comprehensive and time off is generous - if you can take it.

Cons

While Forrester tries to keep a small company feel, it has reached a size where bureaucracy and policy are the lay of the land. As might be expected from a research organization, everything is metric-driven and quantified, which can often lead to management implementing practices that have the employees pursuing an arbitrary number, rather than operating in the most efficient or logical path.

Advice to Senior Management

For a company that claims to be about providing research rather than consulting, the emphasis has clearly shifted to the latter.

Pros

Strong culture; intelligent people; entrepreneurial atmosphere. Forrester's management works hard to develop the whole person using a combination of coaching, regular check-ins, and concrete metrics. There is an entrepreneurial atmosphere at Forrester, which makes it easy to run a business within a business. The people we work with are professional and willing to try new things. If you work hard, are flexible, and a problem solver there are no barriers to what you can do at Forrester -- start as an RA and become an analyst. Work in client services and move into sales.

Cons

The commute. There is a "Cambridge-centric" culture at Forrester, with face time being highly valued. It is a global company that is trying to get its head around remote work and supporting those who do it. Technology upgrades would help. Forrester writes a great deal about Gen Yers in the workforce who aren't going to be comfortable tethered to a desk or a building. They can do their work anywhere and expect to be rewarded based on their productivity. We could learn a lot from companies like IBM who are building mathematical models to optimize worker efficiency. Armed with this data, senior management could use it to be even more strategic in leveraging their workforce.

Advice to Senior Management

Management is on the right course, and seems to have all of the right people on the bus. There is a concerted effort to put process into place and to focus on execution. Senior management is hard working, optimistic, and great at rallying the troops.

Pros

Analysts have the ability to define their own research streams, which offers a great deal of intellectual stimulation and fulfillment. For new analysts, there's huge opportunity for professional growth in areas like writing, speaking, and consulting. In addition to gaining notoriety through research reports, analysts can gain industry visibility through outlets like press quotes, TV spots, and conference speeches. The net effect of all of this is that analysts experience an enormous amount of professional growth in their first several years on the job. This can help you jump start your career or leapfrog others in your field. The Forrester cachet also makes it easy to land your next gig.

Cons

The analyst job can be grueling. While individual managers support the idea of work/life balance, the reality is that it's incredibly difficult for analysts to meet their quarterly goals without putting in a significant amount of time during evenings and weekends. There is also so much focus on meeting quarterly financial goals (i.e., consulting) that it's hard for analysts to get the mental space and time that they need to write high quality research. As analysts move up the ranks and become proficient in their jobs, there are fewer and fewer opportunities for advanced training and professional growth. Management has an uncanny way of instituting policies (e.g., bonus compensation) that drive down employee morale.

Advice to Senior Management

Take the company private so that employees can focus on doing great work, not just on making the numbers every quarter. Focus on ways to continue to develop senior-most analysts. Give some money to charity -- it's good karma and will come back to you tenfold.