R/GA Reviews

Pros

Great place to work at.

Cons

no cons really other than management have to listen to their employees.

Advice to Senior Management

Listen to your staff

Pros

1. Excellent career boost - add R/GA to your LinkedIn and it will blow up
2. A lot of talented, great people
3. Great salary and benefits
4. Opportunities are present to work on important, portfolio building projects

Cons

1. R/GA will make your resume stand out, but if you don't gain the portfolio to back it up...
2. A lot of egos and hacks too. Some of the management seems to have become friendly with the right people and move up to where they are today, yet they are horrible managers that are severely outdated. They tend to float on the work that's actually done by the lower level creatives by taking all the credit for it since they provided "direction." It's really sad as the lower level creatives become disenchanted by the whole experience at R/GA, thinking that they busted their butts to get the job (very tough interview process) only to find that they're stuck doing routine, uninspiring work on an account they have no interest in for a manager that they can't even look up to or learn from.
3. Ask for the money you want to be making from the start. Don't low-ball yourself, or you will be placed on a low-ball salary track that's hard to break free from.
4. The opportunities are present to work on important, portfolio building projects providing you are on the right account. But you have to pick your battles: A) Sign your life away and work on one of the big thinking, award winning, sexy accounts OR B) Choose to have somewhat of a life by working on mundane accounts. It is R/GA and you will have a hard time balancing work/life no matter what account you're on, but you have maybe an 80/20 rather than a 150/0 if you work on the boring accounts as opposed to the exciting accounts.

Advice to Senior Management

Make more of an effort to ensure your employees are satisfied with the work they're doing and the account they're on, rather than just finding an opening somewhere and sticking anybody in there to fill a gap. Evaluate managers with more scrutiny...sometimes managers take advantage of their lower level employees by taking all the credit for their hard work. Weed out the dinosaurs that manage to coast by and promote the lower level employees who have consistently been doing great, cutting edge work.

Pros

Great people to work with. Great place for knowledge sharing and collaboration.

Cons

Management does not keep their word and does not appropriately compensate its employees. Rides on reputation.

Advice to Senior Management

Keep your word. Acknowledge your employees and compensate them appropriately.

Pros

High profile clients and high profile work. Good salary and half-decent benefits package. Lots of young people and parties--if you're into that.

Cons

Upper management feels the need to constantly tout the same R/GA success stories to their employees, trying to reassure them that they, too, will eventually get to work on "their" Nike+... but that never happens. Creative leadership is mostly "old" R/GAers who have just stayed put and been promoted by seniority (and plenty of politicking) rather than earning it with skill. Long, long, long work hours for projects barely supported by project managers and account people.

Advice to Senior Management

Clear out deadwood! Don't just promote those who hang around long enough, and fire employees who haven't met their side of the bargain. Most of all, though, fire CLIENTS who are making your team's lives miserable.

Pros

I got to work on major brands
appreciation for innovation
great co-workers -- camaraderie helps when you're all in it together, from late hours to difficult clients

Cons

admin and hr are disorganized and takes a lot of reaching out to get what you need

Pros

I love working for a leader that is inspiring and respectful of his employees. I think Bob does a fantastic job running the company.

Cons

The internal processes do not make sense, they could be more efficient and smarter.

Advice to Senior Management

The management is fine, from what I've seen so far the leaders are great. Obviously, there are a few bad apples and I think wrong hiring decisions were made.

Pros

Good clients. Nice office space and location

That's really all!

Cons

Horribly mismanaged
Terrible work life balance
Leadership team have no integrity.

Advice to Senior Management

Sack the London management

Pros

Name recognition
Access to high ranking individuals client side
Good opportunity to find a mentor when starting out
Talented people
Work here for a little bit and watch your Linkedin blow up. Makes getting the job you really want easier.
Good parties

Cons

It is no longer a design firm. Most decisions are driven by money and the integrity of everyone's work is suffering as a result.
Lots of people competing for limited promotion spots. Senior management however, seems to be adding letters to their titles on a daily basis
Not much of a challenge on retainer accounts. They tend to hire really smart people and make them do production work. A lot of creatives burn out quickly due to the assembly line nature of the place.

Advice to Senior Management

Promote internally more
Fix the place up, the main building is ok, but this is not a creative environment
Let people move around accounts more, so many people are leaving due to burnout
Do something innovative
Stop hiding behind the bureaucracy telling us that you can't do things for us because of x y and z

Pros

Gifted talent, fun work place, great pay, great perks, great name. You will feel compelled to devote yourself to your team, since everyone works their tail off.

Great place to learn how to manage projects with a lean and mean team. Great gut check for those who think they know their stuff. R/GA does a great job of weeding out those who just cant cut it.

Cons

The work is a little dry since senior management's main goal is getting a larger retainer. Think about it like this - If I am calling the shots on a huge account, it isn't my concern about whether the team is happy with the work, since that isn't how my success is measured, it is more like...

How big can we get? How much can we get? What profit can be turned due to running lean?

Advice to Senior Management

Read your incoming employees resume's. Don't think of everyone as a number, or a gap fill. Give people the opportunity to work on projects that will satisfy their need for innovation while you take care of the tactical delivery of what is called for by the clients business.

LISTEN!!!!

Pros

Fast pace; interesting clients; mostly smart co-workers; entrepreneurial atmosphere; great coffee bar; humor appreciated; great team work; good place to learn a lot fast

Cons

Long hours; often a lack of clear direction from the top; inadequate number of staff often assigned to gargantuan tasks

Advice to Senior Management

Find people for the top spots that actually have experience running a company of this size. Actually walk the office and come see us sometimes; try to know your employees.