Weber Shandwick Reviews

Pros

Weber Shandwick is full of truly great people. Senior management people offer a large degree of transparency and are easily accessible. They bring a lot of creativity to their planning and have an incredible variety of backgrounds. Everyone has a positive, friendly attitude and are willing to help out. Pay seems on par (if not a little better) for the industry, benefits are great. The Chicago office has a very strong food and beverage practice. The agency is sound financially and on track for growth. They do a good job of publicizing their own work.

Cons

One of the reasons that senior management is so accessible is that there are so many of them - this office is very top heavy with staffing. My practice had four vice presidents but not a single AE. I often felt like I was doing work more suitable for a junior-level staffer. This made it difficult to grow into a team leader. They rely on a revolving door of interns to do the administrative work. Management style can be hands-off to the point where you feel forgotten about. The agency seems disorganized in general when it comes to staffing. Going through staffing spreadsheets, it was not uncommon to see team members with only 40 or 50 percent of their time accounted for. The food and beverage accounts are plentiful here but other areas (healthcare, public affairs) are lacking.

Advice to Senior Management

Be very clear on what you expect from your employees and what their role will be.

Pros

excellent training, cooperative environment, warm atmosphere

Cons

very badly skewed sense of promotions, no sense of meritocracy. Crass favoritism borderlines on nepotism

Advice to Senior Management

get rid of some of the senior managers who have been there too long. skills can get obselete.

Pros

people are friendly. Definitely a laid back atmosphere.

Cons

no work/personal balance. They need to have a better handle on communicating office procedures and policies.

Advice to Senior Management

Learn to communicate better

Pros

Brand name company for resume

Cons

Extremely high employee turnover rate

Advice to Senior Management

Hire more HR staff and focus on retaining employees.

Pros

Weber has great clients and projects and provides the opportunity to work on top-notch brands. Size and breadth of the agency means you can gain experience with a wide variety of clients, industries and practices. Good place to develop PR resume that can get the next job.

Cons

Compensation is below industry average and long hours/weekend work are the norm. Management tends to live at the office and expects the same of staff. Unrealistic workload leads to mediocre client work products and staff burnout.

Advice to Senior Management

Manage junior staff workload more realistically and reward performance to retain quality staff long term. Support work/life balance and create realistic expectations for staff (particularly at the junior level).

Pros

Excellent clients and good benefits

Cons

long hours, poor pay, questionable senior leadership

Pros

The agency has a good reputation and a great client base globally. There were plenty of good and smart people around. I had the freedom to do some things I might not have in other situations.

Cons

The office in Boston was pretty political. Fitting in meant having a certain view of the world. Innovation and creativity were not really valued and could get you into trouble in some circumstances.

Advice to Senior Management

Look around more often and learn to appreciate that there are many ways to achieve agency and client goals and objectives.

Pros

Decent client roster to add to your resume
Extra days off during the summer
Good parking
Nice location and near the freeway
Nice co-workers

Cons

Over-worked and under paid - expect to work seven days a week -year round
Highly political environment
No value for good work
Blame game is the norm
Clients are often very abusive
Management will throw you under the bus

Advice to Senior Management

tell the NY influence to go home and try learning about Corp Culture in the valley before attempting to make change

Pros

Good brands as clients, strong New York, Chicago and Minneapolis offices.

Cons

Senior management doesn't care about the quality of its supporting practice groups. Horrible leadership at its internal multicultural group, The Axis Agency.

Advice to Senior Management

Hire credible executives to manage and expand potential growth markets. Some specialty area executives are paper thin on actual business experience.

Pros

great people, great feedback, great environment

Cons

underappreciated
low pay
a lot of work

Advice to Senior Management

value the jr staff more...they do most of the work