iCrossing Reviews

Current Employee – been working at iCrossing full-time for more than a year

Pros – Talented coworkers combined with a casual environment

Cons – Often difficult to see the forest for the trees

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

Former Employee – worked at iCrossing full-time for more than 3 years

Pros – - You get to work on projects for big brands, so it's definitely good for your resume.
- You get to work mostly with talented individuals.
- You can work out a fairly flexible schedule.

Cons – - Depending on what department you are a part of, office politics can be tough to deal with.
- Hierarchy seems to be too deep for what the company does. At times you can find yourself doing most of the work for a client, and being managed by 4-5 people who actually don't know a lot about your specific project.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

Former Employee – worked at iCrossing full-time

Pros – Great people.
Employees have much autonomy.
Able to work from home when necessary, as long as the work got done.

Overall, a decent place to work with excellent people and a collaborative environment.

Cons – No real advancement.
Lack of projects.
Minimal financial reward/bonus program.
Only one major client in the Orange County office, which limited the prospects for employee growth.

Advice to Senior Management – Acquire additional clients.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

Former Employee – worked at iCrossing full-time for more than 3 years

Pros – Smart coworkers. Interesting client brands. Locked down process/operations. Good work/life balance and compensation.

Cons – This is a company that's all about the rational, not the emotional. There is no equilibrium in rational/emotional thought, and it affects the agency's output.

So-so creative. Deep, back end-centric client work. Little progressive front-end customer experience. Boys club exec team (i.e. Not a meritocracy). Smart, progressive co-workers feeding outside the iCrossing boys club end up leaving, because there is no alternative.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at iCrossing full-time for more than 7 years

Pros – Casual work environment with nice, smart, talented people.

Cons – People usually have too much work on their plate. Company doesn't always pay bonus.

Advice to Senior Management – Make the work/life balance more achievable. Give generous salary increases to top performers and don't punish employees by not giving bonus.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

Former Employee – worked at iCrossing full-time for more than a year

Pros – This is a great place to start your career in search marketing. You get access to some really top minds in the industry and the opportunity to work on some really big brands with big budgets. You'll learn a LOT very quickly and that experience will be in high demand from other employers.

Cons – There's no treading water there. You're either rising to the top or you are sinking. You'll have to put in some long hours too, which is pretty normal for almost any agency. Culture can be hit or miss depending on which managers/leaders are around at the time.

Advice to Senior Management – Keep the middle management happy! They are the conduit to the employees and they also create the culture of an office.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend – I'm not optimistic about the outlook for this company

Current Employee – been working at iCrossing full-time for more than a year

Pros – - Great clients, some of the best in the world
- Get to use new tools (depends on the dept)
- Smart people who want to do well by the clients
- Great location (Hearst Tower)

Cons – - Management plays favorites with employees (walk by the offices and you'll see SVPs buying shoes while their calendars are "booked" with meetings)
- No clear career trajectory
- Too focused on the bottom line (Don Scales)
- Not enough inter-department meetings or outings. You only work on one client and if that client leaves, you get fired
- Late night, last minute requests due to lack of experience in client services
- Girls club in NYC (SVP of strategy and her buddies all get promoted but no one else). If you want to get promoted, become good friends with them.

Advice to Senior Management – - Work on career trajectory for most employees. They want to do better but managers need to provide guidelines
- Stop looking at every cent and focus on developing better employees. People will leave for better opportunities
- Promote those who work their butts off for the agency and retain bigger clients. Otherwise, they will take their experience and go elsewhere.
- This probably won't change at all but stop playing favorites. The more this happens with senior management, the more clients will eventually leave. It's just a matter of time - hence why there are so many lay offs.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend – I'm not optimistic about the outlook for this company

Former Employee – worked at iCrossing full-time for more than a year

Pros – - Work with established big brands, brands that have been around for decades
- Great place to learn search engine marketing, particularly PPC. iCrossing is a full service digital agency and PPC is where it shines.
- Pays well at the entry level

Cons – - Poisonous & political environment between entry level analysts fighting for "manager" level positions. Managers are often first time managers (with no training on how to be manager) who inevitably fail to help develop their team.
- Promotions are not done on meritocracy, but rather favoritism and perception. It seemed that analysts who threw other analysts under the bus were promoted. Promotions also seemed to have favoritism as the analysts who were promoted were the ones that had close personal relationships with the managers.
- Innovative & creative thinking in the agency is dated. While iCrossing touts themselves as being at the forefront of innovation, they do not have the technological capabilities or the forward thinking clients to be innovative.
- While the clients are big (Fortune 500+), most digital agencies develop partnerships with there clients to ensure a healthy relationship. However, iCrossing has a habit of allowing their clients to dominate the relationship which leads to overworked analysts and client managers who cannot control the amount of work the clients are asking for.

Advice to Senior Management – - Strive to work with forward thinking clients that can push and test your capabiltiies
- Foster a healthier working environment by promoting based on meritocracy and not favoritism.
- Provide clear reasons to which why a person was promoted

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend – I'm not optimistic about the outlook for this company

Current Employee – been working at iCrossing full-time for less than a year

Pros – There are some company perks like free breakfast and lunch once a week. There is also a good work/life balance.

Cons – Unrealistic expectations for entry level hires. People aren't promoted when they should be.

Advice to Senior Management – Develop a solid training program for new hires, rather than just waiting to see if they sink or swim.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend – I'm not optimistic about the outlook for this company

Former Employee – worked at iCrossing full-time for more than 3 years

Pros – The best part of iCrossing is working with big brands - it's excellent for your resume and most if not all of your clients will be Fortune 500 companies. There are also some very talented people at the agency you can learn a lot from, and many people get to travel for meetings and pitches which is a lot of fun. IC offers lots of upward growth potential, especially if you're in New York or San Fran. Although I left the company because I of a deteriorating culture and being passed up for promotions, iCrossing was great for my career and I'm thankful for my time there.

Cons – The agency leadership is completely revenue driven and could care less about the people or work being produced. It is extremely demoralizing and frustrating to those who are passionate about their work, as they're constantly reminded by leadership that the only thing that matters is how much revenue your client is bringing in, not how good the work is. Layoffs occur when the agency "doesn't hit their numbers" even if the quarter was still very profitable - it's all about hitting the numbers at iCrossing, and nothing else matters. Don Scales is the center of this culture, and he wouldn't know good advertising if it smacked him in the face - he's a "show me the numbers" MBA through and through, and not fit to run a true creative (or even digital) agency.

Advice to Senior Management – Replace Don Scales and adjust priorities to be less about revenue and more about producing good work. Treat your employees like more than just "costs that pull down the bottom line."

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend