Pros

Work life balance, trust, teamwork

Cons

pay at low, grow slow

Pros

Qualitative team is genuinely pleasant to work with. Incredibly smart co-workers with passion for qualitative research. Collaboration between qualitative and other service lines had improved significantly over the years I was at Ipsos.

Cons

Qualitative researchers are unable to manage their clients, meaning they have no real ability to control their own workload or income. Standards are different for each client, which causes frustration and confusion. One manager withheld regular pay increases for 2+ years, for no stated reason - personalities drive success more than quality of work. Constant churn of cheaper labor to displace longer-tenured workforce. Good work often goes unrewarded. Pay rates are by project, rather than salaried, which (a) leads to large discrepancies in pay month-to-month, and (b) leads to jealousy and competition among the qualitative researchers, rather than cooperation. Managers are overwhelmed and unable to cultivate talent - they are also paid per project, so their workload is (understandably) unbearable.