Pros
Jacob Tyler lucked into a very cool office reworked by a previous architectural firm. It is perfect for the dog and pony show to sell new clients and new employees on the idea of this agency being a hip cutting edge downtown office. Unfortunately, it is anything but! JT also has the luxury of being ranked for keywords such as "San Diego Web Design" giving them plenty of inbound lead flow. Their approach to new clients is to pitch and throw a massive sticker price on the work. Most opportunities leave, but the ones who stay pay handsomely.
Cons
Clients: Expect to pay a hefty premium over market rates for "pretty" work. If you negotiate your cost down, you likely will be getting interns (often unpaid) or junior employees doing your work. This "brand communications" agency is largely graphic designers rebranded for more. Much of the work outside of design is outsourced to always changing contractors. Pretty work alone does not correlate to better websites, branding, or marketing. You will start with a dog and pony show full of loud forced laughter over the business development's own jokes. You will see examples of the token $50k+ websites and talk of analytics. You might be introduced to the marketing department overseen by a manager who went to fashion school and beats the branding drum. Go down the branding route and you will pay big dollars and scratch your ROI head. You might be introduced to the project management and account management teams who are extremely overworked and disorganized. It was not unusual to see projects delivered late, over cost, and with unimpressive results. Employees: Low pay, no bonuses for most people, long hours, highly disorganized, management who blame employees for not working hard enough when problems arise (even with 12 hour days and wavering direction from them), disorganized rigid project management, plenty of talk about your career with little true opportunity for growth. Management is always concerned about creating the perception of a great culture while reality is most people are overworked with low morale. Little training is offered. The office is surrounded by drug infused homeless you will have to dodge on your commute. Jumping over human feces is common. Parking is not offered to employees other than top management. If you are NEED a job, go for it. If you are looking to grow your career, consider the honest feedback above.