Living in the past and highly political - Designer Smart Design Employee Review

2.0
Apr 10, 2019
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

+ Great people at lower to mid levels of the company + Occasional fun events thrown for staff + Projects can be enjoyable and challenging with the right team members

Cons

- I felt it was a very political climate - It is my opinion that senior leadership have no idea how to grow the company or what the company is trying to be - Heavy emphasis on the company "culture" despite this being, in my opinion, extremely poor, political and in definite need of an overhaul - Senior project leads/managers seemed unable to keep to project budgets and I felt that they were consistently looking for scapegoats in younger or less-senior staff to protect themselves - I felt that some staff were very cunning and it appeared to me that some very unprofessional tactics were used to oust team members that refused to simply be "yes men" - I noticed that senior staff do not like to be questioned or have their ideas challenged - Company is still riding off of the success of one design from around 20 years ago and I don't feel they have really produced anything as noteworthy since then - It seemed to me that the company was unable to win bids with reputable clients - and I felt the level of client has been dropping over the past few years

Explore other reviews about Smart Design

5.0
Feb 4, 2026
Anonymous temporary employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Great works on great clients

Cons

High pressure in short amount of time

5.0
Oct 21, 2025
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Great mentorship and support from the team and lovely people to work with.

Cons

The AC is a bit cold

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