Gensler Reviews

Pros

Super creative and allows you to share your creativity with others.

Cons

None I can think of.

Pros

You're surrounded by very smart & driven people and have at your disposal tremendous resources to grow as a professional. The company's sustainability, community impact and inclusivity goals are inspiring. The projects are interesting and exciting and my office mates ar incredible.

Cons

The work is hard and intense - leadership is so focused on growth that they forget the employees are humans sometimes. There isn't enough PTO as a baseline and it definitely doesn't compensate adequately for all the overtime we put in.

Pros

They work for big tech companies

Cons

-This is a small office part of a big company managed in the old ways. Which also values the old ways and methods of work. - Unhealthy work habits are valued; - If you are a big talker, using impactful words with a bullying personality, you don't need to actually know anything or even work because that easily convinces leaders. VERY few people do the heavy lifting. - DMs and Directors are not adequately trained; colleagues and leadership do not accept or value different personalities. - They ask people with no experience to be leaders of millionaires projects, and if they don't "own it," they are seen as a failure. -Their billing system is shady. You have to charge everything to the project. (If I were the client, I would be highly pissed off by that). Very few times they will give you an admin number to charge internal office meetings "events." - Everybody is frustrated and burned out all the time. This office will crush your spirit, soul, self-confidence, passion for your profession, and creativity. -Unless the leadership, DMs, salary, and culture in general change, I would never recommend this place to anybody.

Pros

Good rate of accrual for PTO, accelerated learning curve for important skills, opportunities for professional skill development, community service opportunities, annual raises and bonuses, paid overtime

Cons

Difficult to maintain work/life balance, upward mobility is challenging, too much work for too few staff at times. The check marks required to achieve a staff title don't apply equally to everyone, and is not associated with length of employment or reliably tied to project performance. Advancement can be limited depending on the studio.

Pros

1) Friendly Staff. 2) Professional Staff. Learning A lot from Colleague. 3) Team Environment. 4) Growing Firm (Despite It's Size). 5) Flexibility (Can choose W/L Balance, or Opportunity to Grow for the Youngs). 6) Location(Downtown) 7) IT Staff 8) Culture 9) HR(the Best and Smooth) 10) Adapting Work Home & Office Environment 11) Knowledge (As long As you are not tired of Learning)

Cons

More Like What You have to Keep Thinking while You are at Gensler. 1) Client Expects Great Design and have to understand what they need. 2) Requires some socialness(nothing special, but share interest or passion) to be a person before Team. 3) Have to learn how to be professional, asking questions about things you don't know. 4) Self Motivated (For Young Professional) If you find a passion, you won't work for a single day. 5) Talking and learning from Seniors in the Firm (I need to do it more). Even the time is different, but the wisdom pass on. 6) Growing Too Fast? 7) No Solo Die Hard Designer Mentality. Even if the Design Studio is Structured like School's Design Studio with Instructor, Its Better, Professional, Sometime Difficult. Have to be More Rational about Design(Meaning Not Low Cost Design, But Cost Justifiable Design)

Pros

They are efficient and will always have a decent list of interesting albeit conservative clients. People are nice enough. Free coffee.

Cons

Considering the culture and quality they strive for, the pay here is below-average and does not keep pace with the cost of living-- I never had any spare money for much while working here. Gensler rewards seniority over merit, so don't expect a reward for working harder than you have to. They offer raises only after you've proven loyal and reliable, about 4-5 years in. Work/Life balance varies by studio and project leader. There were periods of time early on when I regularly left the office at 5:30, but if you want to be on "interesting" or high-profile projects you can expect 10-15 hour workdays (no additional compensation, obviously). One month I worked 100 hours of unpaid overtime and only received one comp-day in return. Its very easy to get pigeon-holed as a young designer. If you're good at something you shouldn't expect to ever do much else. The mentorship and professional development programs are ineffective, I never saw any young designers really move up or gain any new areas of expertise. Most leave in frustration after a couple years.