Gensler Reviews

Pros

There is a strong culture at Gensler that you really come to appreciate - in the various offices all over the world. There is something that connects everyone - a culture and commitment to creating great projects but also growing our people to lead in their own way. Something they call the "one-firm-firm" mentality - that we all work across offices to support out our teams and our clients - vs. competing against each region like some firms do. I had a great opportunity to travel to many offices over 20 years and work on some of the most amazing projects of every scale - when you walk into one of our offices at senior level - you feel at home immediately. When I first arrived many years ago - I really knew nothing about Gensler - but over the years I have seen every kind of project and every kind of client come through our doors. As the reputation has grown - the work is getting better and better and more diverse than simply architecture and interiors. I had the opportunity to work with numerous talented consultants and collaborators - but was always happy to have the core Gensler group that I worked with understand the culture and what connects us all. I think people would be shocked at how simple the formula developed by Art Gensler is - "hiring great people and getting out of their way". It works when it's done right and there are a lot of leaders, designers and doers who practice this ideas whether they think about it or not.

Cons

The people who really thrive at Gensler understand that this is not a place to just "have a job" - but to grow in your career and push beyond your comfort zone. While the firm has changed significantly and matured over my 22 years - it is changing faster than ever in recent times - to keep pace with how fast the design industry is changing, our society, our cities and the impact of interior design and architecture. This means there are great opportunities for those with an entrepreneurial drive and a dynamic design approach. If you want to do one thing, to just work on projects - this might not be the place for you.

Pros

Culture! People first is their motto!

Cons

Needs to offer more work/life balance

Pros

Actively restocked and organized library, as much as an effort as they can make to compete with tech companies' salaries.

Cons

Many - this office culture is very strange. Everything revolves around the opinions of one person. You are either in that camp or you aren't. If you aren't, you keep your head down and stay out of the way. If you have to work with this person, just agree with whatever they say. I received this advice from a senior employee, and it was very valuable (and effective). There are more egos and dog & pony shows than you would expect - all of the politics can be exhausting. There is a lot of resistance from junior designers to working on projects that aren't pretty or high profile. The designs in many cases are very trendy - sometimes they feel dated before the projects are finished. If you love trendy, this is the place for you. There is a lot of office gossip - more so than your average professional environment. The staffing is not done well - it leaves key people off project teams and throws junior designers in the deep end without adequate checks for their work. The junior designers have little to no foundation in basics, with no obvious comprehensive opportunity to learn those things. There is a lot of redundancy in work that could be eliminated. Gensler SF is very good at making things look pretty, and somehow they get built. Would not recommend unless you're a professional brown noser and gossiper and find that enjoyable.

Pros

The people who work at Gensler are amazing people. They truly care about diversity and inclusion and it shows if you spend any amount of time there. The NY office is very clean and it's fun to roam around the different levels. New things are constantly happening every day and there are plenty of groups/events to jump in every week.

Cons

The morale of the employees has been dwindling in recent years. Prior to COVID-19, Gensler had a very strict no working from home policy. This has deterred many young people in the industry from accepting offers, or accepting an offer and leaving after a short amount of time being there. Gensler's turnaround of employees has increased in recent years (specifically at the NYC office) due to too many responsibilities being put on each individual. I saw many people come into their roles glowing with excitement and would become burnt out very quickly due to work load and consistently working overtime. The issue seems to be that Gensler has mounds of work in NY, but they refuse to hire enough people to handle the work. They also will expect you to do more work without a raise.

Pros

Coworkers who you can bond with over the stress..

Cons

There is no direction from management and you have to quickly figure things out for yourself. There is absolutely no structure and you will hear it is because we are a “collaborative office” - this is just not true. We are not collaborative in any way. It is a toxic environment and we hire all the wrong people. Any issues you want to address will be ignored. It is unprofessional and stressful to work in such an office. The fact that the turnover rate is large is a red flag. It is too fast-paced, very understaffed and management does not know realistic timelines or realistic work-loads. There is no room for growth. If you care about your mental health...please don’t work here. You deserve better.

Pros

Some of the best staff you will ever work with. Highly cooperative environment. Some of the industry's best equipment and software is at your disposal. Being part of the "Big G" does help in the industry.

Cons

Highly marketing driven - live and die by the PowerPoint. Technical thought is back seat and often relegated, though unintentionally, to damage control. Company is too big to know what other departments are doing. Senior management could be perceived as a group of adult children, incapable of being wrong. Decisions made at the top often come down hardest on project managers, leading to burnout and turnover. Promises of working in different sectors and in different capacities are empty or at best, honored out of convenience. If you want in on a certain type of work, get in writing upon employment, and keep it on the table during reviews.

Pros

At Gensler you have access to a lot of tools that make the job easy. In addition to maybe working on some interesting projects. The culture is great and the people are great. The concept and idea of Gensler is great but lacks connection to the end.

Cons

You have to fight for what you get if you haven't been anointed by upper leadership. They often talk a lot about career growth and that you can direct that growth. This isn't true from what I found. My experience was often filled with pandering language and empty promises. Also, many people are hired with false ideas of what they are going to do. For example they are told that they will have a lot of opportunities to design. They mean you can do details for another person's design.

Pros

Great Culture, Decent Work/Life Balance Comparatively to Industry

Cons

Design work is not always exciting. If you come from a Star-architect firm it may be disappointing.