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Hill+Knowlton Strategies Reviews
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    Hill+Knowlton Strategies Reviews

    Updated September 14, 2017
    173 reviews

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    2.9
    StarStarStarStarStar
    Rating TrendsRating Trends
    Recommend to a friend
    Approve of CEO
    Hill+Knowlton Strategies Global Chairman and CEO Jack Martin
    Jack Martin
    60 Ratings

    173 Employee Reviews

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    Pros

    • H&K hosts some of the smartest, most brilliant minds I have ever met (in 28 reviews)

    • Opportunities to work on a wide variety of jobs (in 8 reviews)

    Cons

    • You'll have limited work life balance and will bear the weight of responsibilities beyond your account role / experience (in 17 reviews)

    • H&K as a result has suffered in retaining and winning business (in 15 reviews)

    More Pros and Cons

    1. "A bit of a mess"

      StarStarStarStarStar
      • Work/Life Balance
      • Culture & Values
      • Career Opportunities
      • Comp & Benefits
      • Senior Management
      Current Employee - Anonymous Employee
      Current Employee - Anonymous Employee
      Recommends
      Neutral Outlook
      Approves of CEO

      I have been working at Hill+Knowlton Strategies full-time

      Pros

      -great experience
      -some great people
      -big network

      Cons

      -company identity is all over the place, not cohesive
      -very limited vertical movement
      -underpaid
      -overworked

      Advice to Management

      Learn how to manage up, down, and to the side

    2. Helpful (1)

      "Opportunities v. Work/Life Balance"

      StarStarStarStarStar
      • Work/Life Balance
      • Culture & Values
      • Career Opportunities
      • Comp & Benefits
      • Senior Management
      Current Employee - Anonymous Employee
      Current Employee - Anonymous Employee
      Doesn't Recommend

      I have been working at Hill+Knowlton Strategies full-time

      Pros

      You'll get opportunities you wouldn't have elsewhere and will be trusted with responsibilities beyond standard account roles

      Cons

      You'll have limited work life balance and will bear the weight of responsibilities beyond your account role / experience

      3. Join the Hill+Knowlton Strategies team
      See Our Latest Jobs

    3. Helpful (1)

      "Great People & Benefits; Lack of upward mobility"

      StarStarStarStarStar
      • Work/Life Balance
      • Culture & Values
      • Career Opportunities
      • Comp & Benefits
      • Senior Management
      Current Employee - Account Executive
      Current Employee - Account Executive
      Doesn't Recommend
      Positive Outlook
      Approves of CEO

      I have been working at Hill+Knowlton Strategies full-time (More than a year)

      Pros

      great people and camaraderie; extra benefits like work from home days and fitness reimbursements help to make up for lack of compensation

      Cons

      the next step is never clear; little incentive to go the extra mile; no bonuses or clear promotion/raise structure

      Advice to Management

      focus more on retention

    4. Helpful (1)

      "Stuck in the Past"

      StarStarStarStarStar
      • Work/Life Balance
      • Culture & Values
      • Career Opportunities
      • Comp & Benefits
      • Senior Management
      Former Employee - Anonymous Employee
      Former Employee - Anonymous Employee
      Doesn't Recommend
      Negative Outlook
      No opinion of CEO

      I worked at Hill+Knowlton Strategies full-time

      Pros

      Good pay and benefits. I started my career at Hill+Knowlton. It was a great launching point and a good place to learn the foundations of PR. They were obviously trying to get into the 21st century, but struggling.

      Cons

      It was very stuck in the old ways of doing things- there wasn't a lot of room for creativity. My boss's idea of creative was doing the same press conference format (literally everything the same) for various clients but with different messages. I also felt that it was very much a hierarchy- if you were entry level, you didn't have any input into ideas or anything for clients. You mostly feel like a cog in a machine there if you're just starting out.

      The processes at the company are so outdated. If you want paid media, digital, design, etc., you had to go through another WPP company or get another one approved, which could take forever and got confusing to work that way. There were also so many hoops to jump through when it came to credit cards and invoices that made work a lot more difficult to do.

      The entire time I was there, upper management was changing. There were constant shifts in leadership, structure, etc.

      Advice to Management

      Get it together- figure out how you want to structure the organization and give it more than six months before changing it. Also, try to invest more in entry level employees. There were some good programs starting out when I left, but I still felt like younger people weren't valued as much as they were told to be quiet while the grown ups were working. Give younger people a chance and maybe there won't be as much turnover.

    5. "Good Learning Experience"

      StarStarStarStarStar
      • Work/Life Balance
      • Culture & Values
      • Career Opportunities
      • Comp & Benefits
      • Senior Management
      Former Employee - Anonymous Employee
      Former Employee - Anonymous Employee

      I worked at Hill+Knowlton Strategies full-time

      Pros

      It's a great place to learn and get your feet wet. Good pay and benefits, and a large, international network.

      Cons

      High turnover, not a lot of room for growth, stale company culture. Corporate management and structure were constantly changing while I was there, as were rules and standards. Very traditional with not a lot of space to be creative or think outside the box.

    6. "overall good"

      StarStarStarStarStar
      Current Employee - Anonymous Employee
      Current Employee - Anonymous Employee

      I have been working at Hill+Knowlton Strategies full-time

      Pros

      good people, location, health benefits

      Cons

      promotions cycle takes way too long

    7. Helpful (5)

      "Started good, got bad, stayed ugly"

      StarStarStarStarStar
      • Work/Life Balance
      • Culture & Values
      • Career Opportunities
      • Comp & Benefits
      • Senior Management
      Former Employee - Anonymous Employee in Los Angeles, CA
      Former Employee - Anonymous Employee in Los Angeles, CA
      Doesn't Recommend
      Negative Outlook
      No opinion of CEO

      I worked at Hill+Knowlton Strategies full-time (More than 5 years)

      Pros

      - Great place to start your career
      - Good internship program that actually lets you work and not run for coffee
      - Well renowned crisis practice
      - Great work/life balance and benefits

      Cons

      - The longer you stay, the quicker you get forgotten and skipped over for promotions/raises
      - Speaking of raises and promotions, they were few and far between, stunting staff growth
      - Staff treated interchangeably since there are no specialists, leading to high turnover and more than 10 people quitting without being replaced
      - The office had no expertise and picked up random clients, making it hard to enjoy work each day
      - Lack of clear and direct communication from managers and executives

      Advice to Management

      - Reward staff with traditional bonuses and promotions, not new perks. Staff will trade away the soda machines, summer party and other erroneous benefits to just be paid competitively and allowed to move up the ladder.
      - Find a direction and stick to it. The company had so many different North American leaders during my tenure that it was hard to keep track, and each had a different mantra. All the company wide emails just made me less confident that the leaders were the right folks for the job.

    8. "great"

      StarStarStarStarStar
      • Work/Life Balance
      • Culture & Values
      • Career Opportunities
      • Comp & Benefits
      • Senior Management
      Former Employee - Anonymous Employee
      Former Employee - Anonymous Employee
      Recommends
      Positive Outlook
      Disapproves of CEO

      I worked at Hill+Knowlton Strategies full-time

      Pros

      Good support and interesting clients

      Cons

      post-merger didn't work very well, muddled leadership

    9. "Good place to learn"

      StarStarStarStarStar
      • Work/Life Balance
      • Culture & Values
      • Career Opportunities
      • Comp & Benefits
      • Senior Management
      Former Employee - Anonymous Employee
      Former Employee - Anonymous Employee
      Recommends
      Neutral Outlook
      Approves of CEO

      I worked at Hill+Knowlton Strategies full-time

      Pros

      Great multinational team; amazing and really diverse list of clients; internal trainings; corporate culture. Generally speaking, a great place for ppl who are passionate about PR and want to learn a lot in short-time frame.

      Cons

      Long hours and high levels of stress make it hard to maintain a work-life balance, but the job still feels rewarding when the hard work you're doing is appreciated by the management / clients.

    10. Helpful (1)

      "Low pay but rewarding professionally"

      StarStarStarStarStar
      • Work/Life Balance
      • Culture & Values
      • Career Opportunities
      • Comp & Benefits
      • Senior Management
      Former Employee - Anonymous Employee
      Former Employee - Anonymous Employee
      Recommends
      Positive Outlook

      I worked at Hill+Knowlton Strategies full-time

      Pros

      Great clients, brilliant colleagues, fellows/interns receive massive amounts of experience

      Cons

      Long hours, high stress, low pay

      Advice to Management

      Low salaries at all but the highest levels results in high employee turnover

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