Pros
Day to day strategic and creative talent are some of the smartest, and friendliest you'll meet. A genuine desire to do good work, a lack of strategic cultural dogmatism. A broad-minded approach as to what will work for clients. People give-a-crap without being try-hards. Huge potential to grow your exposure to different disciplines, creative styles, clients with some of the largest brands in the world. The agency does not have a needless "burn the candle all hours", culture, and has decent annual vacation, and office closures. Foundation Day shows that the agency does have a good heart, and a genuine intent around social and cultural good. The agency has made incredible strides in DE&I and genuinely wants to be better both from a social need, and as part of good business.
Kontras
Strategic capability has become extraordinarily fragmented in the last year. Little to no communication to the community from most senior strategy leaders, inconsistent or completely missing frameworks and a culture of the most senior leaders managing up. Rather than encouraging experimentation, and innovation for clients, a culture of "just bill time" has emerged. Salary was always less competitive than other agencies, but was offset by awesome culture and great benefits. Both benefits, and culture have eroded recently, but the salary situation remains the same. Whenever business challenges arise, core Kansas City leadership is protected, and everyone else suffers. We're all in it together- until we are not. Enormous resources spent on creative awards, with limited returns. Yet, inconsistent and unclear approach towards effectiveness.