Pros
The team in LA is warm and inviting. The managing directors in LA are kind people. The neighborhood of the office is charming.
Cons
Warnings of overly-worked employees should be heeded. There is far too much work and not enough people to do it. Working 10-12 hours/day is really the dominant schedule. Working 12-16 or 18 hours at times of deadline (which are frequent) is frequent. The company's business model is to essentially work people into the ground until they leave. The turnover rate is high as a result because repeated attempts to discuss this issue with HR and not listened to. The two owners have far too many projects under their belt and are barely involved in 90% of the design of the projects. Still, they receive the credit and perks. This is not an atypical mode for larger companies, but it is still worth noting. There are projects with abusive stakeholders (clients, hotels brands, etc) and the ownership does little to protect the staff, favoring instead the other relationship. Though there are certainly cool projects, there are also a handful of low budget ones as well. Because there is often so much work to do in so little time by so few people, the work tends to be repetitive and non creative. The design aspect of the job is dulled. The office is also complicit in terrible working relationships with vendors, often leaning on them to do extraordinary amounts of work without ultimate compensation. This is due to the nature of the industry and by no means exclusive to Meyer Davis. But Meyer Davis does little to defend these relationships. Many projects are international, which may seem glamorous on the surface but in practice is anything but. You have no go-to vendors, fabricators, millworkers, etc and are constantly relearning the process with new people. People that Meyer Davis did not vet or hire. You are coordinating across multiple time-lines, slowing down work and leading to both early and late meetings. Related, getting in touch with the owners, who are spread incredibly thin and in a different time zone, is near-impossible. Oftentimes you are held up waiting for approval on a design for someone who is too busy and borderline completely uninvolved in the projects. Project timelines are incredibly long and always a moving target, often lasting longer than 3-4 years. So unless you are at the company that long (unlikely), you will never see the fruits of your labor. Additionally, it is very common practice for construction to largely eliminate or value engineer your work without designer approval. Only the most senior designers are sent to the projects for install etc so if you are a designer or project manager you will unlikely ever see your project realized even if completed during your tenure. Also, unless you really advocate for yourself you will be there 3 years without promotion or raise, easily. I realize this review sounds dire but other than having the name of an establish firm on your resume there is very earnestly very little upside to working here.