Pros
There are some chill people on the BI and Organic teams that are pretty willing to help. Directors in these teams were WAY more respectful and helpful than directors on the account management team. If they seem happy at Milestone, it's usually because they wanted a less stressful job with a higher title than before so they can invest more in family. - Proactive approach to Google SEO updates rather than reactive
Cons
- BELOW MARKET PAY. They hire desperate people with no other options, so they can afford to pay under market. It is very common for a random hire from Google/Microsoft to get big title bump when joining - EXCESSIVE HIERARCHY. Directors of the account manager team think they are so great when in fact they just play politics. They do nothing to advance the company, they are only a face for clients because they speak better English than many account managers. They instill fear over their direct reports, so that managers will do the same to account managers. They won’t acknowledge account managers directly, who are beneath them and not worth their time. - STINGY CULTURE. Since it’s run by a couple, the company is stingy so the employees are also stingy. Company won’t spend a dime on farewell or welcome lunches, and neither will coworkers because the culture flows down. I was tasked to order lunch for a client meeting during lunchtime, and the secretary wouldn’t believe me because DARE A LOWLY ACCOUNT MANAGER EVER ASK FOR ANYTHING THAT COSTS MONEY OR TIME. The culture is so INGRAINED that people can’t even think logically that during a client meeting from 11am-1pm, when the clients travel for more than hour each way, would be a reason enough to order some sandwiches. Especially when they’ve provided lunch for Milestone employees traveling to THEM (unheard of). As a client in my current job to many marketing vendors, vendors ALWAYS bring food over lunch meetings, not the other way around. - NO ROOM FOR GROWTH. Account managers have no room for growth to learn other skills or move to another part of the company. They can only be promoted to senior. They are hired for one thing, and it’s to fill the spot after someone else left. Upper management doesn’t trust account managers have any other potential, they would rather pay someone in India or overwork an experienced individual too many accounts. Your manager might ask for an opportunity for you, but directors won’t make things happen. I ended up getting an offer elsewhere that gave me the opportunity without previous experience because they saw extreme potential, and they’ve only hired experienced individuals prior. It doesn’t matter how smart you are, if you are an account manager, Milestone sees you as a SHEEP, not as someone with an actual brain. - INFLEXIBLE SCHEDULES. Employees get one hour for lunch. If you need to leave half an hour early, you need to come half an hour early and get it approved by the manager first. It is taboo for account managers to use the game tables touted as a company perk. There is an unspoken understanding that those are for the organic, product, engineering teams only. Account managers only dare use them during official happy hour. - UNPROFESSIONAL FOUNDER -Benu, the founder, is extremely unprofessional and will hijack client calls and presentations. The preparation done by the account manager for the call/presentation go to waste as she inserts whatever she wants into the allotted time. Her voice is shrill and cutting. Clients have appeared uncomfortable when she does. The lack of self awareness is beyond me... -HIERARCHY OVER PRACTICALITY. Extremely inefficient hierarchy. Account managers will be asked to make presentations, which get approved by the manager, the director, then the founder. Between each level there is a lot of back and forth for edits. Since managers at every level want to include more “exciting news”, a concise client presentation becomes a 60 slide presentation, which of course, cannot be completed during the client meeting. Managers won’t accept pushback from direct reports from in fear of the next level up. What could have been a job well done turns to dust, and it’s out of the account managers control. -BONUSES ARE ACTUALLY JUST COMMISSION- Account manager bonuses are tied to additional sales, and often times the sales team ends up signing the sale so the account manager won’t get the quarterly bonus. This depends on the type of accounts assigned. Bonuses earned during a quarter also take an additional 3 months before they are paid out. UNHAPPY CLIENTS FEELING JIPPED OUT OF $$$- Getting yelled at by many clients who are frustrated with the company’s policies. BUGS - Buggy content management system. A bulk of the time is writing tickets to see why something isn’t working as it should, and most fixes aren’t global, meaning the same bug will not be fixed on another client’s content management portal. Very frustrating. Concluding thoughts... it was such a DEPRESSING place to be that I was job searching from day one and had many periods of existential crises. The day I received an offer from another company was the best day of my life up to that point. I was finally freed to experience modern office culture at a real tech company. One that isn’t outdated (cubicles/year 2000 decor) and inflexible, but open, generous, lighthearted, and passionate.