Pros
Specialists are smart, hard working and take pride in their work. They are the guts of the company.
Cons
Founded by 2 accountants, their lack of marketing experience is clearly evident. It's run like an accounting company, lots of projects, high turnover, short term clients. highly practical, formulaic, not creative or fun. The result for employees is burnout and spending your evenings, weekends, holidays, vacations, working for clients who are over-promised, can't afford the services, leave after 1-3 months or don't commit at all after you've spent your weekend setting up their campaign. The SEO/SEM specialist are excellent and experienced. The co-founder and two directors are clueless on what they do and how long things take. They provide no value, support and are lacking in managerial skills. The specialist are not empowered but expected to educate the directors and owners on how they do their job. The owners refuse to see the poor managerial styles of their directors such as micro-managing teams and bullying, second guessing and antagonistic behavior to their own team members. The value for you is one way. You're given a book of rules such as be at your desk ready to work by 9 and a dress code. If over your PTO, even by one hour, your salary is docked even if you've just worked 6 weeks within a 4 week period. The poor management results in a toxic culture. People are known to cry on the job, develop stomach and sleep issues and in two instances, walk out and never came back. In less than a year, 8 of 13 Chicago employees left. All except 1, were new.