Pros
- Beautiful office - Some very kind, intelligent, creative people - Awesome client social media work - Efficient, productive work environment
Cons
When I applied to work at ISL, I thought it was my _absolute_ dream job. How could it not be? Just look at that list of pros. So why did I quit my dream job after 2.5 years? Because after just a few months, I dreaded going to work at that company every day. Here are a few reasons why: 1. No matter what they say, ISL is a social media shop: When I left, we had just two active web build projects, one being a retainer. The JWT acquisition only made it worse because they only wanted us for our social media work. Peter loves to pretend like ISL is a product shop when, in reality, the few non-client products we built didn’t even work that well. On more than one occasion, I saw videos cut and manipulated to look like the product was way cooler than it actually was. If you want to work for a social media shop, then ISL is great for that. But don’t let them convince you they’re something they’re not. 2. “Promotions” without raises: ISL is a huge fan of promoting people without giving them a raise. Sure, dropping the “Junior” from your title is nice and all but that’s simply not enough. ISL promotes people, gives them way more responsibility, and expects them to continue working on $45K a year for a mid-level role with NO overtime pay. And trust me, you'll work overtime every. single. day. 3. Horrible work/life balance: Late night slack messages, emails all weekend. It’s not just the young people who are sending these messages late into the night. It comes from the top, starting with the executive team! When I left ISL and started at my new job, I was shocked when I realized I wouldn’t be getting messages 24/7 from my coworkers. 4. Sick? Work from home: There’s no such thing as sick days at ISL unless you’re dying in the hospital. There’s a culture of working from home when you’re sick, and you’re expected to be online and fully available. There was one day when my coworker was WFH sick and I needed some crucial client information from her. For a few moments I was legitimately angry that she wasn’t online even though she was sick. I realized then that ISL had made me into a workaholic monster. 5. Firing anyone who’s not a good “culture fit”: What makes someone a good cultural fit, you ask? At ISL, a good culture fit means you don’t speak out against the unspoken rules of the company. Shouldn’t people be rewarded for calling out negative aspects of the company and offering solutions? Instead, they’re labeled as a “bad cultural fit” and fired. I’ve seen so many diverse faces kicked out of the company because of this.