Vantaggi
FH offers the opportunity to work with big name, high-profile clients. The agency has the resources to do big things. The junior staff is fantastic - a very smart, very fun group with high potential.
Svantaggi
FHSF's leadership is not transparent, and the people who work the longest and hardest (often the junior and mid-level staff) are made to feel small by the agency's senior leadership. The agency invests very little in its people, despite lip service to the contrary - from a skills development perspective, and from a financial perspective. Junior staff are trained by other junior staff because there is tremendous pressure for all staff below the SVP level to be highly billable, and SVPs are off looking for new business and most are either detached/not heavily involved with the day-to-day account work. The end result of this is that junior staff do not have great development opportunities (they are involved in tactical work, primarily, because very few FHers at senior levels take the time to teach them to perform at a higher level), and mid-level staff are stretched too thin because they are expected to heavily edit the work done by junior staff in order to make entry-level work worth the high price tag charged to clients. Work-life balance for mid-level staff is not sustainable, given the pressure to be available and respond in real-time to clients and the FH junior team members at all hours of the day. The senior staff at this agency is very arrogant, and they seem blind to the pressures put on mid-level staff, even when it is brought to their attention. The good old boys network is also alive and well at the SF office.