Vantaggi
The best thing here: the people. I’ve met some great friends, and Konrad’s rigorous social culture definitely allows us to bond. You learn a lot, fast. Mainly to respond to quick deadlines, but nevertheless it jumpstarts an early career in an industry difficult to break into.
Svantaggi
Konrad has a vicious cycle of how they hire their employees. And the worst part is that it works really well for their business. It goes like this: 1.Konrad Group hires new grads, pays them nowhere near a competitive rate, and work them to the bone, a lot unpaid overtime, with little to no direction from strategy. Designs aren’t backed up by research so you end up creating very surface level stuff based on subjective opinions. New grads and interns are eager to please so they’re alright with this in the beginning. This is almost everyone’s first job at Konrad, even directors, so the learning environment is really stale. 2. Employees start to burn out, voice their concerns. Nothing changes even if they say something will. The lack of transparency is astonishing. There are no dedicated sick or mental health days so there’s no way to regroup if you need some time off. 3. By the time you figure out you could be getting paid way more, work less, and receive more support for your career and project from another company, they’ve already hired 3 more interns to take your place. From my experience I felt disposable. The employee turnover rate is high so there’s no one to turn to for growth. Everyone has about 1-2 years of experience, even the seniors and managers who are leading projects. Konrad Group is aware of their flaws and there have been many formal cases brought to senior leadership. They just know they have a system that works well enough for their business, and whether or not it’s beneficial to their employees doesn’t really concern them. There’s no HR department so that should speak for itself. At its core the company is only looking out for their own gain. The well-being of their employees, both mentally and professionally, is not in the equation whatsoever.