Pros
You'll get great experience working on paper products and Chicken -- and that's it, because this place cannot win a new piece of business. You'll also learn how to navigate political minefields and will get more experience than ever before in the art of passive aggressive sabotage. You'll learn how to clean up upper-level management mistakes and grow exponentially because you're surrounded by a bunch of minor league wannabes and you'll be expected to make up for their lack of effort and experience.
Cons
- This place is a career death-trap. Literally there is NOTHING to work on besides two CPG brands. Everything else has been lost or siphoned off by HQ. - No support from upper management in any capacity. Do not come here and expect to be mentored, get exposure to any type of growth and development and certainly do not expect you'll get a promotion or pay increase at this sinking ship. - The clients that you work for are scared and lacking in any vision. - Speaking of vision, I hope you are ok being led by a leadership "panel" of executives treating their roles like a part-time job with benefits like free trips to Cannes. - Nothing you do at VML will go into your portfolio, because most of your banner ads and social posts will never even get approved. - Don't expect to ever work on new business. Partly because the office is rarely allowed to work on new business, and when scraps are finally passed down from HQ, only a small team of people are tapped to work on the leftover pitch. Even though this small team is 0/12 in 2017 in bringing anything through the door. - Scope, hours and client billing are unethical at best, illegal at worst. - If you work in the Chicago office, you should know that this is not VML. It is a locally acquired agency that hasn't figured out how to operate in a city full of real advertising companies.