Pros
- M+R is full of extremely smart, talented, and capable people. There is a standard of professionalism at M+R that can be lacking at other similar organizations. M+R's client-facing staff truly are the best of the best at what they do. - Off-hours work is more rare at M+R than it is at other agencies. The union contract has been very helpful in enforcing this norm, particularly for junior staff. - M+R works with interesting clients whose missions align with the staff's own passions. Compared to other "mission-driven" agencies, M+R really does prioritize doing good work over maximizing revenue. While competing firms apply to every RFP are pursue growth relentlessly, M+R does not work with organizations that we don't think we can help or whose values don't align with ours. - There are opportunities for long-term growth at M+R. Supervisors and client teams are generally responsive to individuals' interests and professional development goals. If your goal is not to remain at M+R long term, the experience will provide you with marketable skills that will open up external opportunities.
Kontras
- M+R's unique management and staffing structures create a system wherein workloads get out of control very quickly and take a long time to resolve, particularly for junior staff. There is a lot of ambiguity over how individuals can appropriately advocate for themselves since account supervisors (not staff supervisors) determine individual assignments. If account supervisors under-estimate your capacity, fail to account for your obligations to other client teams, or fail to account for unanticipated circumstances, work becomes miserable. - The constant cycle of feedback at M+R is exhausting and seriously harms the culture of the firm. Your primary incentive at M+R is to satisfy your colleagues' expectations; helping clients succeed is secondary. Upward feedback exists nominally, but not in practice. Mistakes made by junior staff (no matter how trivial) can weigh around their necks for months, but when more senior staff drop the ball or create the circumstances in which mistakes are made, there is far less accountability. Decisions made by management (especially partners) are unimpeachable; their mistakes are verboten to even discuss. - Performance appraisals are excessive and extremely stressful. (You can be subjected to as many as half a dozen formalized performance evaluations within your first two years on staff, between twice-annual appraisals for all staff and two check-ins during your first 90 days.) These appraisals are the primary determinant of your ability to remain on staff or earn a promotion; the stakes for junior staff are very high. - Because of the two factors above, junior staff burnout is a serious and persistent problem. Many talented members of staff have left suddenly due to the amount of stress that the firm's culture imposes. It is not uncommon for new hires to leave after just a few months on staff. - Management has slow-rolled its commitments to make the company more diverse. A ton of time and money has been spent on consultants to draft reports that echo the same feedback that the staff has offered for years at no cost. There's a reluctance to bring new voices into leadership or to make serious changes to policies that harm the firm's ability to recruit and retain a diverse staff.