Pros
High profile projects. Great portfolio and resume building firm. Most of the people are nice, especially admin staff who aren't directly competing with you.
Cons
Gensler NY literally has a spread sheet of "rising stars" or people they are tracking and grooming for leadership. These people, not necessarily based for talent or work ethic, are given opportunities and experiences that others are not. Many of the design staff will play the game, make friends with those who are favored, and back stab those at similar levels of experience to get a foot forward. It truly is a rat race. After averaging 60+ hour weeks for 2.5 years, I was let go during the pandemic (its estimated they cut about 40-50% firm wide, but for a firm that touts transparency, these lay offs happened essentially in secret), but honestly thankful I was. Having time off on unemployment really put things in perspective for me.
