DO NOT WORK HERE - Avis employé Senior Strategist Mindstream Interactive

DO NOT WORK AT MINDSTREAM. I came to this agency with 5+ years of agency and brand experience. Believe me I wanted it to be something better. In fact, they got me through the door by promising something better all around. Let this serve as the truth you won’t be told by the HR department. Here’s what you can expect on a day-to-day basis at Mindstream Interactive. It’s a lot of hardship but at least you and some of your friends will be in it together. You will be told onboarding is your first priority. But onboarding at Mindstream will be unlike any form of onboarding you’ve ever experienced before, simply because it doesn’t exist. All of the people around you will appear too busy and too high strung to tell you what’s going on. This will extend to simple things like accessing the agency server, billing hours, knowing what tools you need and can even use, being invited to meetings, or even being introduced to others. Then you’re thrown into work with zero client context, zero sense of what you’re responsible for, and zero sense of how teams are working together (spoiler: none of them are). This is interesting because you will hear words like “collaboration” and “curiosity” and “courage” repeated constantly. These core pillars couldn’t be more absent in the Mindstream process, no matter what it involves. Employees end up feeling aimless at best and devalued at worst. When you first catch onto this, you’ll wonder what’s going on where and who’s just sitting by letting it happen? Look to the leadership. All of these high-ranking people inherited their undeserved titles from what was once SBC Advertising. This is problematic because it has created a clique of leaders with a belief in an “us” and “you” mentality. Management will withhold basic info like financials (“Are we on track this quarter?”), new business opportunities (“What happened with that pitch we worked on for months?”), and major internal decisions (“Wait, when did they quit?”). You’ll also experience extremely uncomfortable staff meetings where management lies about things you know to be false, and your peers listen in silence afraid to voice concerns with valid reasons. This daily tension is part of what makes working at the agency unbearable. At times, it honestly felt like being back in school instead of at work (ex: being required to send a company-wide email every time you take PTO, work from home or even have to leave 20 minutes early for an appointment). Now this doesn’t mean everyone there believes in this environment. There are many talented, passionate employees who produce high-quality work and are enjoyable to be around. Sadly, those outside of the leadership clique aren’t given a voice. Offering feedback or constructive criticism leads to people being “blacklisted” by the higher ups. So many talented people have come and gone through Mindstream. A large majority of them are doing impactful work and being respected for it elsewhere. Why is top talent treated so poorly? It’s a huge downfall. It feels like you and everyone you work with are expendable. The constant threat of layoffs (which have happened multiple times) and general feeling of instability will keep you on edge. Then there are even more concerning aspects: sexual harassment that’s covered up, special treatment for those who are “favorites”, total lack of diversity in the workforce, abuse of power from a boy’s club and scrutiny of employees with children and outside lives (ex: director consistently leaving early while the team stays late). If you’re seriously looking for a new job, I would not personally put my livelihood in the hands of this business. There is a strong feeling month after month that it’s barely hanging on by a thread. Leadership will continue taking its paycheck while running things further into the ground. The rest of the agency’s employees will be left picking up the pieces of their career. Anyone is worth better than this.