Avantages
The team was great, and so was my manager. I learned a lot in my time at the company as I was new to social media when I started. I got to attend their events in Barcelona and truly got to develop my skills within social media. My manager encouraged further learning and would push me to become better which I really appreciated.
Inconvénients
I started in good faith, I felt welcomed and taken care of, and I learned a lot. I had a great relationship with the people I worked with, and not only in my own team, but account managers and others. Around the time I started, Transperfect had just acquired the company. I was told that nothing would change and that Webcertain would still work as an independent company, but now with more support. In the first year it felt like Webcertain. I had nothing to compare it with, but heard from others that nothing really changed, and I absolutely loved working there. It was overwhelming and challenging at times, but that is the case for any job. The shift came when more and more rules got implemented, often with immediate effect. Things slowly started to change, and it was easy to notice the shift. It went from being Webcertain, to being a company controlled by a big American corporation, and it was very noticeable.
One of the main issues were promotions/pay increases, or lack thereof. I told my manager I wanted to work towards a promotion in the next 12 months period when I had been at the company for a year. She was very supportive. When that 12 month period was up and I had been at the company for 2 years, I expected a promotion. I had met all the criteria and my manager signed off on it. I had also taken on the additional responsibilities I would be compensated for with this promotion. It was within only a few months (if not weeks) of me being told I would get one, that it was put ''on pause'' for financial reasons. Every time I followed up there were no updates, or I was told a meeting had been held, but what was said I didn't know. At the time of me leaving I was told a meeting about it was planned. I honestly don't know if that's even true. At the time I left I had taken on these additional responsibilities for a year without extra compensation, and it had been 7-8 months since I was told my promotion was put on pause.
The only way to get a salary increase, was to get a promotion, as there was no yearly salary reviews (technically never salary reviews, at least not for me). It was a lengthy process to get a promotion, and whether or not your promotion got approved, seemed to be pure luck. Several other employees left due to the long wait for promotions or just horrible pay in general. There was also a bonus scheme implemented, but we didn't get any information about this in writing, which seems to be the norm. I appreciated it, but I viewed this as a temporary fix to a bigger problem.
In the team I was in, as the time went by, more people left and no one was hired to replaced them. As a result of this, I became overworked and nearly burnt out. Communication with certain people in other departments was also difficult at times, as some seemed to be stuck in their ways. This led to a lot of unnecessary time wasted answering e-mails. This was brought up several times, but not much changed.
I truly wish I could have left a positive review, because I did love my job in my first year, and I did love working with the people in my team and I have a lot of respect for many of the people I worked with. However, the work environment became more and more toxic, senior management made promises they couldn't keep, and pay was horrible. All in all, I learned not to trust them.
I truly hope the people left at Webcertain will try their best to not let the American corporate culture take over completely. Especially if they expect people to want to stay longer than a year or two.
Btw - Andy was great, but I gave a thumbs down as he is no longer the CEO and I wouldn't say my impression of the new guy is great.
