Avantages
My time at Pixels was incredibly valuable, and I learned so much. Having worked in other, lesser agency environments, there’s a lot to appreciate from a client management perspective. I recommend absorbing as much as you can from Jeanne and Ronaldo. There’s usually nice little perks like in-office masseuse, pre-work breakfast or post-work drinks, and the periodic working lunch. The holiday party is always outstanding. Ronaldo and Jeanne definitely re-invest in their existing team, as I always found compensation increases to be generous. The week off around Christmas is standard (but unfortunately not ubiquitous at other agencies), but the week off around the Fourth of July is stellar. They like to hire junior people straight out of college, even if their experience isn’t a 1:1 fit with their role. I benefitted from this approach. As such, it’s possible if you have too much experience, they won’t be interested in you because of what you’d cost. However, this is because they’re super adept at “coaching up” junior talent, legitimately. Beyond agency experience, you’re also exposed to high-profile clients and opportunities. I met multiple clients on-site, including one requiring air travel. That was exciting. I also got to attend a marketing convention, increasing my exposure to that area of the business (even though it isn’t a primary focus of Pixels). The job was never, ever boring.
Inconvénients
Pixels is not without its cons, which are mostly par for the course in agency environments — long days, high stress, client annoyances on short notice, etc. Despite the length of the below, I whole-heartedly recommend it as a place to cut your teeth, learn, and grow as a designer, developer, or manager. While there were frustrations, I never experienced (or saw) the abusive behavior mentioned in some of the reviews from former creative staff. Ronaldo and Jeanne are deliberate with how information is managed between them. At times, this made it confusing for management to know what “the plan” was. I’d sometimes be asked by Ronaldo to get information from someone else on the team that I knew Ronaldo had. There’s every right to guard parts of the business from non-ownership, but it felt like it sometimes handcuffed management. At its worst, it felt like client requests were a faucet you could not turn off. Ownership has been quoted as saying “the answer is always yes” when it comes to client asks. Eventually, it came to the point where clients reached out to me directly, without Jeanne or Ronaldo copied, dictating specific delivery dates on new requests. By the end of my tenure, we had gone multiple years without the typical winter lull. I commend ownership for the ability to scale and maximize the output of their current staff, but it always felt like we were at least one headcount short of what we actually needed. From a specific Engineering perspective, we were constantly on the cusp of an unsustainable amount of work, particularly when we were blindsided by a WordPress security update, or losing a headcount. Further qualification that all of the above is accurate, but I still recommend this place. Ownership is good people, who put a lot of humor into how they run their business. The job is frustrating by design, which is what you’ll find in just about every agency environment. Consider the above to be food for thought, even though I still would recommend you apply if you’re thinking about it.