Arikan Olguner

The grind is definitely not worth it Working at Insight was such an overwhelmingly horrific experience for me that if I could pay people to not apply to work there, I would. The most problematic aspect of this company is management?s failure to respect and value employees, specifically lower-level employees (research analysts and managers). Throughout my nine months at Insight, I watched almost a dozen employees leave, mostly due to frustration with the company culture (most notably the tacit understanding that burnout is ?normal?) and the understanding that advancement within the company requires exceptional levels of personal sacrifice and dedication to the company?s goals above all else. Here?s just one story as an illustrative example: Due to the company?s habit of understaffing projects, a colleague of mine (a fellow research analyst) was assigned to serve as a project manager for a project concerning tourism. Although taking on this role was well beyond my colleague?s pay grade - and this person was also juggling two other major projects - she nevertheless dedicated countless hours to working on this project to please her VP and the client. This colleague was dedicated, organized, and efficient, and she willingly and enthusiastically channeled all of her available energy into executing that project because, as she told me, she knew how important it was to the company to build a solid relationship with that new client. Then, when my colleague delivered her final report in a presentation to senior management and the client, the CEO excoriated her in front of the client, calling her report ?sloppy? and ?unprofessional,? and my colleague spent the rest of the afternoon trying to hide her tears as she rode out the day in our open office. Watching my colleague be disrespected in this way made me feel physically uncomfortable, and I took that as my cue to immediately start applying for other jobs. Throughout the next several months, I witnessed many other analysts and managers sacrifice their health and sanity for a company that prioritizes the client above all else. In cases in which clients make demands that are actually obscene (such as requesting a rewrite of an entire report on a deadline so tight that it requires staff to work through the night), it is the responsibility of the management to set and reinforce boundaries to protect its employees. Insight?s failure to do this contributes to employee burnout and has resulted in turnover rates that are frankly an embarrassment for the company. If you are skilled enough to interview at Insight (now MarketCast), you are skilled enough to be employed elsewhere. Do yourself a favor and keep searching