Great Place To Work Institute and the Society for Human Resource Management named The Integer Group 9th best medium size company to work for. They also named Bridge Worldwide 9th best small company to work for. Matt Bergantino, a contributing writer here, and a friend, works for Bridge. I used to work for Integer, twice.
The old Battleship on 6th Ave.
First, allow me to congratulate Matt for working at a great place. He tells me they’re always hiring, so they must have somethin’ goin’ on. Now, for Integer’s part, it’s clearly a good place to work. Some days. Others, not so much. But any day of the week, Integer is in Colorado, so it’s never all bad.
I owe alot to my experience in Lakewood, I’ll say that. Without a doubt, I am grateful for the chance I had to learn the promotional side of the business on Coors’ brands. I had all the makings of an ad snob coming in, and it took a lot to break that down. Years of painful growth, to be exact. Now, I see how freeing it is to be on the marketing services side. Once you let go of little squares where ads go, you can begin to connect with people on a more enduring, human level.
POS is little squares. Don’t get lost in my hopefulness. While some inside Integer, especially account executives, might see the agency as great, for me personally, the place was not creative, nor nimble enough. I like to work on a lighter ship. A gunner.
Be that as it may, I’d love to see Integer take more chances and do better work that brings mountains of coin and a dose of respect to their doorstep.
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In my opinion, these “Best Place to Work” honors are similar to any other awards program; that is, they’re bullshit. Not to knock any of the winners mentioned here, but I’ve seen plenty of places (ad agencies especially) win these titles when the staff was/is actually miserable. It’s a lot of PR, generated by PR people.
One true test for these joints (and other winners of such awards): Are candidates lined up to land a job there?
I’m curious on how you would love to see Integer take more chances and do better work.
Explain to me how it is not creative and nimble enough.
I’m not here to explain the obvious Jay, but since you’re asking so nice, I’ll give it a go. Integer is an account driven shop where creatives are tolerated, at best. Need I say more?
By the way, I thought you’d given up on the blog thing. Too many darts bursting bubbles and all that.
so then integer is a great place to work for account people, but is undeserving of any such award from the creatives’ perspective?
and they probably don’t even allow people to wear flip-flops.
What is the obvious, David? From your perspective, it may not be in line with what occured in the old building you pictured.
I don’t feel like I’m driven by account people here, and I feel my output is achieving goals, financially, strategically, and creatively. Otherwise, I wouldn’t have stayed here for years on end.
As far as the blog thing, it’s like reading stuff in bathroom stalls. You can’t help but look.
Cheers!
“…I feel my output is achieving goals, financially, strategically, and creatively.”
Spoken like a true account person.
I find it difficult to take nasty comments seriously by someone who acknowledges him or herself as anonymous. But I’ll give it a shot.
If I sound like an account person, why is that so bad? Was Jon Steel the enemy at Goodby because he was an account planner? Gotta tell ya, I drew swords with “suits” in my first few years in the business and all I got was backlash. But the more I started working with them, the more they bought into ideas. I’m now enjoying my golden years at my agency, where I can push ideas. Good ideas. Not puns or award show rehashes or something the client rammed down my throat as the account team stood by and nodded.
I am truly sorry for any creative who constantly battles account people on a regular basis. I really am. Perhaps you’re at the wrong agency. Or perhaps (and I hope this isn’t true), it’s you.
That’s why I get sick and tired of watching people bitch about oh-this-work sucks and that-agency’s lame. No wonder people are cynical about our business. Our own creatives are spouting off WAAAAYYYYYYY too much about it. I used to think blogs were a brilliant way to create great dialogue (and some still are, like Room 116). Now it’s some ventfest.
There’s no garden of Eden. Even Fallon, Crispin, W+K, and others have a dark day here and there (admittedly they are far and few, but nothing’s perfect).
Perhaps we should take another look at the last page of Hey, Whipple. Squeeze This. It’s only a page, but it speaks volumes (sorry for the pun, an account person wrote it).
geez, talk about a ventfest.
Ha. That’s funny, anonymous. Guess we’re all guilty.
High Jive,
You are correct about the footwear. No open toe shoes allowed.
Jay,
For the record, I don’t go out of my way to battle account people. I do go out of my way to battle arrogance and incompetence.
Like I said, David, things have changed. And continue to change.
For example, we are not in that nasty ass battleship anymore. We have pretty sweet digs in a newly-created downtown area of Lakewood called Belmar. Our client base has expanded and given some good creative opportunities. And I’m seeing quite a few open toe shoes.
Quite frankly, the things you advocated during your tenure there are being embraced today. I think your ideas back then were ahead of their time. My thoughts, anyway.
Good to know, Jay. And thanks for the compliment.
As I said in the post, I want Integer–and my friends who work there–to succeed. It’s like rooting for your alma mater, even if your college experience was a bit rough.
“I do go out of my way to battle arrogance and incompetence.”
Forget Superman Returns.
It’s more than likely that Integer could benefit from Burn Returns.