brand ambassador

I joined VML with genuine excitement after being sold on compelling project work during the interview process. But on day one, I was reassigned to a completely different team to backfill someone who had left. Weeks later, I was moved again—this time to a project where I had no real UX responsibilities, shadowing a strategy team that didn’t need a designer. It took months before I was placed in a role that actually aligned with what I was hired to do.

Once I did, I contributed heavily to a series of successful projects for over a year, earning consistent positive feedback from managers and directors. But despite strong internal reviews and my efforts to grow across UX, strategy, and even UI, I received no raise or promotion in more than two years. Formal requests for compensation were repeatedly met with vague promises or silence, even while others were let go during frequent rounds of layoffs. Eventually, I left for a role that valued my skills—and I’ve never regretted it.

That said, VML does have a strong, welcoming culture at the peer level. I worked with incredibly kind, collaborative people who always supported one another. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for upper management. The company feels too big, too disorganized, and too lacking in strong leadership to offer real growth or stability. Many colleagues were underpaid for their roles and stuck in limbo—afraid to move on because of an unstable job market.

VML isn’t a terrible place to work—it’s not toxic, and the work-life balance was generally manageable. But the lack of clear direction, poor leadership, and a frustrating bait-and-switch approach to remote work for some employees left a bad impression. I learned a lot, but I wouldn’t recommend it for anyone looking to grow in a meaningful or supported way.

I worked, collaborated and created a knowledge base with fellow web developers. This is a place where it never gets boring. In a marketing agency such as this I had the pleasure of working on multiple projects for many different clients. New challenges introduced themselves as a new art directed animation concepts that we, the developers had to bring to life. I learned that working with a team of developers, and sharing ideas coding concepts is something i really enjoy. I learned the benefit of having morning scrums with project management twice a week or more. Project prioritization is developed during scrums which lead me to focus on the tasks at hand and be more efficient at my job. Work place culture was free and open. No micro management. You handle your business and do a great job, get in on the discussions, help generate ideas and concepts. The hardest part is when I received art work late, and the timing of a project is not pushed back to accommodate the late assets received. The most enjoyable part with the team. Collaborating, drinking beers, sharing work and ideas.

This company has the potential to be a truly great place to work. The environment itself is supportive and there are good intentions behind many of the initiatives, but there is a clear lack of organization. Processes are not always structured, which often creates unnecessary confusion and extra pressure on the team. One of the biggest challenges is staffing: there is a strong need to hire people who are properly trained, skilled in their roles, and who genuinely enjoy the work they do. When employees are passionate and competent, the whole team benefits and productivity naturally improves. Unfortunately, absenteeism is also an issue, with staff frequently calling in sick at short notice, which disrupts workflow and places additional strain on those who are present. With better organization and more committed, trained employees, this workplace could reach its full potential and become a truly outstanding company.


Pros:
Best creative work in the business, assuming you work in creative. 
Amazing work on deck in future AI tools

Cons:
Everything seems to be a “leap of faith” and a “trust fall”. 
client loss is massive - millions
Merged 5x in 5 years to compensate
No growth or change in salary
No accountability, diminishing trust.
You’re asked to work more, do more with less and empathize with upper management that makes 3x more than you. Otherwise you’re not fit to the culture. 

Essentially
leaders are moved into roles without preparation or adequate coaching. They struggle with the massive set of responsibility they’ve been given. It’s not fair to them, employees, clients and the business. People are not organized in a way that plays to their strengths. It’s not for a lack of talent. There is massive talent, struggling to get by and keep trust. It’s difficult to watch - especially in a closely connected, personal employee culture. 


VML can be an incredible environment to quickly and independently gain experience across multiple roles in multiple practices.  If you aren't able to identify the work and either own that work through delegation or your own capacity you will sink quickly.  If you are, sky is the limit as far as carving out space to meet your career goals.

Seattle office has a very toxic environment.  The management is a boys/cool kids club. The upper management is so detached from the day-to-day, yet makes big decisions like they are, therefore making for unhappy employees.  I think there is opportunity for this company to thrive, but the head management really needs to pay attention to what is going on with their employees, and take the time to actually listen to what they say before making big business decisions.

• Conducted Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and YouTube campaigns for leading brands
• Monitored and measured engagement on the above channels
• Compared metrics to KPIs, optimizing campaigns for further engagement and ROI
• Built client-facing decks detailing current performance and future recommendations
• Learned the importance of data in measuring campaign efficiency
• Learned how to leverage social analytics to optimize digital campaigns

A typical day at work for me was, when I got there I would distribute a bank to the bartenders.  Make sure all the bars were properly stocked.  I would ensure all security personel were properly briefed on the evenings events.  The hardest part of my job was dealing with people who were intoxicated.  The most enjoyable part of my job was engaging with different types of people day in and day out.

VML has some of nicest people I have ever worked with, really liked interacting and working with everyone. The work is not that great with a few stoneage clients. The firm is headquartered in KC and they don't care about any other offices, openly stating biases to me about the Chicago office lack of capabilities. Its also the whitest office I have ever worked in.

This company has gone through so many changes in the 3 years I've worked here. Merging twice, management teams popping up and directing the focus of teams and then disappearing and teams getting merged with others.

Overall, it's a good place to work. 

Working at VML: Company Overview and Reviews

VML

VML Ratings

Popular jobs at VML

Salary Satisfaction

Job Seeker Tools

Employer Tools

Browse

Stay Connected