Overall, a good experience. I learnt a lot. - Designer Brakeburn Employee Review

4.0
1 Aug 2021
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

- A good opportunity for a graduate designer to develop their skills and gain valuable experience in the industry, with a company demonstrating its ability to grow. - Generally a good atmosphere in the office. - Excellent location. The Dorset coast is a beautiful place to live. - There are some good company perks, including a staff discount for Brakeburn merchandise. - Staff team building activities have increased in recent times. - 1 hour lunch break. You will have time for a short run or walk (a scenic inlet is only a 5 minute walk away). - 9:30 start. This is good if your a morning person and you enjoy doing things before work, however this comes with a later finish of 6pm. - There are generally good facilities with a recently built shower available for staff, and air conditioning/heating in the office space. - There is safe storage for bikes inside.

Cons

- A resilient personality will help with the pressures associated with aspects of the design process. - At times I found my creative freedoms were restricted by the Owners very hands on leadership and management style. This improved throughout my employment. - There seems to be a lack of focus on being an environmentally friendly company. - I didn’t feel that there was an obvious HR team. - The office, staff room and toilets could do with refurbishing. - There is only one meeting room.

Explore other reviews about Brakeburn

1.0
25 Jun 2026
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

- Thrown straight into the deep end so you’re forced to learn quickly - Some nice people still working there - Winter coats are allowed in the office due to holes in the walls. - Very much a startup environment. Good if you enjoy living life on the edge.

Cons

- No onboarding experience - you’ll be given minimal context to the role and expected to figure things out. - They won’t understand what you do - be ready to explain why you’ve been hired to your team and the founder. - Extremely weak branding - the founder’s expertise lies heavily in B2B wholesale environments - not D2C ecommerce. There will be continuous pressure on small teams to hit punchy forecasted figures and an ever growing frustration from the top down. Brand guidelines are non existent and no scope to influence who ‘Brakeburn’ actually are due to stubbornness. So many people have left, that you’ll be lucky to have a manager with any expertise in your field. - Minimal cash left - The result is a brand which cannot compete on anything other than price. Inflated revenue figures but extremely low profit margins in heavy, drawn out 70% off sale periods. What you now see is a company barely scraping through with enough cash before they reach their next, low margin sale period after lying to customers that this would be their ‘last chance!’ - it’s only a matter of time before Brakeburn will need to make additional severe changes to the structure of the company. - False promises & lack of structure - these deep rooted issues are harming the company’s finances and you won’t get a pay rise despite being promised a review in X amount of months. You’ll be told the company is doing fine, whilst hearing that we need to urgently pull out of anything costing money and your pay arrives late. Many contracts have been issued to new employees late, after their start date. No one has an official up to date job description, so very little boundaries or tracking of your job performance, more just an expectation to ‘muck in’ which is only getting worse with more people being made redundant or resigning on the spot. - The extremely tired and worn down office is more like a neglected warehouse with a few desks and screens inside. It’s a visual representation of how Brakeburn like to operate and treat their staff. - Rude senior management - as much as you would like to ask for things in writing, don’t. Brakeburn don’t have time for that. You will quickly learn their deceptive ways of working.

2.0
10 Jun 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Great people. Good product. I enjoyed working with the team every day. There were lots of challenges, and everyone pitched in.

Cons

Having to listen to the owner's personal problems day in and day out was draining. There was so much negativity, and then he would make you sit through hours of therapy sessions.

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