Oakland Innovation Reviews

Pros

- nice people - good working hours

Cons

- management, management, management - terrible treatment of staff during pandemic - money over everything - no flexibility - no skill development (because it takes away from the money) - entire focus on billable hours - no fun (no clubs allowed because it takes away from the money) -salary rises are very small I met really talented people but most started looking for new jobs after they realised that theres no growth and no common sense/reason at this company. So many people left so often that leaving emails were no longer allowed to be sent because it was too embarrassing for the company.

Pros

Really interesting work for the most part. Lovely and brilliant coworkers. Great facilities.

Cons

Forced back in the office on June 1st 2020 to do a job that can be done 100% remotely. Complete lack of flexibility and trust in the employees: no wfh or flexible working allowed in normal times. Everything happens in the office from 9 to 17:30. Obscure and incoherent salary review and career progression process. Extremely hierarchical, and slow progression. Anything that can't be billed is disincentivised. Poor training opportunities. If you do not have a car getting to work becomes a huge nuisance after a couple of months: long cycle or completely unreliable hourly bus service.

Pros

- Sociable working hours - Different projects - Great people

Cons

- Salary, and pay increments are not great - Progression is slow - No flexible working - Inaccessible location

Pros

Great company culture. Colleagues are all highly intellectual but very humble and nice to work with. A very good place for science graduates to enter the consultancy industry. 1st month training structure is excellent. One can learn a lot from colleagues.

Cons

Lack of communication in career progression structure in 2015 due to being merged with Science Group.

Pros

Work is interesting. Projects are mainly within FMCG so fairly varied. Interesting when you are starting out with projects.

Cons

Location is terrible without proper transport connections. Although I wasnt there for very long, career progress was slow, leading to a lot of frustration for employees. A number of employees (including experienced ones) were leaving the company. I was told that the working culture took a hit after the acquisition- difficult to say as I didnt know how it was before, but it is not a happy place to work in now. Turnover is reducing year on year. I wouldnt recommend joining the company as limited career prospects and seems to be a sinking ship.

Pros

Its a fun place to work with lots of interesting people. There is a fast pace of work, but lots of opportunity, and interesting cultural diversity

Cons

There is an Oakland way of doing things

Pros

Great, bright people, very friendly environment within Oakland. Excellent clients, and varied work. Decent pay, pension, health and life insurance etc. Very professional environment, and great countryside setting, especially in the summer. Consultants form strong, long term relationships with impressive client base, leading to a lot of repeat business.

Cons

Location. Poor train, bus and road access to the office. Science Group is sucking the fun out of Oakland, obsessed with profit regardless of the impact on the workforce. Oakland will only promote when the business needs it to, or they think they are about to lose someone; senior management have fun, well paid jobs, causing saturated upper levels, impacting progression further down.

Pros

A modern office full of bright and talented people that work hard and enjoy a wide range of challenging and interesting projects. It really is the people that make Oakland a great place to work with a diverse range of nationalities and scientific disciplines

Cons

Haven't been as busy as it was in the past which means that there has been more time for distractions, this now seems to be changing as the projects are coming in at a faster pace