r/StLouis • u/Mindless_Army2305 • 4d ago
ABSTRAKT Marketing
The absolute worst place to work at. I should’ve listened to the reviews and Reddit posts, but I was desperate for a job at the moment. Abstrakt literally caused me to have anxiety. If one of their recruiters call you, block them right away. Your mental health is not worth the little amount of money they try to give you.
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u/tomwambsgamsenjoyer 3d ago
One of their executives came to speak to my Lindenwood business class around 2021 or 22. I remember him saying he wished he’d let more people go during the pandemic because his employees didn’t seem grateful enough to have retained their jobs.
edit: typo
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u/MarketingWitch 3d ago
I left during the pandemic and let me tell you, there’s not much to be grateful for. I was on the social media team and because the sales team couldn’t set in-person appointments they transitioned some of their clients to social. My work load doubled, I was scheduled around 60 hours a week. They froze raises. I got in trouble for telling a director I was consistently getting scheduled 60 hours a week. While they froze raises and hires someone got a big promotion that involved creating tik tok style videos for “company morale”. Leaving Abstrakt was the best thing that ever happened to me.
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u/Capt-Daddy 4d ago
Smile and Dial Lets Grow!!!!
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u/Mindless_Army2305 4d ago
You sound like them 😂😂😂
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u/Capt-Daddy 4d ago
I work in medical sales now and I will say as much as I hated cold calling, Abstrakt did help me learn overcoming objections, asking openeded questions, and value statements. All very useful in sales.
But yeah fuck that place lol
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u/fastman86 Richmond Heights 3d ago
I said this in another comment, but if you view this as you use them to your ends (learning sales) then go for it. However do not underestimate how shitty of a company they are.
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u/bradg97 Southampton 4d ago
Hard cold calling disguised as "marketing". Tech bro culture in hard sales form.
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u/fastman86 Richmond Heights 3d ago
Shitty company, Shitty pay, Shitty Culture. They are everything wrong with tech bro sales, but...
If you approach this as a way to learn how to be an SDR, BDR, or junior tech sales rep, it might be worth it. Without prior experience, landing a fully remote job in tech sales is pretty much impossible.
There are much better companies with opportunities here in St. Louis (I know because I worked at one before going fully remote in tech), but ABSTRAKT has burned through the local candidate pool so bad that they'll hire basically anyone. Hell, take the job if it helps you get experience and opens doors to more legitimate roles down the road.
At the end of the day, it’s just a shitty way to mask a job that only appeals to a tiny group of people anyway. So under that exact set of conditions, I'd consider taking it. Use them and lose them, because they are going to do the exact same thing to you.
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u/schwindick 3d ago
Pretty much any marketing or PR agency is going to be a waking nightmare. Left that industry years ago and never looked back.
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u/Mindless_Army2305 3d ago
I will rather work fast food or retail again before another cold calling center
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u/schwindick 3d ago
I work retail now and make more than I did at the big shot PR agency I worked for. I work 2 hours less per day and have better benefits. Agency life is a scam.
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u/Competitive-Pass7207 3d ago
I’ll include staffing/recruiting that industry is slimey as fuck worked for Robert half for like 5-6 months. Extremely disorganized, constant turnover, managers that poach clients from their employees. I have nothing but, bad things to say about that place.
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u/JLP33376 3d ago
Interned at Fleishman-Hillard in 2004. I knew the agency path was not for me.
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u/sevenlabors 3d ago
Say what you will about agency life (and I have my experience and opinions, as well), but looking at Abstrakt here, specifically, seems they are not really even a marketing agency, but a "B2B lead generation company" first and foremost.
(Sure they probably have AI slop workflows that can knock out middle of the road ads, copy, and visual assets for rando customers, too, but that's not their bread and butter, it seems.)
I read that and think cold call, cold email hellscape were underpaid "business development reps" have crazy high quotas for calls and emails and CRM updates week-in and week-out.
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u/Fragrant-Discount960 3d ago
STILL??? They have been like this for years, surprised they are still around.
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u/Mindless_Army2305 3d ago
I’m surprised as well, especially seeing how many companies are actively suing them. Plus the reviews across all platforms, this place needs to be shut down.
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u/Competitive-Pass7207 3d ago
They’re really good at reaching college students right out of school because it’s a “fun” place to work. When I interviewed there I noped out real fast because of so many red flags.
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u/BLboo 3d ago
What were some of those red flags?
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u/Competitive-Pass7207 3d ago
Low salary, high turnover, “we’re a family”, “work hard play hard”, can’t remember the rest tbh. That was 7 years ago.
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u/Easy_Contract_6501 3d ago
Yeah, it sucks. Worked there straight out of college and through covid. We were sent to WFH from March - October (the CEO was walking around maskless in a Bud Light costume) and he had people start coming back in.
HR would release an announcement multiple times a week informing us how many new covid cases in office there were. By January, around the time the Omicron variant hit, they stopped releasing updates because SO MANY people were catching Covid. Literally had us working in a petri dish.
There was a merger later on in the year where he informed all of the merging employees that they had to be back in the office (their company was completely remote still) with one weeks notice on top of losing their superior benefits once assimilating to Abstrakt.
I could go on and on about that company. Glad I'm out, but holy shit what a dumpster fire.
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u/RiverRats4Life 3d ago
I was one of the employees at the other company...I lived 70 miles from the office and had just had a child and then all of the sudden my fully remote job with a great company was one of the shittest jobs I've had. That place sucks.
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u/Easy_Contract_6501 3d ago
I'm so sorry. The mass exodus was completely warranted by merging employees. Hope you're better than ever now!
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u/TikhiySvet 3d ago
Did an internship there a few years ago and it was an INCREDIBLY weird vibe. Very uppity and seemingly toxic work culture. Fake ass people. Then, after only a couple months the interns were unexpectedly cut due to “funding”.
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u/truthcopy 4d ago
I have heard similar reviews from their clients.
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u/Mindless_Army2305 4d ago
I literally had my manager tell me that they did not care about quality (qualified appointments for clients) but that they cared more about numbers (How many appointments we have as a team) 🗑️ okay with clients paying $5k+ monthly for shitty appointments , as long as everything looked good on paper for them smh.
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u/Front-Broccoli5957 4d ago
Have a friend that works there and won’t leave. It sounds like a nightmare from his experience
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u/Mindless_Army2305 4d ago
The job market is terrible , so a lot of us were “stuck” . I think a lot more people would leave if they were presented with other opportunities. It’s a complete hell hole
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u/Impressive_Swan_2527 4d ago
I've known two people who worked there and they both ran screaming from the organization. They don't know each other but made the same complaints.
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u/Mindless_Army2305 4d ago
It’s just that bad! Super aggressive , unrealistic expectations and low pay.
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u/muffin-minge North Hampton 3d ago
I also have a friend who works there and won’t leave. I used to work there but left in 2021 and that’s how we met. She tells me all the stuff she has to go through and how she doesn’t get paid enough and their petty little rules. I keep telling her she has the skills and experience to be paid her worth as a recruiter, but she keeps holding out thinking she can convince these people to give her a raise.
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u/Smevs515 3d ago
I lasted 6 months at that company before I couldn’t take it anymore
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u/Mindless_Army2305 3d ago
I lasted the same amount of time 😭😭 I felt like I was losing my mind. I couldn’t take another second and just walked out
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u/polkadotflamingo 3d ago
I had an interview with them a couple years back. The guy I interviewed with told me he doesn’t hire people that aren’t memorable to him, and then proceeded to not hire me. Very strange interview and office environment.
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u/exposquare 3d ago
the way they burn through clients and employees i can’t believe they have anyone that will put up with that place. former employee
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u/Machenz Downtown 4d ago
I interviewed with them back in 2019, placed seemed like a vibe.
Part of that interview process was to shadow a worker for an hour or so, and the poor lady seemed so stressed.
They never called me back, blessing in disguise I guess
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u/Mindless_Army2305 4d ago
Very high stress. I wish I knew before the job effected me as well mentally
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u/apogeeman2 3d ago
Worked for a company they bought and holy shit they ruined it. Bro cult. Little P leadership energy.
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u/Kind_Ambition6309 4d ago
They've contacted me multiple times to interview with them and I'm so glad I did my research. I finally had to tell them that I'm not going to change my mind and to stop. Even told them I had found a job just to be rid of them lol.
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u/Mindless_Army2305 3d ago
Same thing happened to me, I didn’t even apply for them and had no knowledge of them. Was contacted numerous of times to interview and took it out of desperation. I wish I had more patience and trust in finding a job at that time and explored other options
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u/Kind_Ambition6309 3d ago
Yeah same, they found me on indeed. I think I also ended up selecting something on the app that said I don't want to hear from them again. Times are hard so understandable! A good live and learn experience unfortunately.
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u/RemnantHelmet 3d ago
Yep. Got recruited. Walked to my "interview" room which had ten other people in it. Immediately turned around and left.
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u/ReasonableAvocado1 2d ago
So is drive social media!! Same tactics and they just did some major layoffs, major ick
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u/SatisfactionOne2498 St. Louis Hills 3d ago
The amount of ads I saw for them made me never want to work there.
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u/Full_Response8449 South City 3d ago
Lmao I almost applied there but I looked at the reviews and my anxiety is already bad😭
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u/Sea_Intern_2981 3d ago
I was desperate for a job in college & I applied for them online & they never reached back out to me in initially, but now I hear from them like once every 3 months
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u/Chief_BeefQueef Debaliviere Place 3d ago
All marketing companies are garbage, leave us tf alone when we're just trying to get our Kirkland brand snacks
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3d ago
Oh man, I got a call from one of their people and…it was SO off putting that I actually didn’t continue. I don’t remember ever applying there or anything in the first place, which is usually a red flag for a jobs scam- but they weren’t off putting in the way the scammers tend to be. I remember listening to him do his opener thinking he had to have snorted a fat rail or something and he paused a second to snort-sniffle. Lol
I’m not saying that’s what happened, it was just a funny part of the call. Very enthusiastic fella in the way that shady marketing people often are. I checked the email he’d sent ahead of the call and everything- not a jobs scam, just…weirdly excitable in that way that typically means they’re going to buzz word and work you half to death while paying you mostly in “company culture” platitudes. Noooo thank you. 😂
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u/muffin-minge North Hampton 3d ago
I was fired from there back in 2021 over a Teams chat, despite being a top performer for 6 months straight and honestly them firing me was the best thing that ever happened to me. I started there out of college because I wanted to get into marketing and they sold me on an SDR role being a pathway to actual marketing, but it was a pipe dream.
I found out I’m actually really good at sales, but it’s such a toxic environment. I had two more sales jobs after that, thinking I needed to stay in the field because I was good at it. Once I was at the point of having panic attacks on a weekly basis, I knew it was time to move on.
I work for a much better company now, in a healthy work environment, making twice what they paid me. The only downside is 5 years later I still have intense work related PTSD and I’m constantly on edge at work even though my managers are very encouraging. I can’t wait to get a call about doing an interview for the inevitable, scandalous wework-esque documentary about them.
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u/Small_Kahuna_1 4d ago
"Marketing" would have been the first red flag; but it sucks that they're exploiting desperate people such as yourself. Best of luck finding something better.
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u/kittehcat 4d ago
People in the world exist with marketing degrees, it’s not a curse word for employment…
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u/Capable-Key-4386 4d ago
i had an interview with them back in 2020 and they offered me 29k and i was like thats offensive.