Creative Circle

I had a bad experience as a talent for creative circle. Low pay and recruiter I worked with had terrible attitude on multiple phone calls. In fact, the only time she was pleasant was when the client wanted to hire me. I would never recommend a friend to work here.

Creative Circle is a great agency that helped me find a great job! I am very happy with my decision of sticking with them. The agent that I worked with worked very hard between the employee and the client and allowed us to see why we would be a great combination. Overall I am very content with their work.

Found me my dream job — couldn’t be happier! Great at finding positions at smaller companies that are doing great work. Super helpful and really try to find the best fit for you! Ask for Jennifer Marshall or Beth Shoenfeld but really, they’re all great! Love them and will go back to them when the time comes!

Creative Circle is the absolute worst! I’m an agency recruiter and they are known in the industry for being horrible! At my former agency they used to blow me up constantly and send me their candidate list all the time. I would often notice people on the list that I knew for a fact were not available. Very bait and switch. These recruiters remind me of shady NYC real estate brokers. I noticed lot of people on here complaining about the low pay — well there is a reason for that… they take at least HALF of what agencies pay them for freelancers… usually more than half. Thats the reason people feel underpaid… Creative Circle is actually profiting more off the work than the person doing it. Obviously they have to make $$$ somehow, but thats just unethical to me. I thought the standard was about a 20% cut! Do yourself a favor and don’t work with Creative Circle or hire their people. Waste of time!
BTW –I was prompted to write this review because someone from CC just sent an email to a colleague of mine and claiming that she’s the new contact and they’ve been working with us since 2013. Funny considering I now work at a start up who has never once used a recruiter. Shady practice!

Creative Circle has been on my radar for a few years. I receive their matched listings via email almost daily, which is great. When I was laid off from my full-​time job, I registered with CC and landed an ongoing position within a few weeks. Most of the positions they offer are «freelance» i.e. TEMPORARY. The great thing about freelance/​temp work is that you get to set your own schedule. You get to come and go as you please. You get to take a day off with no one allowing to have a word since you’re paid hourly.
I was working on an assignment from CC for just over two weeks when I accepted a full-​time offer with another company. This was a permanent position that offered full benefits, etc. I told my CC recruiter (who was well aware I was still hunting for full-​time) on an early Tuesday morning that I would finish out the week and then be moving on. Keep in mind that the work CC offers IS NOT full-​time work by any means. You make an hourly wage through them (which is so so questionably low for freelance professional work, but I took it to pass the time). I gave my week notice which I felt was MORE than enough time for these people to get another temp in as I closed out the week. Unfortunately that was deemed «too much work without any notice» so I was guilted (it’s customary to give two weeks I am well aware but not for a temp job; if they weren’t going to invest in me, I wasn’t going to in them, that’s the joy of temping, no real responsibilities) to stay on an additional week. FOR A FREELANCE GIG.
Leave it to say that the recruiter wasn’t able to get someone into my position before
I was to leave and instead guilted me into jeopardizing my full-​time opportunity to stay on freelancing an additional week.
All the recruiter wanted was to save face with her client and keep collecting her payout portion on my hourly work. It is absolutely ridiculous and probably one of the lowest agencies in the city you could sign up with. Avoid at all costs.

I’ve worked with this agency a few times over the years when I was looking for work and I have to say, I wasn’t impressed at all. I have worked with a few different agents at CC over the years, and in each instance always worked with people that seemed pressed for time, not really engaged with me unless it seemed they were going to be able to find me work easily. I have worked with other agencies who were much more genuine and interested in finding me work, and those were the best past agency experiences I’ve had, finding for me some of my best, most well fitted consultant gigs. CC did find me a few short term gigs, but overall I found them quite rude and flippant (at least most of the people I worked with there, who shall remain nameless) and also felt when speaking with them over the phone or over email, that they weren’t very forthcoming with information about roles they were pitching me for, which I constantly had to pull out of them. Discussions like those caused a lot of tension and friction at times and I didn’t appreciate being put in that position. Basically at CC they act like they’re doing YOU a favor by even taking you on for consideration, instead of providing a more human touch in their interaction with you.
Not my cup of tea, sorry, but I just happen to like genuinely good people, whom are easy to talk with and appreciate good people themselves. CC think they’re the best agency out there, and it shows! Don’t waste your time on this place, there are better agencies in NYC to choose from.

JUST SAY NO.
No moral center
pyramid like-​scheme
Mindless drones at CC, dispensing human labor as though they were little bees
FREELANCERS — You are not a HOT SHOT. There are a million of you out there. Not one of you is unique.

A recruiter that’s not completely horrible for once. After screening, they ask you to set up a profile of your skills, then send you relevant emails on positions that might interest you. You express interest, and they’ll call you if they can get you a potential spot. They’re very nice over the phone, patient and easy to get in touch with. It was a few months before the right opportunity arose, but I was placed in a long-​term assignment in a matter of days.
The downside: it’s a pain in the ass getting checks for temp work. They’d take weeks to arrive from California, and if the employer doesn’t approve it in time, you’re basically never getting it. Set up direct deposit and be prepared to hound your employer about approving checks.

The staff at Creative Circle was amazing! They really took care of me and kept my inbox consistently filled with new freelance and full-​time positions. I was only using their service for a month and a half before they helped me land a position with a great company. They easy to work with and they really seem to care about helping you. Just can’t say enough about Creative Circle and people like Lauren and Brian, they are awesome!

I am not impressed so far. I’ve been with them for 2 months. When I started they were very positive about my book and indicated that they had jobs I would be perfect for. I will give them a couple more months and see. I have received work through other staffing agencies just as a comparison. Im curious if anyone has any idea how many design /​art director freelancers one city branch may have? Is it hundreds or thousands?

Don’t know why Unilocal deleted my other review. I think some people here just cannot handle the truth.
I’ve spoken out about this before and I’ll say it again: THESE PEOPLE DO NOT RESEARCH THEIR OWN CLIENTS. If you’re a candidate and you’re presented to a company that is in trouble for building violations/​unsafe work environments, wouldn’t you want to know? A good agency should find this out for you, not present you to the role and expect you to take it, no questions asked. But unfortunately, Creative Circle just cares about the money, as they’ve indicated over and over again. One can understand why smaller companies like them because they don’t have the same guidelines for accepting clients and screening companies as other agencies do (Adecco, Aquent, Creative Group, Kelly Services, the list goes on…). They basically take the clients nobody else wants. Most of these agencies are much more particular about the clients they accept and will only work with businesses who have 20 years or more in experience or make over a certain net worth yearly (Vitamin T’s minimum is 10 million for small companies). Creative Circle (both in NY and NJ) have been known to overlook clients who don’t fit these requirements and who also have lawsuits in their history and will still take them on. I know this because I worked for such a client in another state, and no it was NOT through Creative Circle! But Creative Circle had known their background and that they had a labour violation lawsuit that was pending. Guess what? They STILL placed candidates!
Look, I’m an honest person and I have no reason to make this stuff up. In my own experience, the rates through them were usually decent so I can’t say the pay is always bad. I wish I could give them an extra star for that, but unfortunately, sending candidates to companies with a very sketchy history makes it hard for me to say enthusiastically that they are good. It doesn’t help that their recruiters are also rude and seem to get upset when you don’t want to accept gigs (as I’ve been chewed out by recruiters for not being willing to jump onto a gig in the past). That, and I’ve had recruiters who have admitted to me they know next to nothing about design (For Unilocal purposes, these people shall remain nameless). There might be a few who are an exception, but I’ve never had the good fortune of running into them. And yeah, these guys also cost me a gig a long time ago by harassing a client. If you can, there are better recruiters to work with in this town and I recommend finding gigs through other agencies.

Everyone here is hustling for the hustlers.
They bring joy to many other freelancers in the creative field daily.
From the interview to be registered into Creative Circle system, to my first two-​week freelance at a retail strategy firm, to an intensely challenging yet incredible experience to ideate 3D visualizations for another retail strategy… to finally my full-​time dream job at a brand solutions agency.
Something fascinating about Creative Circle is the seamless, decisive team work. They’re always «on it, asap» no matter who from the agency.
It’s also important to create a relationship with the agents. Some will know you better than others (I.e. Lauren), meaning they’ll be able to forward you more gigs that are tailored to you.
I’ve never been in a sorority before but I bet this is what it feels like to be unconditionally supported by your «sisters.»

As a Designer & Developer, who is bombarded with staffing agencies, I only trust Creative Circle. Their client list is great and led me to work in one of the top global agencies in the world. Agents are super helpful and go above and beyond to make sure talent is happy and comfortable.
If you are fortunate enough to fall in the hands of Lauren Scottow, consider yourself set. But everyone in agency that I have encountered are super helpful, special mention also goes to Anna Berk.

I’ve signed up for this agency and they waste your time. Do not sign up.

I have used the agency a couple times but they have over saturated the market and keep the pay rate low. The list of clients they have is vast but this agency doesn’t look out for the individual freelancer. Just felt like a number not a client. I try to avoid them when possible.

I moved to NYC to start my career as a graphic designer. Had terrible luck for 4 months going to jobs being lead on going to 2^nd and 3^rd interviews and then it not working out. Signed up with CC and within 2 weeks had 3 job offers! I am now a full-​time employee at a great company and I really could not have done it without CC. It’s like having your own personal agent. Highly recommended.

I don’t personally use Creative Circle, but I found them for my husband to help him find more work.
All I can say is we’ve had nothing but good experiences with the company and Ms. Lauren.
They’ve been helpful, communicative, and have great contacts. We just signed up with them a couple months ago and so far my husband has landed two great high profile storyboarding gigs. The company he is freelancing for now has been continuously extending his contract to fulfill other projects.
On several occasions my husband had to supply his own paper or bring his own computer, but that’s not on the Creative Circle to provide. It’s what the client is able to offer a freelancer.
I hope this was helpful.