AOL Reviews

Former Employee – worked at AOL full-time for more than a year

Pros – I worked in the Dulles, VA offices until 2006 and *really* enjoyed working there. The vast majority of people I interacted with were friendly and were very open to ideas. Good benefits. Fun work environment where the staff cared about the products they made. Very family-friendly and the campus was a very good facility.

Cons – Layoffs. Several rounds of layoffs during the 2-3 years I was there. This made it difficult to have a sense of security and never allowed me to truly settle into the work I was doing. There is no worse feeling than walking into work each day, expecting that bad news was just around the corner or that you may lose your job that day. I couldn't convince my wife to move up because of this. Finally, I had enough and returned to her.

Advice to Senior Management – If there are still several rounds of layoffs each year, ask yourselves why would anyone want to work in an environment like that? Your employees can be your best asset in determining and executing your company's future. I'd love to work there again. But *only* if I knew there was more security in it. Good luck. Honestly.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Former Employee – worked at AOL full-time for more than 7 years

Pros – Still plenty of smart people working there.
Experience with Industry standard, open and proprietary software and hardware platforms in a large environment.
Pay was always above average although rarely excellent.

AOL has gone through a lot of changes, which I allude to in the "Con" section, but it also still had some possibilities left open when I left. Although contracting from it's greatest size down to a smaller and spun-off successor organization, leaving Time Warner behind can only be considered a plus at this point. There are definitely places that AOL is working to grow in, and honestly, if they make good decisions, like avoiding debacles like Bebo, they can still pull something off.

While I would never suggest someone who has never worked there apply for work there, I know enough people, and have enough experience there, that I might consider a position there again... assuming they can pull it together and get back some energy like they used to have.

Cons – AOL was clearly a company consumed by terrible past business decisions, and so it's outlook was always going to be rocky.

Starting at a time where the millionaires of the IPO and Time Warner merger were not just old stories, it's clear that the AOL I worked for was still a leader, but in it's current incarnation, well past it's prime. While I was never personally affected by layoffs, there was the constant threat of it hanging over the heads of everyone at the end of the year. Many good people were let go in masses at those times.

Note, I have not been at AOL for a while, and when I left, even the headquarters campus was being leased off from the original seven, crowded buildings when I started, down to just three, and the actual HQ for the company had moved to NYC, far from it's technical roots.

Unless you know that you are going to work on something extraordinary there, it's just a job, and it may well be a depressing one at that, considering that if you walk the corridors at CC2/CC1/HQ, you can tell that it used to be something special almost on the order of excitement of working at Google might be today.

Advice to Senior Management – In AOL's current incarnation, I have little advice to offer management, as it has been years since I've been there. All I can say is that AOL needs to find a place in something new. Throw off the old big corporation mindset, and you've got a chance, otherwise, your days of being a leader are over permanently.

Tim Armstrong was a new CEO at the time I left, and at that time, he was trying to turn things around. My impressions at the time of him were a little positive, but not particularly well formed. Past management, however, was ridiculously bad, particularly at the top. A smaller company would have been years dead with those guys in charge if AOL hadn't managed to get so big before they got their hands on the company.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Former Employee – worked at AOL full-time for more than 10 years

Pros – AOL was in the middle of the Internet boom and so it was a very exciting time to work there. Many VERY smart people chasing disruptive business models and some people (the earlier hires) became very wealthy.

Cons – The culture could be poisonous and, likely due to the possibility of quick riches, attracted people with questionable ethical standards, and some of these people moved up quickly. There was also the tendency to make rash business decisions without really evaluating the market/data, and as a result hundreds of millions of dollars we're blown in the pursuit of really poorly thought-out initiatives.

Advice to Senior Management – The pursuit of some type of journalistic, media business model has proven itself to be folly over and over again. Watching a market cap go from +100BN to <2BN should be a clear indication that nobody believes the margins or growth prospects of this model are attractive. There needs to be a refocus on product vs editorial before it's too late.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

Former Employee – worked at AOL full-time for more than 7 years

Pros – Great work environment, in building cafeteria, flexible work hours (work from home benefit), good salary and overall benefits

Cons – People who's been working there for over 10 years are generally not technically competitive and unwilling to embrace changes or challenges in most cases. Politics between apartments can limit your efficiency. Very ridiculous performance review system.

Advice to Senior Management – value those who can actually work and give them a career path. Cut those who kiss manager's ass but can't get anything done.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend – I'm not optimistic about the outlook for this company

Current Employee – been working at AOL full-time

Pros – Community connections through civil service activities and team building workshops, well known brand in the marketplace who is providing the only other technology stack rivaling Google, great benefits and competitive salary.

Cons – A large company is often difficult to navigate, some divisions are closer linked than others to the main corporate structure.

Advice to Senior Management – continue to take care of your best people and they will stay

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend – I'm optimistic about the outlook for this company

Former Employee – worked at AOL full-time for more than 8 years

Pros – Easy and fun work enviroment, oppertunity for advancement, bonus structure and stock options.
employed til 2005 yr option was not available from the drop down.

Cons – post merger daily business working changed.

Advice to Senior Management – Good company , great employee's

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend – I'm not optimistic about the outlook for this company

Current Employee – been working at AOL full-time for more than 10 years

Pros – Very calm and relaxed while at the same time trying to continuously churn out new and innovative products

Cons – The dwindling of both customers and employees creates pressures and strains that should not exist

Advice to Senior Management – Cannot grow without growing pains. Hire the folks we need so we can improve/innovate everywhere even if it means some lean years for your bonuses.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend – I'm optimistic about the outlook for this company

Current Employee – been working at AOL full-time for more than 8 years

Pros – Great environment, great work place, great technology to work on.

Cons – Sometimes can get stagnant, not much change at engineer level

Advice to Senior Management – Need to think outside the box. Need to all low innovation

Current Employee – been working at AOL full-time for more than 7 years

Pros – Great company, they care about the people.

Cons – Lots of management changes & changes from leadership.

Advice to Senior Management – Get your ducks aligned.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend – I'm optimistic about the outlook for this company

Former Employee – worked at AOL full-time for more than a year

Pros – The editing software was linked directly to the payment system, so you got paid for your work on time without having to cajole anybody.

Cons – A handful of people at the top got rich by paying the writers next to nothing, abusing contract labor, publishing poorly researched or thought-out stories. Upper management was uncommunicative and more or less clueless. New marching orders/Kool-aid flavor every week. Zero-based budgeting negotiated every two days or so.

Advice to Senior Management – Pay good people properly. Try not to manage so much to raw metrics, but to human qualities.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend