AOL Reviews

Pros

Rank and file employees are outstanding. A lot of really talented people.
You get to wear many hats.
Company hierarchy is very flat.
Working environment very causal.
Compensation and benefits are excellent.

Cons

Little to no work life balance in some groups.
Executives change company objectives every six months.
Executives do not "get" core values of some of their properties.

Advice to Senior Management

Please stick with a strategy for more then six months! Every time a new executive is brought in they dismantle all of the work previously implemented by the last exec.

Pros

Comfortable work environment, friendly team work situations.

Cons

Job security with new acquisition.

Pros

Culture at AOL is the best

Cons

Growth opportunities are less. And sometimes the transparency.

Advice to Senior Management

Just dont go by what the imm. managers would say about an emplyoee

Pros

At AOL there are at times people who are competent. They do come to their senses after a year, or less, and leave the company after realizing how false the company is. This is a good thing.

Cons

The management is all rah rah rah but as soon as there is the slightest economic blip they fire people left and right indiscriminately independent of performance to their areas. The company swells after the new year and fires at the end of the year, if one is lucky and it is a good year, otherwise it is by quarter... The level of nepotism is rampant and it is more important who you suck up to than really do a good job and take care of the staff. This is especially the case among project management as the woman who led the team has been around the longest and is the most false and despicable person of all. She cannot manage her own staff as she thinks it is more important to manage up and be a sycophant rather than being a mentor and manage her own direct reports. Her ability to manage her own projects are due to the project-teams' professionalism rather than anything else.

Advice to Senior Management

Be up-front with your staff. If you know you're going to expand and retract your staff, hire freelancers on all levels and not just in creative. This saves everybody grief in the end.

Pros

good benefits (vacation time, health insurance, 401K all top notch)
people that remain are very loyal and dedicated
AOL brand still has some value in the internet space

Cons

management can be deceptive to employees
strategic changes occur too often and appear whimsical at times
morale is always a challenge and is often very low

Advice to Senior Management

AOL is a company that is very driven by the tone and actions of its senior management. Sometimes that can be detrimental at a company, as there is talent at the levels below the company that can be leveraged much better. Invest more in your employees. There are signicantly talented people that work in your organization, but their brainpower is severly underutilized. Find a way to maximize that and bring out the best in each employee, your company will be in a much better place to compete.

Pros

The AOL portfolio of sites is very strong and should translate into a strong company overall with a bright outlook for the future. The offices are beautiful and it would be a great place to work every day, IF the business were being run better.

Cons

Sr. Management doesn't seem to have a clear plan or strategy and, with a new initiative or direction being championed every day, my colleagues and I lost steam and interest.

Advice to Senior Management

Think (and look) before you leap. It's not enough to host pep rally after pep rally only to then hand out pink slip after pink slip. Though I'm there's a lot that goes on behind the scenes that I'm not privy to, the business model shouldn't be that difficult to figure out and implement. If necessary, hire a consultant to sort it all out!

Pros

worked with some of the smartest people at AOL. They had passion and drive, and really were quite bright and a lot of fun to work with.

Cons

There are multiple ongoing constant layoffs that are not only completely and totally distracting but have also rendered us the laughing stock of the industry

Advice to Senior Management

Learn how to set a strategic path and stick with it. Stop the useless expensive acquistions that make no sense. BEBO???

Pros

Open culture
Flexible timings
Option to change the project
Senior Management
Decent pay and benefits
Respect for your own knowledge

Cons

Poor strategy
Vision less Middle Management
Too much politics
Frequent plan change and org re-structure
Unnecessary over head activities at time as meeting, all hands

Pros

You can take on as much as you want, which means countless learning opportunities. The culture has really improved, and we're starting to be much more performance driven.

Cons

There is constant change, which for some is difficult. You really have to be able to roll with it here, if change and some uncertaintly make you uncomfortable - this isn't your kind of place.

Advice to Senior Management

Live and uphold the Values that you helped create. Stop letting people escalate their grievances and start making them solve their own disputes, complaints. Hold them accountable to wasting your time and not communicating directly and honestly with others.

Pros

There was a wide audience for everything I wrote, and I had a lot of creative freedom, but now that HuffPo has taken over, all those freedoms are gone.

Cons

Horrible corporate environment, new managers don't care about any of the employees. Layoffs and reorganization were handled superlatively unprofessionally. It used to be fun, but got bad in a hurry when HuffPo came in.

Advice to Senior Management

This company has taken several steps back since the merger. Good luck keeping up with the new trends in journalism, now that you've taken yourself from the leaders of the pack to behind the curve. Well done indeed.