Altria Reviews

Pros

It is a career you can retire with

Cons

promotion process does not allow for advancement without moving. The check-in process is a drawn out process that allows for people to slip through the cracks. Some true leaders never have the chance for advancement

Advice to Senior Management

change the promotion process

Pros

The pay is okay (but not worth it).
Benefits are great!
Work/personal car.

Cons

Management is completely in the dark to the real amount of work the TSM's do daily!
HR does not solve problems, things can become worse it an issue is reported.
Too many product launches and last minute changes.
No work/life balance.

Advice to Senior Management

LISTEN to the TSM without retaliation (yes, it is happening!) Less work... if you really want it all completed and done RIGHT!

Pros

This is probably the best internship you could ask for. The pay is awesome. They even give you a stipend if you need to relocate AND give you advance pay the first week you work. The work is challenging but at least you are not getting coffee and filing papers. You get your own cubicle and lap top and the company pays for all the interns to go to all these fun events like wine tasting and go kart racing. You also get a free pack a cigarettes a day whether you smoke or not.

Cons

The brand interns are treated like royalty compared to the other interns.

Advice to Senior Management

Give more feedback to your interns. More than just a half way point and end point review.

Pros

Great compensation and benefits
Opportunity for advancement after 18 months

Cons

A lot of new products coming out, never a a chance to rest

Advice to Senior Management

Great job leading the best sales force in America

Pros

Good benefits including vision, dental, medical, etc.

Cons

Lack of work/life balance and limited opportunities for promotion

Pros

They pay for you to go to grad school and you can quit the day after you graduate. THE ONLY REASON they are able to get highly qualified students from top tier schools. But they do not last long because as soon as they have a degree, they are off to a much better position.

Good retirement plan. Paid car. Easy to get away with doing next to nothing. Meetings are almost always open bar and at high end resorts with Great food (avg 1 a year)

Cons

I have been at Altria (formerly Philip Morris USA) for close to 5 years. The job was excellent when we managed one company. But the company has since acquired 2 additional companies and their sales activities have become our responsibilty with NO PAY INCREASE. Now, many employees will claim excellent compensation but this is simply not true. The pay is decent if you live in a rural area or have been with the company from the days of high salary and bonuses. These have fallen to the wayside. I currently live near a city and with my current salary make $10-45k less than my friends with bachelor degrees alone (I have my MBA). They pay a standaardized salary so if you live in Wyoming you make the same as someone in Washington, DC. Which makes no sense. The retirement plan is very good, though.

Furthermore, the only way to get promoted is to be willing to move out of your Sales Section and often somewhere that requires a flight to return to where you originally lived. This is all after an approximate year long process and conducting a presentation which can still be refused and required to be resubmitted. The company essentially gets only those willing to sell their soul to the company to move anywhere and not those that are truly most qualified. This is where they lose their best employees. Employees with strong qualifications and intelligence are likely able to find better paying positions in their current situation at Altria without the extreme of moving for a minimal pay increase.

The other drawbacks: e-mails at all hours, limited cell phone expense cap, NO work email on cell phone, last minute sales announcements, shrinking yearly bonus, health insurance has high deductible

Pros

Decent Salary and free use of a decent car for personal time.

Cons

Long Hours. Ever changing Goals/Objectives, even during brand launch. No support from management. It's a very CYA culture.

Pros

I have worked for Altria since I was a sales intern following my junior year of college and feel that I have received second to none sales training throughout my career. The benefits are good (used to be great) and the pay is good (not great). Depending on where you work and who you work for, sales jobs are flexible and there is good work/life balance. The brand portfolio is strong, so you're generally operating as the #1 company (with the exception of the cigar category). There are a lot of great people here and for sales roles they only promote from within.

Cons

Senior management seems to be very heavily dominated by a heterogeneous group of men with giant egos. Although there are a few true leaders in the bunch, it seems like the men (and I say men because there are pathetically few women in leadership roles here) they have advanced in recent years were selected for their ability to agree with everyone else in senior management but are lacking in intelligence or true leadership skills. The advancement process is ridiculous (which is likely why there are so few women in positions of leadership). If you are unwilling or unable to move wherever the company wants, whenever they want you to, you aren't even considered for advancement. The senior team all like to brag that they've lived in 12 different states in 7 years, but it's not a lifestyle that's conducive to having a stable home life or a family (although I doubt they're interested in advancing people that want this anyway). They really just want to be able to move sales employees around like chess pieces, wherever it's convenient for them. There have been a lot of growing pains in the last few years with the acquisition of US Smokeless and John Middleton, and senior management has been extremely slow to react. For the last year and a half, my direct reports have been constantly bombarded with focus groups and surveys regarding things that get in the way of doing their jobs, but nothing has changed. It's almost become a joke to them because they just keep repeating the same things over and over and giving suggestions (which senior management is so enthusiastic about), but we can't understand why we're STILL talking about it and nothing has been done.

Advice to Senior Management

Take a long, hard look at the people you're advancing and grooming for leadership. Early in my career, I had utmost respect and confidence for the senior team but it is becoming increasingly difficult to feel that way. What you are asking of employees (move all over the place, work ridiculous hours, live your life "on campus") means that you are losing out on really intelligent, hardworking people just because they don't want that lifestyle. You claim to be committed to diversity in the workplace, but the requirements you put on employees to advance automatically (maybe on purpose?) eliminate most women and minorities. There is a value in having different perspectives and backgrounds represented on the senior team rather than a bunch of "mini-Craigs" who are all just ego-maniacs.

Pros

Pay, Benefits, Amenities, Training / Learning opportunities

Cons

Old school
Slow to make decisions
Behind the times
Too many management layers

Advice to Senior Management

Engage with and listen to your employees (not managers and above)
Do not reward bad behavior and wasteful spending

Pros

-great benefits package
-not stuck in an office all day
-company car can be used for personal use
-great coworkers to work with

Cons

-salary feels like it should be higher because new people start and make just as much as someone who has been there for 8 years after just 1 year on the job
-bonus should be more and paid quarterly
-corporate doesn't listen to the customers; introducing way too many new products in short period of time

Advice to Senior Management

Seior management does a great job leading the company, but middle management at the 3 different op. co's need to communicate better so that the sales force isn't bringing so many new products to market at the same time