Ascent Media Reviews

Pros

Strong technical talent exists at Ascent.

Cons

Poor internal company strategy or direction communication. Focused solely on the bottom line. Little financial support given to important initiatives.

Advice to Senior Management

Improve internal communication - directly engage employees in small group meetings. Where is this company going? What is its core focus?

Pros

Joined the company when it was a lot smaller, two layers away from the CEO
Interesting opportunities to work with global clients and international projects
Leading edge on new media technology, some really good developers
Trying hard to position itself for the future
Some really good clients with respectful relationships

Cons

Left the company when it was a lot bigger, promoted twice and now four layers away from CEO
Many really disrepectful clients with overblown expectations (and egos) made some relationships beyond repair and led to very little job satisfaction
At one stage there were six former senior management "put out to grass" with over $3M in remuneration all for various levels of incompetence, having fired a bunch of good people before being found out.
Cost savings made after contracts had been signed resulted in not enough resources to deliver requirements
Took a long while to work out that The American Way doesn't work outside America

Advice to Senior Management

Listen to the people who work with the clients daily,
Put some joy back into what should be a creative industry

Pros

tv work in nj
not much else

Cons

nepotism, no degree of any kind needed to work here.
people with no digital video experience work as "compressionists"
people who don't even know what "right click on your mouse" means work with computers
no clear direction of where the company is headed
people with real skills and qualifications get laid off while incompetence gets rewarded

Advice to Senior Management

Don't fire people with actual skills. Stop hiring people with no video background as compressionists

Pros

close to home
near many restaurants
outstanding mix of personalities
every day at work is a new adventure - there is alwys something you have never seen before

Cons

hours suck
aging facility - equipment is in need of an upgrade - a lot of the equipment should just be trashed and the facility should start from scratch witha rebuild

Advice to Senior Management

press for a game plan for the future - upgrade equipment and look to weed out whatever malcontents remain.

Pros

Many things are great about Ascent. The company offers opportunities, stability, a great location if you live in the area, and entrepreneurship. Great management team and good people working there.

Cons

Sometimes it is tough to get through the beuracracy of a large corporate entity. Messages from corporate can be misinterpreted or not clear.

Advice to Senior Management

Keep up the effort to communicate with employees. It's never enough and is always appreciated. Continue training and providing more opportunities for employees to learn new stuff.

Pros

Ascent Media Group is a change agent in the post-production industry and converging media, which offers the opportunity to be involved throughout the content supply chain, from feature film and episodic post, through delivery of content to mobile device distributors. If you have particularly valuable knowledge and judgment, leadership roles in organic business growth, M&A due diligence, and developing new business ventures, are readily available.

Cons

Ascent is in the business of entertainment: feature film post-production, broadcast, archiving and downstream repurposing of that content. So if you can't adapt every few weeks to changes in how you do your job or what you're working on, then try insurance or banking.

Advice to Senior Management

Ascent is often absent from industry events and standards groups which are well represented by competitors and clients. With very little effort and cost, many of the talented employees could implement a grass roots marketing effort while providing valuable feedback.

Pros

Ascent Media has many smart, driven people, with good vision. Newly appointed CEO is inspiring and visionary; company has great digital services vision, but squandering execution.

Cons

Poor communication, losing ground in new services, lack of clear business strategy; many employees are demoralized and frustrated. Morale is low, and threatening ability to retain good people

Advice to Senior Management

Improved communication across organization

Pros

Working at Ascent has its ups and down, like any other company. My manager is very accomodating in terms of scheduling. That works both ways, as I sometimes have to work on weekends and after hours, but the filed of work I am in its normal. My co-workers are great, we all get along and look out for each other and provide assistance at the drop of a hat.

Cons

Management is very hazy in terms of providing any sort of career path. They say that they will pay for training and education, but whenevery you ask to attend a trade show or traiing, they say its not in the budget.

Management also lacks a clear vision of the company and decisions are made then reversed a few months later after we've spent considerable time and effort along one path.

Advice to Senior Management

Provide feedback to employees and provide a clear career path.

Pros

It's a great place to be if you're an artist in the post production world. Ascent Media has some of the industry's best talent working at its facilities and it's leveraging the latest technology. In light of the recent writers strike, the company did a decent job of retaining as much talent for as long as possible, which was very difficult in light of the circumstances.

Cons

Depending on the department, it's rather difficult to move up with in the company. There simply are no established career paths one can follow, which is very frustrating.

Depending again on the department, the wages are not competitive and merit increases don't seem to exist at all.

Advice to Senior Management

In the interest of cost-cutting and moving the company into the future, remember that a price (in the form of employee turnover) will be paid if it's done incorrectly. Also, it would great if senior management gave employees a more clear-cut explanation of how they plan to achieve the goals that were laid out at the beginning of the year.