AutoTrader Reviews in Atlanta, GA Area

Pros

The company has awesome benefits and recognition

Cons

There were few chances for advancement

Advice to Senior Management

Create career paths for all employees

Pros

nice building, nice benifits, nice people

Cons

growing too fast with no real direction

Advice to Senior Management

remember the ones that got you here in the 1st place

Pros

Community activism and a family bond with most co-workers. Again, a business equivalent to the stepford wives.

Cons

Needs external auditing and checks and balances of data integrity and full disclosure.. A small handful of tenured mid-level management employees are "dug-in" and they control the company including all information and communication to upper management to ensure their preservation..

Advice to Senior Management

Would recommend Price Waterhouse Cooper or some other outside consultant to review and recommend changes for processes and procedures, since this will ensure the recommendation are not suppressed by the Windows Group as in the past with internal employee's suggestions.

Pros

I've met some really great people working here. The benefits are comparable to similar companies including teleworking, flexible scheduling, and a generous amount of paid-time off.

Cons

Senior management is run like a good ol' boys club.
Talented and qualified people are constantly being overlooked for positions for those outside the company who can bring in outside networking opportunities or for those people whose favorite words are "yes" and "you're right."
Too many middle managers and supervisors who have no idea how to manage people effectively.
Too many "important" people making impactful decisions regarding jobs they know nothing about.
Hiring from within is promoted and usually happens, if the hiring manager already knows the specific person they want to hire (and this person knows of the job way before it is posted).
Too much favoritism. The ones that are selected as the 'favorites' are backed by their manager to no end, while others working just as hard (if not harder) are constantly overlooked because they're a high producer that will hurt the department if put on a project or promoted.
Too many meetings spent on how much money the company is making or having managers learn how to be managers.

Advice to Senior Management

Start asking the employees doing the work for feedback and actually listen to them. They might have some great things to say. Senior management needs to truly see the effect the middle managers have on the employees and start chopping heads. When it comes to the annual surveys, pay attention if something negative from the year before is repeated; it's usually a tell-tale sign that something is truly not quite right (vise-versa if it's something positive).

Pros

Great technology stack and sharp technical people

Cons

Too many middle managers mainly from non-technical background

Advice to Senior Management

Reduce management size

Pros

Hard work with people that really believe in what they are doing. Beautiful new building. Great pay.

Cons

This is a company that has rapidly gone from a small company and is now heading into major league territory. A lot of people that are in upper management are those who started with the company and most of them have no other work experience than with ATC. They had what it took to get the company to this point, but most of them do not have what it takes to get the company to the next level. It is a very frustrating place to work because no one seems to be able to make real and effective decisions. Senior managers and directors are flighty and can't seem to keep the big picture in mind. I love my co-workers and the interesting work. The pay is excellent, but the stress and fatigue of trying to lead change and getting nowhere is driving me away.

Advice to Senior Management

Hire some people from the outside to come in and really help the place run like a major player. Get everyone on the same page. Seniority with the company shouldn't equal major management positions. Get the right people in the right jobs. You are wasting so much time, effort and money running in circles instead of forward. You are succeeding in spite of your dysfunction, just think how much more you could be doing if you streamlined and trimmed the dead weight. You could be a real company that I could stay working for!

Pros

As others have commented, decent benefits (nothing fancy), flex time is recognized and some folks are pleasant to work with.

Cons

No recognition for folks who actually do the work, at least far and few between. Watch for
"idea stealers" as some will take your work and claim as their own. As a "newbie" in your dept. (at least IT anyway) expect to be given the "crap" nobody wants. You may find what you were hired to do may not be "actually" what you "get" to work on.

Advice to Senior Management

Try being honest with your employees instead of telling them one thing and then it changing to something else at your discretion without consulting who you are effecting, you may find you are hindering careers rather than "building" them up.

Pros

Awesome new offices w/on-site cafe with "food court" type atmosphere partially subsidised by Auto Trader.com (breakfast and lunch)

Incredible "Employee Floor" complete with "electric orange" breakroom (plus regular breakrooms on every floor), PlayStation, Wii, satellite TVs (6), pool and foosball tables, "Mother's Room" for nursing moms complete w/refridgerators and private nursing rooms and restroom

Building an on-site state of the art fitness center

Extrememly supportive of company (paid time off) community service events

Often times present employees with "spot bonuses" typically $100 - $500 for jobs extremely well done or really tough assignments - basically for going above and beyond the call of duty

Many employees (especially in IT) work virtually at least one day a week (team members decide among each other who is WFH on which days). This is the first place I've worked where I don't "feel bad" for WFH...or that people think the person who is WFH is goofing around and not getting any work done. Without exception (on my team anyway), when somebody is WFH, they are responsive (typically through IM) and productive.

Cons

Not much in the way of progression/succession planning. Especially if you're in IT, there's not much in the way of learning about other parts of the company should you want to grow your career out of IT.

Advice to Senior Management

Continue to grow training and career development throughout the organization to keep pace w/industry and market.

Pros

Friendly people and a nice work environment. Great benefits pay and time off. Corporate learning is well above par. Pay scale is comparable to other businesses.

Cons

Too many meetings and CYA. To afraid of change and new things.

Advice to Senior Management

Too many meetings and CYA.

Pros

The company has a very relaxed atmosphere. Not stuffy at all. Employees are nice and I've met some lifelong friends there. The executive team is also very friendly and they share the company goals once a quarter. During these meetings they are willing to answer any questions asked of them. A annual employee survey allows employees to rate the company and provide constructive feedback to management. Management usually makes moves to work on the areas of improvement.

Cons

Middle management is a joke. Half of them only have their jobs because of who they know, not what they know. Some of them don't take the time to ever learn their jobs and the employees who do the job are the ones that suffer. Lately management has been more apt to let you take the fall for their short comings so they can keep their job. Decisions are made not based on any real data. And its usually the wrong decision.

Advice to Senior Management

Get a clue.