BuyerZone.com Reviews

Pros

BuyerZone.com is a highly successful, yet under-the-radar player in the greater-Boston tech community. Because it's not a high-profile consumer-oriented destination site, but instead a valuable service provider to other businesses it unfortunately misses out on much of the local tech media attention.

I worked at BuyerZone for more than five years and most enjoyed how much our thousands of real, paying business clients valued our business. We were able to make other business more successful with our hard work, which is indescribably satisfying and motivating.

As well, the company culture and people were absolutely outstanding. The leadership was and still is smart and creative, the team is talented and fun and the overall atmosphere is enjoyable, open and "Internet-y." :-)

Because of the relatively small, but incredibly open, BuyerZonee team I was able to learn a ton about general management, basic business finance, web development, web marketing, search engine optimization and sales processes. Compared to other, more compartmentalized jobs, working at BuyerZone was like a hands-on, MBA plus tech education.

I really loved it, and greatly value the friends, business and tech skills I acquired during my time there.

Cons

While I was there, there was very little turnover. Because of the lack of turnover in the middle and at the top, it was a little harder to advance quickly through the ranks. I'm not sure if this is still the case, but I suspect that since BuyerZone is now a part of a large global operation, there must be many more opportunities for sideways, upwards and diagonal growth :-)

Advice to Senior Management

Get BuyerZone in the local press! It deserves it at least as much at the next local check-in site with no revenue!

Pros

I worked at BuyerZone for three and a half years before having to relocate to a different part of the country because of a family issues. My summary:

*Great, creative, fun team* - what happens when you put a bunch of smart, funny, talented people together in the same office space? A lot of great things.

*Leading edge marketing* - the team I worked on did marketing reporting, analysis and projects that no other company I worked for even came close to. BuyerZone is a leading search engine marketing powerhouse, with innovative approaches to managing a few super huge paid search accounts. As well, it is a leader in search engine optimization best practices. I learned ten-times more about online marketing here than at any job I had prior to BuyerZone.

*Communication, communication, communication* - a very open community where teams are encouraged to emphasized communication between departments and senior management communicates everything of importance about the company.

*Reed Business Information (RBI)* - I experienced both BuyerZone as an independent company as well as a couple of years under RBI. Although we very much enjoyed the excitement of being an independent dot com, the additional growth opportunities and "insurance" of being a part of a larger organization were a welcome addition. Since RBI is primarily in England, BuyerZone still feels very much independent. Joining RBI, however, provided a lot more technical, legal and financial resources, as well as a bunch of opportunities to work with sister companies in the US and abroad. It was a very exciting change.

Cons

BuyerZone, like every other company in the US, has had to deal with a troubling domestic economic climate over the past few years. Because our livelihood depended intricately on the livelihood of thousands of other US businesses, the worst economic times were even more stressful. Fortunately, great customer service plus real value delivered plus made this navigation easier.

Advice to Senior Management

Encourage more formal job-sharing or cross company consulting and travel within the Reed Business Information network. Encourage the RBI senior management to do the same at the other companies.

Pros

If you are looking for a work environment with no egos, that embraces collaboration and teamwork, BuyerZone is the place for you! If you are looking for a company that values its employees and offers great opportunities for career development, BuyerZone is the place for you!

I started out working in the Web Development department at BuyerZone. Shortly after I expressed interest in doing higher level development, I was offered the opportunity to move to the Engineering department. This is a company that will rise to the challenge if you ask for more.

Our agile development environment, close-knit team, and skilled leadership make this job exciting and rewarding on a daily basis.

Cons

Anything that isn't handled internally, for example IT support and purchasing, must go through the parent company of BuyerZone and is subject to many levels of red tape, hassels, and delays.

Pros

Why do I enjoy working for BuyerZone? There are a few reasons. Most importantly being able to further my career. I started out in Customer Care and when an opportunity opened, due to my strong work skills I was offered to move to another role with more responsibility. Upon taking that role I found I was able to have a more active role within the company and after 3 months of hard work I was presented with our Quarterly MVP award. Every quarter BuyerZone presents an employee with this award. Your peers write in recommendations and management picks a winner. Having awards is definitely a Pro! On top of MVP awards, we have a MVP lunch every month where they provide lunch and we say 'thank you' to our fellow co-workers. Another Pro would have to be our company events: bowling, Red Sox games, charity auctions, volunteering at the Boston food bank and beer Thursdays to name a few. Its an amazing way for us to get to know each other and it's always a great time. We work hard and play hard. I truly am happy right now with my job and with the company.

Cons

The only thing I can think of is sometimes we are too nice! I personally thrive on tough love and constructive criticism. I want to know when I can do better or if I made a mistake because it pushes me to be better. So I'd say this is a place we could use improvement, not necessarily a con. As much as you like someone personally you should feel comfortable enough to express when fault has been made or improvement is needed. And to be able to follow up if those new expectations are not met.

Advice to Senior Management

Although times have been tough all we can do is push forward. Keep working on the new tests to find what works and what does not. Keep striving to be better. I think we are headed in the right direction.

Pros

- You're given opportunities to grow and advance your career
- The company makes a makes your professional growth a priority
- Gain a deep understanding of what it takes to run a successful internet company
- Employees are recognized as the keys to success and are treated as such
- A fun, laid back office culture
- Extremely informal dress code. It's casual Friday, everyday.
- Competitive pay
- Great health/dental
- Owned and backed by a massive public company

Cons

The location isn't ideal. While it's in the 128 corridor (known as Boston's Silicon valley) it's still about 20-30 minutes from Boston.

Advice to Senior Management

Just as you always have, continue to reward creativity, hard work, teamwork and results with increased responsibilities and opportunities.

Pros

To be frank, I've been at BuyerZone for many more years than I would have guessed would be the case when I first started here out of grad school over 6 years ago. The reason for that is that I have constantly been presented with new growth opportunities and challenges. We have an extremely talented and strong employee base here - it really is the classic if cliched "work hard play hard" atmosphere. There isn't a lot of hierarchy at all, people work hard but aren't competitive with each other, and we still have Beer Thursdays every week - what's not to love??

Cons

We've admittedly endured a tough period of time coming out of the economic downturn and then battling our friends at Google and the Panda algorithm update -- but RBI (our parent company since 2007) has been extremely supportive and we have some exciting plans in place to get back on the growth path.

Advice to Senior Management

Think big and keep on trying to balance our short-term focus with longer-term, growth oriented plans to build momentum and excitement!

Pros

The people here are a lot of fun to work with and hang out with outside of work. There are monthly events, like MVP lunch, Red Sox games, field day, charity auction, bowling, roving feasts, holiday parties and more. You can decorate your office or cube anyway you want - I love when we added color and fun decorations to the walls. The benefits offered here are awesome!

Cons

We have these massively large windows but they don't open, so it’s a good thing there is plenty of outdoor space to have lunch or meet with your colleagues.

Advice to Senior Management

Continue pushing forward - BuyerZone is a great company

Pros

Employees do get a paycheck and the rare opportunity to help a company find its former glory.

Cons

Many essential employees that grew the business are long gone by choice. This snowball has grown over the last two years, and is a direct result of management undervaluing the employees, a recovering job market, and the fact that there are much better companies to work for in Boston.

Employee growth has been put on the back burner, while the company is literally burning money on a platform intelligently named "2.0".

The company is on a severe decline from schizophrenic leadership, increasing market competition, and great employees moving on to greener pastures.

Advice to Senior Management

None