Disney Internet Group Reviews

Current Employee – been working at Disney Internet Group full-time for more than a year

Pros – Learning and development resources; evolving products; networking

Cons – Huge turnover rate; bad management - inattentive, ineffective, absent; highly sensitive politics

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at Disney Internet Group as a contractor for less than a year

Pros – Relaxed atmosphere and alot of fun

Cons – Less structured than traditional software companies

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend – I'm optimistic about the outlook for this company

Former Employee – worked at Disney Internet Group as a contractor for more than a year

Pros – You get to work with high profile web properties like ESPN, ABC etc. The offices are located in a nice modern office building in the heart of downtown Seattle. The group is relatively small and there is still a some of the legacy of the startups that Disney acquired left in the culture.

Cons – There is risk aversion that borders on being a culture of fear, Disney is very protective of the brand and intellectual property. The internet part of the business is a small side business for a corporate behemoth and the main corporate management may not always understand the business as well as they should.

Advice to Senior Management – Let the engineers do there thing without fear of failure. Set reasonable standards and maintain transparency to learn from mistakes.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend – I'm optimistic about the outlook for this company

Current Employee – been working at Disney Internet Group as a contractor for less than a year

Pros – 1. Great corporate culture
2. Nice technologies used
3. Nice people work here
4. Free pops, juices

Cons – 1. ID cards takes too long to arrive
2. Place a bit crowded, with desks not readily available/allotted
3. Expensive parking

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend – I'm optimistic about the outlook for this company

Current Employee – been working at Disney Internet Group full-time

Pros – Friendly people, free park tickets, good brand name.

Cons – Highly political environment run exclusively by folks who have smooth presentation skills, but not necessarily good ideas. Every little thing also requires going through a process so things move very slowly -- too slow to keep up with the industry.

Advice to Senior Management – Take a hard look at your internal processes. A lot of them are unnecessary and killing your business.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend – I'm not optimistic about the outlook for this company

Former Employee – worked at Disney Internet Group full-time for more than 8 years

Pros – As part of the Walt Disney Company you will be working for a corporation that is world class in media and entertainment. Great health benefits, free access to the Parks and learning opportunities through the Disney University.

Cons – This division has struggled for going on 10 years. It has never been profitable and a succession of layoffs has left the division a shadow of its former glory days when the division was first created. It is still suffering from the upheaval of the majority of its senior management team being laid off and replaced with outside Yahoo executives two years ago. Another layoff of 115 people in September has left those remaining employees with too much work to handle. If you are working for a technology company, look for other opportunities.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend – I'm not optimistic about the outlook for this company

Former Employee – worked at Disney Internet Group full-time for more than 7 years

Pros – You meet great people and make life long friendships with the folks you work with in the trenches. The park passes and tickets are a good perk, and the health insurance is good.

Cons – Middle management at times is concerned about looking good at all costs, exhibit sociopath like tendencies, disregard company ethical code, business policy, employee guidelines, and some have taken to improper personal relationships.

As pressure to become profitable by 2013, some employees are expected by management, to work 80+ hours without taking breaks for meals, and are penalized for taking their breaks.

As most of the new management comes from failed YAOO.COM, they've transplanted their style of management and "know how" to Disney Online which has resulted in a very cold and dishonest work place. Most of the new middle managers are uninterested in learning about Disney, it's culture and people, but would rather run the business the way they did at YAHOO, and we all know how that turned out.

Advice to Senior Management – This advice is aimed at Disney corporate HR. You should investigate this division thoroughly. They're many skeletons in it's closets, clear violations of state, federal ,and company laws regarding rest periods, and illegal management conduct. Disney Online's HR are aware of these violations and have done nothing to remedy the situation, perhaps they feel pressure from Online's top brass to be profitable by 2013, who knows, but the result is a huge liability for the company.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend – I'm not optimistic about the outlook for this company

Current Employee – been working at Disney Internet Group as a contractor for more than a year

Pros – This group has some interesting projects and a fun culture at times.

Cons – In the year that I spent with this company as a contractor - without benefits, I was told that I would be converted to a regular employee status a total of 3 times. In each case 2-3 weeks would pass and HR would come up with an excuse as to why it didn't happen (on several occasions they actually told me that they couldn't hire me because I worked on too many projects - something that never made much sense to me). In the last instance of these occurrences I had given my two weeks notice only to be talked into staying with promise of conversion just to be laid off with a group of 20 contractors 4 weeks later.

Mismanagement at high levels will ultimately be the end of this division. The projects that they've made haven't been great hits financially and they're struggling to get their new projects out the door.
The only profitable game they have is one produced by a studio that they bought to call their own.

I wouldn't bet on this division of Disney again.

Advice to Senior Management – Just be better.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend – I'm not optimistic about the outlook for this company

Former Employee – worked at Disney Internet Group full-time for more than 7 years

Pros – Working with great people on world-renowned intellectual properties
Excellent company-wide benefits in a wide variety of areas
Prestige of association with a world-class company

Cons – Senior management that does not value Disney culture, brands and passion
Overly complex technology, some based on decade-old legacy systems
Bureaucratic processes that require extra time and effort to accomplish routine objectives
Asking too few people to do too many things and have too much responsibility
Group is the "stepchild" of Disney and is not respected by many other business units

Advice to Senior Management – Disney is not a commodity like a search engine. It is a collection of magical brands and experiences that guests of all ages treasure. A "one size fits all" approach to delivering online content and experiences is not the right answer. The most talented people in the online sector are attracted by the Disney name and their passion for it; recognize that as a benefit.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend – I'm not optimistic about the outlook for this company

Former Employee – worked at Disney Internet Group full-time for more than 3 years

Pros – -Great benefits and perks
-Excellent core team
-Fantastic manager
-Colleagues on my direct team really wanted to help me grow my career

Cons – -After the upper management change, things went downhill
-Morale was low
-Upper management didn't seem to know what they wanted to do, little direction
-Bad communication from upper management

Advice to Senior Management – Listen to your employees and their opinions.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend – I'm not optimistic about the outlook for this company