Dow Jones Reviews

Current Employee – been working at Dow Jones

Pros – It used to be stability but....

Cons – Every facet in every department can be a different experience.
In my experience and from what I've heard from others, it is very hard to move up within the company. As for day to day experience, like everything else, it depends on the rapport (or lack thereof) with the boss.

Current Employee – been working at Dow Jones full-time

Pros – supportive managers, nice work atmosphere, great work life balance

Cons – not that i could think of

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

Former Employee – worked at Dow Jones full-time for more than 10 years

Pros – The 'old' DJ was a meritocracy, where hard work and intelligence paid off. The products were the best in the world. The benefits were good and career advancement was possible.

Cons – New management is trying to radically remake the company. In doing so, they have alienated their employees, their customers and their partners. The idea of one product matching the needs of all customers is shortsighted and unlikely to succeed.

Advice to Senior Management – Find a new CEO.

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

Former Employee – worked at Dow Jones full-time for more than a year

Pros – Learned a lot and worked with bright people

Cons – If you have a good manager, it's not a bad place to work. At least when I worked there, they tend to change teams around a lot and you could easily be stuck with a bad manager. That could happen anywhere though.

Too many meetings

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at Dow Jones full-time for more than 7 years

Pros – The Factiva group is quick to adopt new technology. Lots of smart capable programmers working there. Salaries are okay. 401k plan was very good when I was there, but I hear it's not nearly as good now. Plenty of parking. Nice cafeteria that I still miss.

Cons – They don't make a lot of money, so it creates a somewhat hostile atmosphere where they are always trying to save money. Frequent layoffs, including offshoring. Even for the people who survive the layoffs, management was pretty adversarial towards their employees. You could tell this was their management culture by how many managers acted this way.

Advice to Senior Management – It's not true that you get better work out of your employees by treating them like the enemy. That's not necessary. The head of Factiva was commenting on training in front of all Factiva employees at one of our annual get togethers when she said, "really, everyone is responsible to make sure their own skills are up to date." Of course there's some truth in that, but really, that's the message you want to send employees, we're not going to offer you any help with training, but we expect you to always have updated skills? Even if that is your policy, there's got to be a nicer way to say it.

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 Dow Jones full-time for more than 7 years

Pros – New media is exciting, growth orientation, great benefits.

Cons – Lackluster senior management, risk taking only when told to take the risk, data overload, crippling politics.

Advice to Senior Management – Skip levels, listen below, pay attention to business intelligence and metrics, let the old mentality really go - it just appears to have gone but still trickles.

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

Current Employee – been working at Dow Jones full-time for less than a year

Pros – - Employees encouraged to develop and share new ideas. Creativity and boldness valued.
- Freedom to work outside your job description and get diverse experience
-Willing & able to hire new grads
- Very solid benefits and salary
- Selling some of the best and most well respected brands in the industry
-Intelligent colleagues

Cons – -Must be very flexible and ready to go with the flow as the company rapidly changes. Difficult for some, exciting for others.
-Some friction between new wave of employees vs. old

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

Current Employee – been working at Dow Jones full-time for more than a year

Pros – Dow Jones leadership seems to understand the realities of the publishing industry and is taking the right steps to transform its business.

Appears to be change afoot and while that probably scares a lot of people, it's liberating to know I am at a company where my changes and work have a real, positive impact to the future of the organization.

Work is fast paced and exciting. Peers and management are open to ideas.

Internal career opportunities and internal job transfers are cool.

There's an influx of very talented people.

Cons – If change, learning, and transformation scare you off, this might not be the place for you.

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

Current Employee – been working at Dow Jones full-time for less than a year

Pros – One of the best thing about Dow Jones experiencing and being in the very exciting new environment that Lex Fenwick our CEO has planted into the Dow Jones garden of success. It is just the beginning and it will bloom into bigger and better things. You can feel the excitement in the air and and everyday is a new adventure. The new atmosphere of employees only brings more to the table; the word is FRESH. Coming into work is like opening the balcony door on a perfect breezy spring day.

Cons – Hard work is a key element in being successful at Dow Jones and going above and beyond is what is expected. Dow Jones employees are over achievers and if you are a "bare minimum" type, you may not like it here.

Advice to Senior Management – Keep doing what you're doing and injecting the air with adrenaline.

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

Former Employee – worked at Dow Jones

Pros – Great place to work, smart people. Great brand that has appeal in certain markets with some solid products.

Cons – The org always had too many layers that were too far removed from the real business. They were slow to adapt to market changes.