Discovery Communications – “It's all about who you know and how much ass you're willing to kiss”

Pros

Excellent benefits package, competitive pay, 401K, world renown company, nice facilities, fair amount of leave if needed, etc.

Cons

As someone else correctly pointed out in another review here, being a young, hot, white woman is your best bet for advancement and good treatment at Discovery. There actually are several ways for almost anyone to move up the ladder- just understand that hard work, dedication, quality of your output, reliability, and experience are not necessarily keys to advancement. Being under 30, "hot", a part of the clique, and willingness to make them think that an entry-level job is your whole life are the keys.

Then there is upper and middle management. Directives and standards change constantly, each one deemed vitally important before it's tossed aside in 3 months for a new directive or standard. Processes and plans are introduced without working the bugs out and new systems and procedures are routinely halted just after being launched to undergo debugging or redesign. Organization and doing things right the first time are not priorities. The management staff CONSTANTLY changes and each new appointed higher-up wants to make his or her own rules and procedures with little regard to whether what's already in place works or not.

The name of the game at Discovery is poor communication between departments., cronyism, poor treatment of those who make less than 50K a year (you know, the folks who actually make the wheels turn), and no stability in standards and procedures.

Advice to Senior Management

Advance or promote people based on the job they do instead of how good looking they are or whether or not their personality rubs you the right way.

Fully think out and test new systems and procedures before launch. It is a waste of time and manpower to train people for tasks, only to have them stop doing the task while it is reworked, debuged, or redesigned, and then have to re-train people.