Experian Reviews

Pros

Flexibility with regard to location and opportunity to earn a great living.

Cons

Solutions we provide are complex therefore sales cycles are long.

Pros

There are some really intelligent and fun people at Experian, and they have a broad suite of services that addresses all major marketing channels.

Cons

It has become very politicized and overly structured. Too much micro management. Not enough good leadership in upper management leaves employees wondering about the future.

Pros

Great Name, reputation and experience. Fantastic benefits, FTO and such

Cons

Treat people like crap. Virtually imposible to move out of your silo.......tendency to blame the talent for all their problems

Pros

- Company is strong financially, revenues support Experian corporate
- Plenty of growth opportunities
- Strong, well-known brands
- Benefits are very competitive with the best companies out there
- Lots of very smart and talented employees who are also fun and down-to-earth
- Management genuinely tries to care about employees and culture, and constantly tries to improve communication, great CEO that everyone loves
- Recent push to work together more with other Experian units, many significant synergy opportunities there
- Depending on your team, you could work with amazing amounts of data, stuff you couldn't in any other company except maybe Facebook, Google or Amazon

Cons

- Salaries are very low and not competitive, even when compared to other Experian divisions
- Management is focused on short-term revenues, not long term plans. 3-yr plans are vague and not tactical or related to brands
- Significant turnover, average 2-3 ppl/week for months including very experienced and senior managers as well as lower level employees. Little to no attempt at retaining talent.
- IT is a separate entity with no goals tied to success of business, so they have no incentive to go beyond what is specifically asked. High turnover and lots of low-paid contractors result in poor work quality and slow turnarounds - changing a word on a website can take weeks.
- Company tries to project itself as a cool "dotcom" type of business (game room, 5 cent snacks, team events, branded swag), it's nice, but too corporate to feel real
- Unqualified managers have not been good for the company, resulting in frustrated employees and increased turnover. Manager quality is very inconsistent with no 360 review process to help
- Some managers are very political, others are very CYA and refuse to take accountability, some borderline unethical (HR turns their heads)
- Budget and headcount constraints make it difficult for many to do their jobs well
- Very rush mentality, management may say it's "fast-paced", but it's really more of a frenzy of chasing tails and not getting anywhere. Projects are rushed out with errors and missed requirements instead of taking a little more time to do things right. Results in burn-out and frustration by many people.

There was a significant layoff in 2010 that wiped out a large percentage of employees, including very strong (and personable) leaders that drove a wonderful culture where people cared about the teams and each other. It was almost a family environment with many coworkers hanging out after hours, even with their bosses. But once those leaders were sent packing, the culture changed forever.

Advice to Senior Management

Realize employees are the strongest asset to this (and any) company. There's a reason so many people are leaving. There's also a reason the company has a bad reputation that's causing developers to not want to work here. There have been big steps forward in some aspects of the culture and how the company is run, but still much improvement before the company really thrives.

Pros

Beautiful campus
Friendly people
Good benefits
family oriented
Experian is a good place to work if you are looking for something that is pleasant without very much challenge.

Cons

There was not much of a challenge in working there in my experience. There were not many projects given out and some departments were difficult to get information from.

Advice to Senior Management

I would say they should utilize their staff more. Rely on them more and give them more opportunity to contribute.

Pros

Great people, capabilities, and assets

Cons

Poor senior leadership, no clear focus or direction

Pros

Travel, Variety in projects, Work from Home, Flexibility in hours, Networking with clients, Internal vacancies and lateral transfers in the same country offices.

Cons

Long Hours, Limited professional development in technical skills, Culture of mediocrity, Very poor leadership displayed by most managers at all levels, The good leaders are drowned out.

Advice to Senior Management

As stated by others, actually act upon the global employee feedback. Feels like each year lip service is paid to the results.

Pros

- Smart, kind employees
- Great benefits
- Average market pay
- Opportunities to apply for different jobs
- Flexible with work at home options
- Well known brand

Cons

- Struggling culture, most employees are unsatisfied with their jobs/managers, but they cruise under the radar to get by
- Performance focused only - no people focus...daily grind.
- Most people are scared about lay offs every 6 months - when mid-year and end of year results are reviewed
- There are great managers and poor managers...no control over how well managers are managing employees
- There are too many sales reps calling on one account. Its confusing to the customer and frustrating to the salesperson
- Highly political work environment. VPs are scared to speak up to upper management
- Most jobs are stressful and work/life balance is not encouraged enough. Most employees are "too busy" to help with projects

Advice to Senior Management

Care more about employees, Senior mgmt is more involved with their own promotions and perks than caring about the rest of the employees. Listen to your employee survey results and actually DO something about it.

Pros

- Decent OC location
- Nice, clean campus
- Pay is okay
- Sr management doesnt have much of a clue about what anyone does, so they will generally leave you alone if your metrics look good
- Co-workers are good people.
- Stock doing well.
- If you have no political game but you're smart and can do a good job, you can probably cruise here in a mid management role. Better yet - stay away from management altogether, build up some strong individual contributor skills, keep your head down and enjoy your life outside of work.

Cons

- You need a lot of political game to advance here. I suppose this is true of any big company and its particularly true here. If you can't connect yourself to the right people you pretty much have limited chances to advance. Worse, you can permanently end your chance at advancement by crossing the 'right' people and it's surprisingly easy to do.
- Kick-ass and take names mentality. Up until 8 or so years ago the company was run by folks that knew the business really well but werent the greatest leaders. Experian turned that around by filling the upper ranks of management with 'kick-ass' clones that dont really know the business well at all and ,frankly, still arent good leaders but they do kick ass. This generated a completely numbers driven environment which is ultimately pressure filled and frustrating for many employees.
- Lots of corner cutting. EBIT is king and if you cant make revenue then you have to cut costs: raises, promotions, 401ks, routine maintenance on production products...etc.
- Lost customer focus. Enough said.
- Really poor communication - upward. This is an enviroment where even the junior vp ranks can be afraid to speak up when things are off track.

Advice to Senior Management

Focus on some of the non-monetary measures of your success as well. Care enough about others to be an inspiration.

Pros

- Nice people: employees are pretty nice and helpful, although some of the older ones are a bit stuck in their ways and difficult to work with
- Great benefits
- Decent pay: although i still think i'm underpaid for as much work as they expect us to take on and how expensive it is to live in OC
- Great cafeteria: pretty good selection and quality for an employee cafeteria

Cons

- Confusing, inefficient org structure
- Insufficient human resources to get the job done; long lead time or outsourcing often required
- Very heavily political: half my time is spent focusing on trying not to tick anyone off
- Don't agree with the MBA rotational program. Not fair for some kid to come in off the street and automatically get a director position when it takes several years for those already with the company.
- Difficult to change departments--you have your old and new bosses fighting over you and forcing you to take on both old and new duties at the same time
- Too many layers and processes to deal with
- Takes a long time to understand industry, products and org structure--about a year to feel fully acclimated

Advice to Senior Management

Act on the global opinion survey results; I'm tired of taking this every year and nobody listening and I know I'm not the only one who feels like we don't have enough resources