HBO Reviews

Pros

cool cafetria, movie premiers, cool Christmas party. That is aboout it; the people were also cool some of the time

Cons

not too much room for progression, though is just personal experience. Also, you need to not loose your ID to swipe in

Advice to Senior Management

I think that the management should consider being nicer to the wonderful employees at the company. Also I dissaprove of the temp

Pros

- 4 weeks of vacations plus chrismast week given out for free
- Friendly coworkers
- Management wants you to be happy...

Cons

Opportunity for growth in the IT dep

Advice to Senior Management

None.

Pros

Great place to work overall. Employees are smart, passionate, and driven. The brand name holds a lot of weight. Employees are respected by management. The company is quickly adapting technology in order to get ahead of the "cable cutting" trend".

Cons

People get too comfortable and stay forever. Management is heavy with lifers. Departments are fiefdoms where political feuds across departments are common. Career advancement takes either forever or never at all due to low churn.

Advice to Senior Management

Employees are too comfortable due to job security. Shake it up a little bit so lifers are not so complacent. This will allow outsiders and new hires to get into upper management positions and break the "HBO mentality".

Pros

Great People
Great Environment
Great on Resume
Good networking opportunities

Cons

Average compensation
Internship duration is too short

Pros

- Very cash rich stable company
- 70% of younger generation employees are smart
- Good brand for your resume
- Work life balance- although few take it to the extreme. 3+ years on the job and you can pretty much have a cushy life and fly under the radar

Cons

- Average pay with below average bonus
- Your life is only as good as your manager allows it
- Too much politics at every level. Will spend 50% of your time managing that
- Expensive benefits- employee have to contribute a lot
- Anyone below VP level has barely any decision making power. 5 levels have to approve before anything happens. Bureaucracy dictates that you keep your mouth shut so its frustrating to some who want to get things done
- Everyone tries to grab their piece of turf and the old timers do not leave or allow young ones to take the company to the next level- almost as if you are not trusted

Advice to Senior Management

- Hold double skip level meetings to see what is really going on
- Get rid of a$$ ki$$sers or you will ruin your reputation as an employer
- Read this review twice

Pros

You get to work on interesting and groundbreaking projects. Coworkers throughout the company are very friendly, and there's very little egotism for its own sake. The company takes good care of its employees, and job security may be higher than almost any traditional media company.

Cons

No one ever leaves, so there's little headroom for growth. Politics and turf-grabs are routine.

Advice to Senior Management

Reorg for the future, and see if you can create some new opportunities. Fight against entrenchment.

Pros

Interesting products, terrific benefits, good work/life balance

Cons

Bureacratic, siloed work environment, does not promote creativity or reward individual thinking, mostly concerned with face-time, politics are overwhelming, visibly does not trust its employees, not interested in developing skill sets / careers, difficult to move up

Advice to Senior Management

Show your employees that you trust them and give them a chance to take ownership

Pros

benefits
the product
innovation in original programming

Cons

political
mediocre people
too top-heavy with "lifers"

Advice to Senior Management

need to re-vamp and groom younger talent for the top mgt roles

Pros

The atmosphere is relaxed, everyone is treated like family. There is a lot of opportunity for growth. The projects are exciting and there is great job security. Once you're in, you aren't going to leave.

Cons

Because it is such a great place to work, very few people ever want to leave. As a result, you are competing with a lot of other people for promotions when a higher job becomes available. Advancement can take a while.

Advice to Senior Management

If there were more positions created, the work could be more spread out and the employees wouldn't feel spread thin. There is a lot of work to go around and a small amount of people doing it all.

Pros

Great company flush with cash
Great working environment
Great work life balance
Good compensation

Cons

Very hierachical
Very conservative and risk averse
Very slow to get things done
Tendency to be secretive and territorial

Advice to Senior Management

Communicate more with company at large, especially mission statements and strategies on moving forward. Encourage sharing of information and reduce hierarchy and redundancy.