IAC Reviews

Pros

Great building, fantastic perks, young, smart and fun colleagues, diverse businesses, great reputation, solid, reliable business model, good corporate energy

Cons

Disjointed sub-divisions, poor management within those divisions, lack of communication and very little incentive to be more efficient and very little recognition of accomplishments and dedication.

Advice to Senior Management

Take a look at the management running some of your divisions. See to it that talented people are utilized to their fullest capacity, encouraged to be proactive, and rewarded for doing a job well.

Pros

Very smart people, generally very helpful and on the same page. Concerned with making sure work gets done in an efficient manner. Informal development incredibly effective.

Cons

Lower compensation than some other comparable jobs, though not embarrassingly so. Formal development opportunities could be better.

Advice to Senior Management

Have a strong strategy for short, medium, and long term. Ensure that employees are communicated with proactively, not just in response to events, if business outlook and processes change.

Pros

Relaxed and casual place makes it easy to focus on work. Friendly employees. Diverse work force, in age and ethnic backgrounds.

Cons

Steady reorganizations and changes in management can be disconcerting. Changes in vision take time to develop and get communicated throughout organization.

Advice to Senior Management

Find ways for all employees to communicate with top management (anonymously, if possible). Lots of people have good ideas and feedback to share, but lack effective upward communication paths.

Pros

You will definitely have an opportunity to get your feet wet and learn a few things particularly if you are in the early stages of your career

Cons

There was too much politics being played out in the company and very little time spent in actually working towards achieving the stated objectives

Advice to Senior Management

Get people who actually have leadership and management skills to manage the people. And try to implement a meritocracy, favoritism is bound to take the company down.

Pros

In the correct corporate function, this can be an excellent place to build your resume and show you worked at rapidly growing sexy internet business which comes complete with an excellent calling card to meet starving startup businesses and the VC community. The people at IAC are ordinarily the smartest in the room. Work life balance is a priority and compensation is competitive.

Cons

While Diller and his cabinet are sophisticated deal makers they are absolutely terrible business managers. For this reason, the business has had no strategy for well over 2 years and the firm is a dysfunctional disaster of arrogant entrepreneurs trading at 3.5x earnings (versus 6.5x of comparable businesses). The corporate environment has no teaming and it is an every man for themselves competition.

Advice to Senior Management

Put in place older and more seasoned business managers with experience in large organically growing businesses. Or, dividend the cash and sell the business to a PE at a hight stock price while there is still an IAC business model.

Pros

IAC owns some of the internet's top brand name websites, and being an internet company, employees have access to the best technological resources. Even though IAC is a large company, it feels like a small start-up with excellent benefits. The opportunity for growth is very good and salaries are decent. There is also opportunity to move between brands.

Cons

IAC is run like a stock portfolio (i.e. brands moves freely in and out). On an operational level this makes it difficult to share resources among the brands and hinders free flowing communication. Ultimately, the inability to gain economies of scale hurts their bottom line. Since the brands are run separately, employees’ experiences vary widely from division to division. From an ad sales perspective, the sites are transactional and lack editorial content, which makes attracting brand advertisers difficult. Senior management lacks vision and the ability to communicate their goals and objectives clearly. In addition, senior management changes their strategy dramatically from quarter-to-quarter. Frequent reorganizations create high turnover and further contribute to the lack of clear goals.

Advice to Senior Management

Define a clear direction for the company and make a permanent investment in your brands.

Pros

relatively small company. It is easy to be involved in various projects. Colleagues are easy to work with.

Cons

no more growth. Talents are leaving.

Advice to Senior Management

don't know what to so. The company focuses on a field that needs a lot of talent. Unfortunately, it cannot attract many now a days.

Pros

IAC is an innovative place that feels more like a startup. If you have an idea for trying something new, people really do listen. This is a place for someone who is self-directed and doesn't need much hand-holding. The salary and benefits are quite good, and most of the people who work for the company are smart.

Cons

You may not need much hand-holding, but you would still like a little attention. Knowledge sharing is minimal. If you are fine with doing your own thing, you will thrive. I have a good supervisor, and I'm with a good team, so I get regular feedback. I consider myself lucky because that hasn't been the case for others I know. You really have to work hard to build relationships--if that isn't easy for you, then don't work for IAC. You may also catch some static when you work with other teams. Since the work environment is not as cohesive as it is in other places, it all depends on how that team is run.

While the benefits are good, HR seems unusually disorganized (note "most of the people" comment above). I've worked for large companies, and they need to make sure they deliver on all the benefits they offer. Sometimes, it is just a matter HR not processing paperwork. When dealing with IAC's HR, it pays to be aggressive. I haven't had issues precisely because I knew going in that I needed to be direct with HR, but some people have had trouble. However, HR in NY is aware of their problems and is making changes.

Advice to Senior Management

Senior management seems talented; however, they are easily distracted and spread themselves too thin regarding projects. With a little more focus, the results could be phenomenal. That statement reflects my review of Mr. Diller.

Pros

Stable job, decent pay and benefits, fellow employees

Cons

Incompetent management. Constant site redesigns and shifts in strategy. Employees stretched too thin which impacts the quality of the product. You won't survive here if you're not a Yes man who strives to be part of the inner circle. Morale is low.

Advice to Senior Management

Focus on a few strategically sound initiatives. Keep a long term view instead of looking for quick fixes to drive revenue. Set realistic timing and goals for initiatives while providing appropriate resources.
A poor economy does not provide an excuse to push employees to the breaking point.

Pros

the independence granted to employees to manage themselves and their projects, the perks (free food, great building, good benefits, etc.), and the people.

Cons

No aggressive incentives to advance or grow professionally.

Advice to Senior Management

Some senior management is exceptionally competent, others are far below standards. The inconsistency makes it hard to carve a clear path for advancement or even understand what your day to day goals should be.