Intrawest Reviews in Vancouver, BC Area

Pros

Good working environment; good culture but used to be much better; nice work/life balance; good centural location; pretty decent benifits.

Cons

the pay scale tended to be on the lower than average level; lots of uncertainty over the past few years.

Advice to Senior Management

The senior management got pretty aloof over the past few years, due to financial uncertainty. It seemed that they cared about employees in general.

Pros

Friendly, professional office environment
Great medical/dental benefits package
Good recognization for hard work
Great perks

Cons

Pay/salary
Career growth minimal due to recession
Future of the company unknown

Advice to Senior Management

Recognize that the remaining employees are working extremely hard to keep the company afloat, while minimal to no recognition (during this hardship) is being offered from the leadership teams.

Pros

Free Ski Pass and staff ski days
Reasonable working hours
Good people and senior management
Down town location is convenient

Cons

Numerous rounds of lay offs and a hiring freeze mean current staff are stretched to the limit. Employees are working harder than ever yet have had a pay freeze for the past 2 years, no bonuses and significant cuts to benefits. Chances of getting promoted in this environment are slim to none (I can't think of anyone in recent years).
Seems most important decisions are made at the Fortress level.
Given all of the layoffs, there is no job security.

Advice to Senior Management

Once the economy recovers, the remaining good people will leave. You can only cut/lose so many people before the ship starts to sink.

Pros

Pre-Fortress Intrawest marketing was on the forefront of marketing. Driving for a customer centric approach.

Free ski pass and reduced rates / deals on other resorts

Pre-Fortress approach of wanting employees to experience what the company offered.

Cons

Post-Fortress it became a span work shop environment where contacting as many people as possible about absolutely non-relevent deals was the goal.

No promotional opportunities due to collapse of company and continued layoffs.

Poor direction from management. Marketing stuck in the 80's in post-Fortress leadership

Advice to Senior Management

Sell the company to someone who actually cares about the business and people that work in the business.

Pros

If you are looking to gain experience working for a large company in a position that you know will translate directly to another company (definitely confirm this) then this may be an option of last resort.

Cons

Pay is poor for company of this size which affects turnover (competent people leave) which affects workload (you'll have to do everything) which makes you resent the poor pay all the more. Raises are 3% once a year unless you change jobs which will be paid at under market rates. Bought by hedge fund who are trimming non-existent fat by overloading workers. You will be barraged with requests outside of your job scope and you will have to have to work unpaid overtime to complete them or refuse.

Advice to Senior Management

None.

Pros

Free ski pass, the people that are attracted to work for Intrawest are fantastic.

Cons

This is a company that has been "in flux" for years, very difficult environment for staff, very little regard for employees well being. "If you don't like it leave" attitude.

Advice to Senior Management

Create some structure and discipline around the work that you do. Invest in Human Resources.

Pros

I work with a great team, really fun group people.

Cons

Business tend to be very marketing driven, sometimes projects are lunched because “it’s a great marketing ides” or “this will help us sell” without really having things thoroughly thought through.

Advice to Senior Management

Sometimes it's would be nice to just check to see if it is technically possible and sustainable ahead with the team that will be supporting these marketing projects, rather than just spending all that money just to scrape the projects after a few month because the idea doesn’t look as good after a few month.