Mattel Reviews

Current Employee – been working at Mattel

Pros – great colleagues, fun work, interesting challenges

Cons – high pressure, lack of coordination across teams and brands

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend – I'm optimistic about the outlook for this company

Former Employee – worked at Mattel as an intern for less than a year

Pros – Treat their employees extremely well
Great group of people to work with
Very encouraging atmosphere

Cons – Engineering design work happens overseas (But what do you expect from a large company like this)

Advice to Senior Management – Encourage and listen to ideas from more than just the designers. I'm sure a lot more people have some great input

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend – I'm optimistic about the outlook for this company

Former Employee – worked at Mattel full-time

Pros – Half-Day Fridays.
Hard working employees.
Continuing education and training is strongly encouraged and paid for.

Cons – Hard to say the cons. Like I said, it was a great company to work for.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend – I'm optimistic about the outlook for this company

Former Employee – worked at Mattel full-time for more than 10 years

Pros – Great benefits and pay. Nice facilities including cafeterias.

Cons – There is a concensus that poor decisions by executive management result in layoffs of the employees that had nothing to do with the decisions.

Advice to Senior Management – None. They know everything already.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend – I'm optimistic about the outlook for this company

Current Employee – been working at Mattel full-time for more than a year

Pros – Half Day Fridays, working with toys, lots of community service opportunities, offers lots of training (although I think marketing is the only group that encourages people to take them), while it's a big company in many ways it feels small, top management is friendly and open to networking

Cons – Lower pay compared to other companies, very slow career growth (in certain groups), company too bureaucratic and makes top down decisions without regard to important things. While the fun toy culture is advertised (and there are some fun aspects), it doesn't seem to be lived day to day by many people except maybe in marketing.

Advice to Senior Management – Give people in the organization that are analysts/senior analysts more room to make actual decisions and make an impact, the IT systems needs to be improved and streamlined (way too many different systems and everyone has different numbers) and the lack of communication between functional groups really needs to be addressed.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Former Employee – worked at Mattel as an intern

Pros – Great place to work. Everyone is really personable and most people are passionate about their job. The job culture is very evident and promotes innovation as well as a positive work environment. Work/life balance couldn't be better with occasional overtime expected during the busy toy season and for trade shows. Work did not just seem like tedious busy work but really seemed to have direct impact on a given project. Overall awesome experience.

Cons – None that really stand out.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

Former Employee – worked at Mattel as a contractor for less than a year

Pros – Come on, you're making toys! Super fun workplace, especially around the holidays. Approachable executive, creative co-workers and fair management open to new ideas. Admirable community leadership. Noticeable lack of age and disability discrimination.

Cons – Bad, overpriced food on premises. Limited parking. No pension, seriously? Usual HR nonsense. Non-sensical internal advancement structure. Completely meaningless job titles bearing little relation to the outside world. Slightly below average salary structure.

Advice to Senior Management – Less is more.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend – I'm optimistic about the outlook for this company

Current Employee – been working at Mattel full-time for more than 3 years

Pros – Playing with toys is fun, getting paid to do it is better.

Cons – Sometimes work is priority and the fun has to postponed.

Advice to Senior Management – Don't lose sight of the play aspect. Your daily attitude shows in the final product.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at Mattel full-time for more than 7 years

Pros – Top notch benefits package, half-day Fridays, strong employee communication programs. Surrounded by smart and motivated people. Strong values when it comes to ensuring top quality, safe products for kids.

Cons – Very political culture. Layoffs and hiring patterns seem to run in predictable three year cycles. The consequences for failure deter innovation and risk taking. Forced ranking performance assessment system promotes unhealthy competition and is a major impediment to collaboration within especially small teams.

Advice to Senior Management – Put qualified people into leadership roles in corporate functions. Adopt a performance assessment system that rewards collaboration and encourages leaders to develop their people. Address the serious challenges with IT desktop support and outdated technology infrastructure.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

Former Employee – worked at Mattel part-time for more than 3 years

Pros – Flexible hours, mileage pay, administrative time pay, Christmas Barbie bonus & a game at Christmas time. Pretty easy work-but pay reflects that. Some hours at Christmas time, some overtime.

Cons – NO room for advancement...unless someone dies, you will never become a 'real' rep. 'Real' reps stay on forever, good for co. (and says a lot), but bad for seasonals. They start you in Oct., for 'season', supposedly... telling you hours are coming, hours are coming, then leave you hanging till Nov. (you never know which week it will ramp up) The season is done the day before Christmas, and that's it till next year. Not that it's bad once you know how it works, but first couple of years, they are calling Sept. and riding you about 'season'....when actually, all said and done it's about 6 weeks of a paying job...pay comparable to other merchandising companies, that work all year...

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend