Pros

Half Day Friday (most of the time)
Week of Christmas Vacation
401K
Great brands and products
Innovative, Creative, and Fun products

Cons

No Leadership, No Development, No Training
Highly Political! Everyone works in a silo and hides information from one another. Causing many to be very defensive, threatned, and taking themselves way to serious. They take the fun out of toys!

Advice to Senior Management

Quit firing your great leaders and talent. Treat employees with respect and not as commidities. Be more proactive in the marketplace vs. constant reaction to competition.

Pros

Great benefits and products, lots of good people

Cons

Management is cutting costs by getting rid of some of their most talented and loyal employees - treating everyone as dispensable instead of valuing experience and ability

Advice to Senior Management

Increase profits by producing innovative products and increasing sales instead of cutting headcount arbitrarily

Pros

Lots of creative people on the campus, good sense of values and ethics shared from the top down, good environment and benefits for hourly employees, good experience for entry-level MBAs

Cons

Highly political organization seems to sometimes cause managers to value job protection above other considerations, making it a tough place for someone to come in at the middle level. Review and promotion process not consistent across the organization. Company values a "work above your level" approach to promotions

Advice to Senior Management

When I worked there, the company was highly matrixed and the different departments and groups did not work together well, forcing competition rather than cooperation

Pros

Great culture, tons of communication from the top down. I felt like I was part of a team, even though I worked in the field 100%.

Cons

Although the internal promotions were well done, not everybody needs warm and fuzzy motivational promotions to get the job done.

Advice to Senior Management

Focus on proactively leading the market, not reacting to every move made by the competition. All in all, a nice place to start your career.

Pros

Half day Fridays, matching 401k plans, free educational courses, gym and pool at your disposal makes Mattel a hard place to dislike working for. You regularly hear of people celebrating their 5, 10, 15, 20, 25 year tenures. Most people actively engage in open conversations with people of all employee levels, which is rare. Career advancement is possible, but you NEED to network.

Cons

Extremely micromanaged, which makes it extremely difficult to accomplish projects. Promotions are rare and most people are working one and even two levels above their job title. People become very serious about what they do and sometimes forget that we makes toys.

Advice to Senior Management

Please engage in more communication with changes in the department.

Pros

Great place to get exposure to the corporate world in the Buffalo Niagara region. Interns receive a wide exposure to the different processes in their departments.

Cons

No opportunities to obtain full time employment when internship is over. HR is very private about policies as far as interviews and advancement

Advice to Senior Management

Providing more feedback would be much more helpful to the interns and will help them grow and do a better job

Pros

Great people to work with nice culture and a world class Brand. The best thing Mattel didn't do was try to move Fisher Price back to Los Angeles, it would have distroyed it all.

Cons

Tough to get promoted, not a lot of new opportunities. Location isolates from main stream America so it is important to get out to see what consumers are doing and really want.

Advice to Senior Management

The news and excitment of the product line has started to diminish. FP has always held a very high standard when it comes to product innovation but it seems to be losing its way. Protect the culture and the remember it is all about the people !

Pros

Nice pay for a retail service job, very flexible hours, nice management

Cons

Benefits have been taken away, gives you a sense of not really belonging to the company anymore

Advice to Senior Management

Try to give the Retail Service Reps a reason to want to do a good job, now that our beneifts have been taken away; we feel like outside contractors. What is our reason to strengthen the company?

Pros

Toys are fun. The benefits are great benefits and there are many training opportunities. Ethics are important and management practices what it preaches in this regard.

Cons

My average week was 55 - 60 hours and I was expected to carry a Blackberry so I could be reached at any time. Mattel says work life balance is important but it is not easy to achieve.

Advice to Senior Management

Be more strategic when making cuts by considering efficiency/profitability and long term strategic value. Resist applying the same criteria to all departments and divisions.

Pros

-Mattel is full of talented and inspired people and peers.
-Working on their product and brands is fulfilling.
-Your success will really depend on your manager, who will either make you or break you.
-You need a strong manager because she will be your voice in this hierarchical corporate culture
-Great benefits, including childcare facility, gym, and 1/2 day Fridays

Cons

-Company preaches "work-life balance" but in order to be Top performer, you must spend many many after-hours at work on a constant, daily basis. These hours more than cover for the hours you are getting off on Fridays.
-Upper Management and Sr Management has no clue on how to retain their talent pool.
-The wrong people get promoted and recognized. These people are unqualified for the job, but they are in the "club."
-HR will appear like they care for you, but they don't want to be bothered with issues. They will make the situation worse.
-Mattel restructures its staff often--as frequently as 2 times a year. If you are due for a promotion, you will have to reprove yourself to your new management. You will feel like you are starting from scratch...again.

Advice to Senior Management

When talent starts abandoning ship, it's time to open up your eyes.