New York Times Reviews

Pros

- High profile company
- Encourages self development
- Great working atmosphere
- Very active developer community
- A lot of technologies are used here, you will like it if you love learning new stuff

Cons

- Very competitive, your colleagues will be doing extra stuff and it will look bad if you're not
- Don't try hard to impress the management, it's all politics there.

Advice to Senior Management

Pay attention to the employees effort

Pros

Most people are at the top of their game. Good support for innovation outside of normal job. Can pay well and advance if you're willing to play politics.

Cons

High turnover because employees usually need to fight hard for any raise or promotion. Highly political management due to clash of old and new media. Rampant favoritism and nepotism.

Advice to Senior Management

Put some effort into retaining talent.

Pros

There is a passion that all employees seem to have which makes it a pleasurable working environment

Cons

The salaries abroad aren't as good as they could be

Advice to Senior Management

Continue to encourage new ideas and growth

Pros

There is great pride in the brand, and you're surrounding by people who are experts in their field. There are very few people working here who simply want to collect a paycheck and don't bother with personal growth.

Cons

Very little opportunity for advancement, and very little communication between departments.

Advice to Senior Management

Invest more in corporate communications. Departments are far too siloed.

Pros

Being proud of a good product. The relationships which are created.

Cons

Waiting for upper management to understand and remark about your achievemens.

Advice to Senior Management

Do not detach yourself from your teams. Become familiar and a apart of everyday activities.

Pros

Great benefits and great people. If you work hard, you will go far. As employee, you are respected and your voice is heard

Cons

The commute can be difficult at times but they have worked with me and I'm very appreciative. The company within the past 5 years have gone through some changes but we have survived.

Advice to Senior Management

I believe the management should keep doing what they do and please to remain focus on advancing the business and don't forget about the employees.

Pros

- Great brand name
- Access to the news organization and awe factor of walking among the great names in news
- Great hours on the business side

Cons

- Looking to protect their print product at all costs.
- Decisions are made by committee --- diffuses accountability.
- Promotions are based on seniority and relationships resulting in some very inexperienced managers at senior levels.

Advice to Senior Management

Look to the future, rather than holding on to the past. Think big, rather than incrementally. Take some small chances.

Pros

You make great connections with people just in the elevators. You learn a lot about New York culture and important topics. You get hands-on experiences if you work hard.

Cons

It can be stressful at times. Hard to land a job within department, unless someone leaves.

Advice to Senior Management

Great management abilities!

Pros

Despite the newspaper industry's revenue downturn, the Times has solid management who are hard at work to ensure the company's future.

The Times' has upgraded to modern OSS technology over the last three years - big plus.

Cons

The Times froze salaries over the last couple years - makes moving to another company difficult if you're negotiating from a lower base pay than you ought to be getting, if you were at another company.

Don't expect to advance beyond the job you are hired unto, not unless you're ready to be both software developer and project manager. Project management at the times is nearly non-existent, and the few there have little technical knowledge. Those who can both develop and manage their projects may eventually be anointed into management (read: lots of overtime, and then you're no longer a developer.)

Annual reviews are totally skewed: employees are given an overall rating of 1-5, and 95% or more get a 3. A handful get a 4, and one or two get 5. People who get below a 3 are on their way out.

Advice to Senior Management

Provide advancement opportunities for developers in addition to the management path. Provide a handful of developer roles that offer an upgrade path. There are basically two developer job titles: Software Engineer and Senior Software Engineer. Add to that a few others that reflect the type of work, i.e. specialization. A developer who has shown proficiency in their area of work should be rewarded with a better title, e.g. Senior Platform Software Engineer II.

Pros

-- job security
-- location (easy commute)
-- stature

Cons

-- little or no career development
-- a newsroom in the midst of major downsizing
-- marginally engaged managers

Advice to Senior Management

encourage employees to take more ownership in the future of the place, and, in turn, show some interest in your employees