Pandora Reviews

Current Employee – been working at Pandora full-time

Pros – One of the best places I've worked for. They really care for their employes and there are a lot of opportunities to grow with the company. A fun place with lots of interesting problems to solve.

Cons – Can't really think of one.

Advice to Senior Management – Keep managing like a startup environment.

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

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

Pros – Pandora really tries to make it a great place to work by taking into consideration the needs of it's employees. There is really great work/life balance there.

Cons – The management is not great.

Advice to Senior Management – Set clearer goals and communicate them to employees.

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

Former Employee – worked at Pandora full-time for more than a year

Pros – The stated values of the company are great: create a way for musicians to make a living outside the recording industry's boom or bust system, and provide a good work life balance for your employees. They also do lots of work to boost arts education in Oakland Public Schools.

Cons – They were kind of creepy about wanting to know who my friends were, and left me hanging in a very awkward position with a former coworker they pressured me into trying to recruit.

They made it very clear from the beginning that it's not a good idea to raise any concerns or be critical in any way, so I eventually became afraid that all the problems I was seeing were just inside me.

Image-related paranoia is very high here, weirdly. I totally understand the value of working under an NDA to protect technology and business plans and such, especially when your competition are big mean sharks, but it goes further than that at Pandora, even asking employees to refrain from talking to their spouses and significant others about having 'a bad day at work' because that might cast negativity on the company that could spread uncontrollably. I kid you not - this is actually what they told us during orientation.

I could not tell if I was working with good-hearted and otherwise competent people who were just unprepared for the changes the company was going through, or if I had gotten mixed up in some kind of entertainment/advertising industry sponsored experiment in psychological manipulation (or torture). At any rate, I came out the other end completely messed up in the head.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend – I'm optimistic about the outlook for this company

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

Pros – Pandora has incredibly smart people dedicated to an awesome mission - bringing music people love wherever they are. As a company, Pandora pays a great deal of attention to individual development and professional growth. I loved working there and would love the opportunity to do so again in the future.

Cons – They have concerts from well known bands in the break room with kegs and lots of fun smiling people, so if you like working around 4 PM on a Friday, this probably isn't the place for you.

Advice to Senior Management – Keep being awesome

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

Current Employee – been working at Pandora full-time for less than a year

Pros – Super friendly environment, opinions are listened to, no micromanagement

Cons – none that i can think of

Advice to Senior Management – keep up the awesome work that you all are doing

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

Former Employee – worked at Pandora

Pros – Pandora has a very cool product...and so are it's employees. Working at Pandora was fun and challenging. The product is universally loved by everyone and you'll hear that from friends and family all the time. The management has created a atmosphere where you own your job, thus you don't worry about clock watching, just your quality of work. Highly collaborative. I had a great experience working there and wish them the best of luck.

Cons – Communication from senior management down to the ranks has always been poor. There really needs to be a reliable and consistent communication stream to employees. Also, their performance management needs work, as expectations are rarely set and a great concern of employees. With that said, they are working on it now.

Advice to Senior Management – Fix the communication issue and make performance management a priority in 2012.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

Former Employee – worked at Pandora

Pros – Get to work with a lot of music. Fun office. Some nice people

Cons – Uppder management and the sales organization is completely unorganized. The company has no solid long-term vision and lacks in initiatives to get to profiitbility. Some of the maagement is just rude. They just want to be the cool company rather than be professions and have drive to get to profibility

Advice to Senior Management – Treat your staff with respect. it seems more like a boys club. You need to take actions and develop a focus and vision if you are ever to become profitable. Cut back on the needless spending and focus on hiring talented staff.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Former Employee – worked at Pandora

Pros – Pandora is a company that's you're proud to work at because it's one of the most beloved consumer products of the last decade. There are a lot of smart people at Pandora that work hard toward common goals.

Cons – Pandora has a non-existant company culture. There are companies in the valley that make Pandora look rather pathetic on that front. As they've grown, it's likely that maintaining the culture was an afterthought. There is a general vibe of insecurity throughout the office. While senior management and the executive team are approachable, it is obvious that they are clueless as to what it means to be an employee there on a day-to-day basis. There is also a general sense of dysfunction due to "growing pains." The company hasn't scaled key departments in a functional way that serves employees in the the ways that they should, specifically HR. They've also made some bad, incompetent hires in key roles.

Advice to Senior Management – Take a closer look that your employee's faces and notice if they seem happy or not. Talk to employees at all levels. Invest in fixing the broken culture of the company

Former Employee – worked at Pandora

Pros – - I love the product.
- It is easy to be proud of the company you work for.
- Your work has meaning and impacts the joy of hundreds of thousands of listeners.

Cons – - No support from management. I went to my manager on two seperate occassions letting him know my concerns about the hours, and how a lot of hours were wasted redoing work. He told me to suck it up and try to be more like the other guy (who had no problem doing 9am-2am days several times a week).
- Long hours - 60-70 hour weeks are average, 70+ in crunchtime.
- Pay is crummy - salary sounds ok on paper, until you realize they pay you on a 40 hour/week scale, but expect you to do at least 60-70 hours per week.

Advice to Senior Management – Employees don't leave companies - they leave managers.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Former Employee – worked at Pandora full-time for more than a year

Pros – - Working for a company which makes such an amazing consumer product loved by everyone
- Some cool/smart people

Cons – - Struggling with growth and feels understaffed in certain departments
- Compensation and benefits pale in comparison to other bay area tech companies
- No career trajectory in certain departments and promotions aren't always based on performance
- Quality of leadership is inconsistent

Advice to Senior Management – Pay attention to the number of unhappy employees and take the exit interviews seriously. There's a reason individuals can feel frustrated/unsettled/overwhelmed/underappreciated and that feedback should be considered so as to help correct the current culture course, cultivate loyalty, and continue building a sense of community among employees. Also consider making the interviews much more rigorous to ensure you're bringing in the best talent.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend – I'm not optimistic about the outlook for this company