PointRoll Reviews

Pros

smaller office allowed for close knit groups to form, friendly and outgoing people who are really good at what they do

Cons

Sometimes administrative work is not organized well, HR some times does not communicate or keep track of things very well

Pros

- Compensation
- Good benefits
- Work with geniuses. These folks are at the top of their field.

Cons

- Will work you to death/Personal life goes out the window
- Some verticals are valued way more than others
- Almost too much communication
- Constantly-changing procedures to the point where it's impossible to keep up.
- Too many processes. You spend most of your time trying to follow the most recent process update.
- Too many hurdles to jump to get the simplest thing done.

Advice to Senior Management

Simplify the processes so that people can shave a few hours off of their work day.

Pros

- fair pay, good bonus
- benefits ok
- lots of fun/bright people
- once considered an asset to org., mgt is fair/flexible
- lots to learn, those w/thrist for knowledge thrive (but you have to do it on your own)
- great industry to work for

Cons

- senior mgt makes big promises, rarely delivers
- performance mgt is a joke, it's not a meriticoracy
- political connections rule, hire/fire/promotion mostly based off who sr mgt likes
- low business maturity by a lot of employees
- poor long term vision coupled w/exeuction...they have right ideas, but follow through and accountability are EXTREMELY poor
- VERY HIGH turnover (30+% in 2010-2011)

Advice to Senior Management

- stick up to Gannett
- get strong HR leadership, force mid-managers to give objective feedback to direct reports

Pros

One of the leaders in Rich Media. They throw great parties for clients. Some people who work there are extremely smart and talented.

Cons

There is no such thing as work life balance at all. Free lunch? Because they don't want you to leave the building. It is not a perk - just a tool to keep you working throughout. Management is passive aggressive to the point that communication can become very difficult. You are expected to be up and answering emails either by laptop or BB 7 days a week and at all hours of the night. There is no clear process in place to implement what the client has requested. The back end technology is antiquated and not fully tested before deployment and you are there to clean up the mess with the client. Sales will throw anyone out for sacrifice in order to make themselves look like they weren't part of the problem.

Don't plan on doing the following: getting sick, getting married, getting pregnant, having a death in the family, god forbid one of your parents, brothers, sisters, etc. fall ill. They do not care. And you will notice this culture very soon after arriving. The mood in the office is quiet. No one smiles and it's rare that anyone comes out of the office to interact. The look on people's faces is that of a deer in headlights. Oh, there is also quite a bit of crying as well. You can feel the negativity almost instantly.

All in all, one of the worst jobs I've ever had. Unfortunately, I read the reviews on this company after I had left, but it was good to know that I was not alone in my view of the company and it's management in the Troy office.

Advice to Senior Management

Keep a closer eye on how management and sales in the satellite offices are treating their staff. When something is brought to your attention regarding this. Please do something about it.

Pros

The people are the best reason to work at Pointroll. Everyone is very smart and hardworking and want to do a good job. the work is pretty cool and there are perks like free lunches and bonuses you can get for going above and beyond that are pretty high. COmpany seems to care more about employees than in the past and communication has gotten better.

Cons

there are changes right now with with jobs in technology with combining Shoplocal roles and changes with operations and project managers. Its the right move but some people are complaining. There can be a heavy workload but you learn a lot and if you do a good job get rewarded. communication is better but there can be more from my manager.

Advice to Senior Management

follow through

Pros

You learn a lot.
There are some great people at this company.
PR is one of the leaders in the space.
You will know all the ins and outs of online advertising.

Cons

Long hours
Lack of technical support in general when you are doing something that is different or out of process.
Account Managers are worked so hard that they get very angry and upset. Management just burns and churns them. From a sales perspective this is hurtful for your clients and reduces repeat sales due to dissatisfied clients.

Advice to Senior Management

Take a longer and more strategic look at the business. You are profitable now but eventually someone is going to eat your lunch.

Pros

The only pro to working at PointRoll would be working with the people in Operations. There's a culture that exists that can't be found at other companies.

Cons

With that said, there's a culture that exists in PointRoll that you certainly won't find at other companies (and that's a good thing). The culture that exists in Operations is far more mature and productive then what exists "above the line". Senior Management (starting with the CEO) is a joke.

Advice to Senior Management

Hopefully, the new CEO has read enough of and been fully educated on what not to do based on the previous CEO's embarassingly poor leadership and overall job performance. All he will need to do is take the same level of pride of ownership that the majority of Operatons has for years and he will have exceeded everyone's expectations.

Pros

The leader in rich media advertising -- they do it better than anyone else and offer clients more than just an ad, but also information on how effective the ads are. Some really, really great people.

Cons

No work/life balance at all, and lip service to that issue. "Yes, we know people are burned out but that's just the nature of the business."A culture of badmouthing present and past employees to anyone who'll listen. Absolutely zero appreciation, but plenty of criticism. One mistake and you're history; someone at the top will be plotting your firing until they're finally able to do it. No interest in improving supervisory skills of front-line managers. The expectation is that if you're on vacation you're still expected to work at least four hours of each of your "vacation days". If profits aren't what they want, they'll slash heads, even if they're still making money hand over fist.

Advice to Senior Management

Get managers some training on how to manage. Think more long-term. End the culture of throwing everyone under the bus and start a culture of ownership of decisions and actions -- all of which starts at the top.

Pros

The people that work at PointRoll are unique and are the only reason that most non-sales, non-executives stay at PointRoll. The folks there are really great workers and support each other and those on other teams for the most part. The team is young and full of energy, ideas and fun.

Cons

Senior Management has no clue what they are doing!! They succeed inspite of themselves, the biggest problem is that Senior Management and the Sales team are driven by greed and will sell anyone down the river in order to make a buck. No one on the senior management team has "paid their dues" with PointRoll and therefore they take no accountability for killing the goose that laid the golden egg. They abuse the Account, Operations and Technology teams on a daily basis, all in the name of the client. The company is run with a staff that is only 3/4 the size it should be for the volume of business that is brought in, and the technology enhancements are never fully tested prior to major releases adding to headaches for the tech and ops teams. Look for PointRoll to start to lose market share to companies like FlashTalking etc... It will be nice to see what happens when the Senior Management and Sales team has to actually fight for sales, when this finally happens, look for PointRoll to disappear very quickly.

Advice to Senior Management

You all should be ashamed of yoursleves and how you treat your hard working employees and management team, you set everyone there up to fail while you all line your pockets with cash!! It is very sad that you people are as greedy as you are and that you will never fully appreciate that work that your team does on a daily basis.

Pros

- You'll learn a lot about rich media
- Co-workers are nice and some are quite intelligent
- Financially stable company

Cons

- Most, if not all employees are over worked
- Sales person commission structure is seriously flawed.
- Account Managers are abused in terms of hours of work, lack of support and lack of clear path of career advancement
- Many of the managers know how to manage the business side of things but are not effective are developing talent

Advice to Senior Management

You're doing a great job keeping your status in the market place. However, additional internal reflection is necessary because your last round did pan out the way it should have you have many unhappy employees. Make them feel wanted and appreciated. 75% of the reason you've been successful is because of their hard work.