Pop Labs Reviews

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

Pros – My supervisors were friendly and approachable- always willing to explain questions I had regarding assignments and the overall advertising industry. I was very satisfied during my time at Pop Labs as I learned to fine tune my project-management skills and I learned more about social media.

I highly recommend Pop Labs to anyone who is serious about gaining valuable experience in the marketing/advertising industry.

Cons – I do not have any CONS for Pop Labs.

Advice to Senior Management – Keep up the great work!

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

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

Pros – the place has the appearance of fun at the beginning but once you see all the lies and incompetent management a pig pong table wont mean much to you

Cons – low salary
no value to customers
intense work load
no health insurance
no training
no advancement

Advice to Senior Management – just stop lying to your people and your customers

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

Former Employee – worked at Pop Labs

Pros – Casual dress code
Free coffee
Occasional kolache days
Location near a lot of great Asian food
Great SEM manager

Cons – Unrealistic work load (60-70+ accounts for SEMs, doing both SEO and PPC)
Most senior staff members very disrespectful
Supposed to be salary, but any time you're late or you need to be at an appointment, you're treated as hourly

Advice to Senior Management – You're only going to get as much respect from employees as you give them. Give nothing, and expect the same back. Worry less about appearances and more about substance. You have some talented people on staff who are frustrated with the lack of mobility within the company and at the lack of innovation, too.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Former Employee – worked at Pop Labs

Pros – -Owner willing to share story of how he created his personal wealth
-Free coffee; free alcohol on Fridays

Cons – -Often felt mislead. What I was told during interview about future salary expectations and advancement timetable was WAY off reality (i.e. was told all 'closers' make $90,000+ after around 3 months of training, when in reality it took a lot longer to make a lot less than that).
-Unprofessional environment. Name-calling, inappropriate remarks about females, verbal spats, etc, can be expected on a weekly basis.
-Lifeless day-to-day. The leadership sells the idea to potential employees that Pop Labs is a fun place to work with a lot of potential for growth. But in reality the people in charge are unimaginative...sales meetings are the same week after week. And yes, the leadership travels to conferences and goes to fun events, but outside of booze on Fridays and the occasional happy hour, there isn’t much fun being had at Pop Labs.

Advice to Senior Management – Giving advice to Pop Labs leadership would be a waste of time, and dismissed without thought. The leadership at Pop Labs would prefer to verbally assault anyone with an alternative view than consider the thought that changes could be made.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at Pop Labs

Pros – - Large advancement opportunities
- Relaxed atmosphere and casual dress code
- Creative atmosphere, complete with ping pong table for "bouncing" around ideas
- Pay based on performance
- Flexible work schedule & time off

Cons – - The sales people turn the air conditioner to freezing
- The office is located in a spot where there is little to choose from for lunch
- Free coffee (kidding)
- Leadership trips with all expenses paid (wait, that's probably a Pro)

Advice to Senior Management – Be willing to spend more time with newer employees so that they know more about you. And spring for more company sponsored happy hours!

In my opinion this has been a fantastic place to work. I came to Houston as green as could be a few years ago and have definitely found a home with Pop Labs. My hard work here has paid off: I've been recognized for it consistently, promoted several times, and learned more in the few short years I've been here than I ever did in school.

This is definitely not a job for just anyone though. The hours are long, the workload is high (nowhere near as high as what some reviews seem to inflate), but the rewards are worth it. It's very much an environment where Risk = Reward. Anyone with a decent work ethic will thrive here. But if you're looking for a job to sit around at and collect a paycheck look elsewhere, the harder working employees who are vested in the success of the company and their personal career development will spot that right away.

I have both a social life and a full family life - managing your work/life balance isn't a responsibility of your employer, it's your own responsibility. Personal accountability can take someone very far these days. If you do get a chance to apply to Pop Labs and think you have what it takes to excel then I strongly encourage you to do so.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

Former Employee – worked at Pop Labs

Pros – Casual dress attire
free coffee
ping pong table

Cons – Abusive work environment. Management will verbally attack employees in front of the entire office.

Employee work load is outrageous. For example, the employees who oversee client accounts have anywhere from 25 to 35 clients to manage on a continual basis. Other companies who provide similar services give these same level employees 2 - 10 accounts to manage.

They will promise employees health insurance, advancement oppotunities, and extensive training, in order to coerce employees into accepting a very low salary. Chances of getting a raise are very minimal.They like to hire young people so they can exploit the eagerness of inexperienced workers by pressuring them to work unaceptable hours while paying them very little.

Insanely high employee turnover. New employees do not have enough time to properly learn their jobs before being thrown into the fires left by the many employees constantly quitting.

Employees have no time for a social life due to expectations from management to put in a lot of hours. Therefore, coworkers end up spending a lot of time together and dating each other.

Some managers rarely come into the office, if they even show up at all.

Low Pay - around 30-35K / year

No health insurance, and employees are not paid enough to buy individual health insurance.

Advice to Senior Management – Stop lying. The office reeks of lies and empty words. The "fake it till you make it" mantra that management tells everyone will only lead to employees performing at sub par levels and hiding anything that might get them in trouble. Employees should feel comfortable to come to anyone in management with any work related issue. Otherwise, employees give you the "perception" that they are working when they are not doing anything at all.

You can't run a business with a managment policy of intimidating employees to do what you want. This will lead to the destruction of your company culture and the destruction of any quality employees who might stick around. Research Enron and their culture if you need more information.

Learn from past mistakes...PLEASE! Management doesn't seem to bother to research good business practices or teqniques. Instead, you resort to school yard bullying and other forms of mental abuse. You lose so much money in the long run with this type of environment.

Employees imitate management. When your management sucks, your employees cannot succeed, and therefore the services you promise to clients will continue to be poor quality.

Try learning how to actually manage, train your employees properly, and actually retain those emplpyees longer than 2-3 years. Then see how much money you make compared to now.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Former Employee – worked at Pop Labs

Pros – - Were opportunities to travel for all
- Colleagues were fun

Cons – - Work heavily imposes on social life
- Poor communication of policies
- Plenty of pressure with minimal value (few learning experiences, rare recognition for good work)
- Low employee morale
- Everyone has already mentioned pay, benefits, etc. so I won't

Like many other reviews, this is highly leaning toward the negative. Some of these are typical for agencies as it's a service-based business, but the stress level is way too high for what is very simple work for anyone proficient in customer service, SEM/SEO and web development.

Advice to Senior Management – Listen to employees

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Former Employee – worked at Pop Labs

Pros – Co-workers are smart, fun, creative, and giving and thrive in a team environment.

Cons – No overtime, no health insurance, very low salary for industry, management inaccessible to staff, low employee morale, no recognition for personal achievements. Over 2/3 of the employees at Pop Labs in 2009 are no longer with the company (all but a few left willingly), yet management publicly berates everyone who leaves and remains willingly oblivious to its own fault in not being able to keep people around. Despite the significant drop in staff, remaining employees were denied annual raises. Employees fear being terminated after threats from management.

Advice to Senior Management – When you bother to show up at the office, check your ego at the door. Get to know your staff members and what they as individuals do for you and reward them for their hard work. Your employees may begin to respect you then.

"When management is incompetent, high turnover there will be." - Yoda

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at Pop Labs

Pros – Very cool physical and emotional work environment, leadership that teaches staff how to further develop their career in and out of Pop Labs, tons of corporate culture, great technology "space" with lots of growth opportunity, company has won many awards, great employer, great co-workers!

Cons – Very transparent work environment, which can sometimes create challenges for less effective workers.

Advice to Senior Management – "Always in motion; is the future." - Yoda

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at Pop Labs

Pros – Learn the ins and outs of online marketing. Very basic online marketing techniques are taught to SEMs over a week. Start working on clients in a short amount of time.

Cons – Many problems with quality and technology capabilities. Glaring problems with ecommerce products. Very low pay and no benefits. No health insurance, only 5 days vacation, no sick days, and we are all at hourly pay instead of salary.

Advice to Senior Management – Look into better treatment of employees. Offer some benefits to employees. Working at a place with no benefits is very bad for morale.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend