Sentient Jet Reviews

Pros

Good pay, nice people to work with, great with timeoff

Cons

Management is not hands on, teams seem isolated

Pros

Ability to work from home
Great management team and leadership
Cool industry
Flexible schedule with no micromanagement

Cons

In a tough industry right now
Working from home gets old sometimes

Advice to Senior Management

They have a great team with strong thinkers. Very cool senior team that I enjoyed having a beer with when I was in town. Some people didn't like them for some reason but I enjoyed them, especially my immediate manager.

Pros

Freedom to share your ideas and truly make a difference in the direction of the company. Always able to reach out to senior management to discuss issues/challenges. Great group of people to be around.

Cons

Sure Sentient has gone through some tough times like a lot of companies but they have listened and are improving the way communication is handled and is much more open than in previous times.

Advice to Senior Management

Continue to communicate to the team on the direction..offer more incentives and look into possible improvements in benefits, particularly healthcare costs.

Pros

Sentient can be a great place to work for a young person who wants to learn about a supply/demand business where day to day, flight by flight profitability is crucial. Everyone has an impact from day to day. Sentient reacts more quickly than other companies because it is small and the widely accepted use of instant messaging technology helps information flow easily.

Cons

The senior management team is young and inexperienced. Following the most recent sale of the company the new investor simply took the managers who were left standing after August 2008 and gave them C-level positions. The people previously in these roles wanted nothing to do with the "new" Sentient. The current leaders are mostly good people, but their compensation structure leads them to walk on their employees to maximize their own salary with (as you will read in other reviews) bonuses that are vague and then disappear when goals are met. Macquarie's goal is to turn Sentient around as soon as possible and sell it to the first sucker who comes along.

Advice to Senior Management

As is apparent by your horrendous non-compete agreements your employees are your best and ONLY asset. Treat them well or your going face a rude awakening when the economy starts to grow again.

Pros

Smart people...able to learn about cool, unique industry.

Cons

Management often made promises they never kept about promotions & bonuses. Poor business practices. Employees are overworked and underpaid. Management team is split between great, ethical people and manipulative, unethical people.

Advice to Senior Management

Live up to your word. Just because you choose not to have work/life balance doesn't mean everyone else should be the same way.

Pros

First pro of working at Sentient is that is has a great name. Second are my co-worker they are the best.

Cons

The way they calculate the bonus does not make scense. How can a person who has been with the company make less of a bonus then a newbie?

Advice to Senior Management

NA

Pros

Most of the people who work there are really nice, and fun to work with. My manager is very flexible with time off requests. Free bagels on Fridays.

Cons

There is ZERO opportunity for advancement. Pay raises are nonexistent, and bonuses and incentive programs have a way of disappearing when the goals are met. They like to dangle opportunity in front of your nose, but rarely if ever do they see it through. Many managers are unqualified and all are overworked. There is very little opportunity for them to actually manage or meet with their employees, as they are swamped with reports, and projects and meetings and follow ups.... and so on. HR is criminally incompetent, and is THE single worst source of office gossip. Over the last year and a half, the company was acquired by another, and then split off on it's own. The result has left employee morale lower than I could have ever imagined it going.

Advice to Senior Management

Live up to your word. Honor what you tell your employees.

Pros

Location is good if you don't want to travel into the city every day. This is a good environment for young folks just coming out of college (particularly in the aviation industry), as well as senior-level aviation career folks. For the youngsters, you will learn a lot about the aviation industry including aircraft information, weather information, and miscellaneous aviation industry. For the seasoned aviation folks, your expertise will be welcomed and utilized.

Cons

This company has a "good old boy club" feel. For folks who wish to come in and offer new "out of the box" ideas, your ideas are unwelcomed and met with the "we tried that before" attitude. It's like you receive a nice pat on the head and are sent on your way to simply "do your job". Management, for the most part, has been promoted from within -- promoting folks who did well in their position but are in no way equipped to be management. They are often mean, gossipy, and don't know how to "lead". They "lead" by fear and intimidation. When folks try to think out of the box or go above and beyond, the managers smile and thank them for their ideas but then never buy in. New employees have a tough time fitting in. Performance reviews are non existent so there is no way to know how you are being measured or evaluated until, oftentimes, it's too late.

Advice to Senior Management

Management needs to remember the needs and feelings of their staff. They need to know that the key team members have great ideas and should be encouraged to try these ideas to discover new and exciting ways to promote the company. Also, Sentient needs to stop promoting employees into management positions simply because they are good at what they do. Or, at the very least, get your managers into a management training program before they drive all their employees away. As a company, you need to create a welcoming culture for ALL employees -- not just for a chosen few.

Pros

To get experience in the private jet industry, work with the rich and famous, one way (empty leg flights), work with latest technology in the industry. Ability to move around between departments, finding the one that fits your interest and skill set. They encourage open communication between staff and managment.

Cons

Minimal career path development for operational/customer service staff. Expect long hours. Raises are very hard to come by. The environment is always changing, the focus always shifting with what the company expects. Appeared like everyone was "putting out little fires" but not necessarily fixing the main cause of the fire.

Advice to Senior Management

Your employees are just as important as the jets. If they show an unwavering commitment and drive for client satisfaction as you desire than give them hope for their futures.