Ticketmaster Reviews

Pros

Really enjoyed working with the clients. Everyday involved something new and different. It was a fast-paced work environment where you were able to get your hands wet with a lot of different tasks.

Cons

Working for a larger corporation in a smaller office setting can prove difficult. There is little room for advancement within market requiring you to be willing to relocate should you want to move vertically with the company.

Advice to Senior Management

Leadership can be viewed on multiple levels as you have numerous levels of management within the company on both the local off level and on the company wide level. I think as a whole the company recognizes strong work ethic and provides great benefits.

Pros

Great place to learn and gain experience. If you like a young, dynamic, team based, collaborative environment this is the place to be. The company is expanding globally and rapidly developing. It is an exciting place to work for. A lot of hardworking, fun, and talented individuals.

Cons

Ticketmaster is still a relatively young company. Established processes and procedures exist but many are still work in progress. The same goes for training. it's a work hard play hard culture. Work life balance can suffer if you don't manage this carefully. Be willing to put in extra hours and endure some stress and ambiguity.

Advice to Senior Management

Take concrete actions to really making the company a fun place to work and encourage more work life balance so employees don't get burned out.

Pros

Benefits include some free shows and ability to purchase tickets for popular events before they are available to public.

Cons

The company feels like it is in the middle of an identity crisis. The new CEO seems to dislike the company. He appears more focused on frontline then ticketmaster.

Advice to Senior Management

Decide what your goals are and stick with the plan. Sean Moriaty did an excellent job as leader, since he retired, the company pretty much blows.

Pros

Some of the employees who have been there forever love the business and love to share their knowledge. Generally, the employees are a fun and energetic group. The compensation is very competitive.

Cons

The current management has fostered an extreme boys club. Within several months most of the higher level female executives quit of their own accord or were pushed out. Women are left out of meetings and not valued. It is like working in the 1980's.

Advice to Senior Management

Recognize the talents of all employees and take seriously issues that have been brought to management's attention and ignored.

Pros

1. Lots of smart, competent, dedicated, driven and truly nice people to work with.
2. NEVER a dull moment. Live entertainment is 24/7. Change is the norm. If you want a place to clock and and clock out., look elsewhere. Ticketmaster is a lifestyle. The entertainment industry + the internet industry make working in product amazingly interesting.
3. Very flexible work schedule. Need a day off? NP. Need to work from home today? NP. Why is it flexible? Cause you work a lot of hours.
4. Super casual atmosphere.
5. Interesting mixture of newbies from a variety of industries, lots of MBAs, plus entertainment and ticketing industry vets who have been with the company some 10, 15, 20, 25+ years. A good balance of industry experience and new ideas, the synergy between the two groups works really well -- each learns from the other.

Cons

1. Like many companies in Corp America, Sr Mgt is a bit of a Boy's Club. You gotta be a smooth talker to climb up the ladder. Some folks are great schmoozers and others get the real work done.
2. I'm not sure if Sr Mgt has the vision for what TM is in the 21st Century. So much of what is done appears to be reactive without an apparent clear forward thinking strategy - buying TicketsNow and Paciolan, cost what some $500m combined? What if we spent a fraction of that revolutionizing the way the systems and distribution networks work?
3. TM doesn't have a visionary, compelling leader or message
4. Brand is not loved. When you're at a party, the LAST thing you want to tell people is that you work at Ticketmaster. And if you do you preface it with "OK don't hate me" or some similar statement. You love what you do but TM is so misunderstood that you don't want anyone to know you work there -- wear TM swag in public at your own risk. I'm sure the Google folks don't have that problem.

Advice to Senior Management

1. Putting TicketsNow links in the checkout system during an on sale? You don't think that looks fishy to consumers? I mean really, think about it. Don't fall for the fast buck at the expense of the integrity of the rest of the business. The way clients are cut out of the non-ticket revenue streams when TM takes no risk in putting the event on is close to criminal.
2. Create a new brand. Kentucky Fried Chicken became KFC. Target reinvented and distinguished itself from K-Mart. TM is now a live entertainment, marketing and distribution powerhouse that can help grow, nurture and promote talent. It isn't just about the ticket any longer, its about the experience. A new brand is needed pronto. "Live Nation Ticketmaster"? WTF is that the best you can do.
3. Concerts are cooler, but don't forget about the other half of your business. Sports, Family and Arts/Theater need to be championed too. And historically you've all but ignored them.
4. You have got to be better at listening to the worker bees. The folks who aren't VPs and Sr Directors have so much talent and ideas and while you claim to want to hear them, I've seen too many egos suppress good ideas, ignore good ideas or claim good ideas from others as their own.
5 Geezus Christ - get rid of that damned order processing fee and make emailing tickets free. You just gotta do it. Raise the convenience charge 50 cents something, anything figure it out already.

Pros

1. Challenges make for exciting work days.
2. Regular employee functions show that Ticketmaster cares.
3. Relaxed work environment.
4. Micromanagement is discouraged.
5. The people are great.
6. Offices all over the world present travel opportunities.
7. Opportunities to work/attend exciting events.
8. A job well done is recognized and rewarded.
9. Sean Moriarty appears to be closely in touch and knowledgeable about all aspects of this company.

Cons

1. **HUGE** Many products/application lack proper change control/change management. The learning curve for becoming versed on newest changes can be large and new features/updates come monthly for some products.
2. Communication between groups/offices is poor and excuses are accepted.
3. Hiring freezes / getting new positions approved. Some employees are grossly overworked and overwhelmed.
4. Some management lacks the knowledge on how to properly leverage and distribute resources.

Advice to Senior Management

1. Promote management that can identify needs/problems, create solutions and demonstrates results.
2. Cut management that makes excuses and cultivates groups with superiority complexes.
3. More support personnel nationally and client service staff on the front lines. These are the people that give customers that one-on-one interaction and personal service. Right now these groups are suffering from lost headcount and the inability to hire.

Pros

All-in-all it is a great work environment.
1. The people are are amazing. They are talented, fun and personable.
2. The projects that we are asked to do are very, very challenging. I would say that is extremely hard to get bored around here. You get to work on projects that most people outside of Ticketmaster would know of...like the Olympics.
3. The physical office is also very nice. Although it is a cubicle setting the scooters, shower, mediation room, cafe, etc really help improve the working environment.
4. I also feel like Ticketmaster values the work/life balance. I've never had any problems taking off time when personal matters came up.

Cons

1. The benefits are getting worse and worse. While part of it is the raising cost in healthcare, it does feel like the actual portion that Ticketmaster pays goes down more and more.

2. Also, we seem to get recognized locally but from a company-wide persepctive there is hardly any recognition given to those that actually do the work.

3. While it has been getting a little better, I think that the training offered to employees is a bit lacking. While there seems to be training around the business of ticketing, I'd like to see more around technology and development.

Advice to Senior Management

Most, if not all, of the drive for our product development seems to be very short-term. There seems to be very little conversation around how we will strategically develop the products to set us up for winning in the long-term.

Pros

Flexible schedule, benefits, and pay. Work is challenging...face it, we're the best at what we do and no one does it the way we do it. There is really no immature work drama. Respect is given out automatically and in general people are just nice and laid back. New office with amenities...overall, its a pleasure and i thank God for giving me such a blessing. I love ticketmaster and i continue to hope i can give it as much as its given. That being said i dont have to sacrifice the really important things in life to work there, "i work to live, not live to work". I couldnt ask for more really.

Cons

The BIGGEST downside is simple lack of documentation and training. It should be mandatory that any new employees or employees after a 90 day grace period given a rigorous and multi day training seminar on event program to real life even setups and business practices to installing and configuring all the applications we use in house (in terms of selling tickets). From that point it should be mandatory that there is technical seminar for specific technology used for your given project/team. After several years of working at ticketmaster i'm still learning what some would think basic but yet heralding information which really causes an enormous amount of time tracking down and figuring out most of the time on my own. Its huge...i cant say enough how much money and time ticketmaster would save it they would just ensure that their engineers grasped event programming and the "whys". The technical seminar we had was great...but it was too impersonal and lacked hands on in a big way. Different topic would be job safety. Traditionally ticketmaster never had this problem if you did your job and put some heart into it. With recent changes to the company and layoffs, i just dont get that feeling quite as much. Seems more like its about money and bottom line.

Advice to Senior Management

Immediately instill training for new employees and existing employees. I dont care if doing a full, mandatory event programming seminar takes a week, it needs to be done. If we're talking long run all the time, this should be the main priority as i believe it will pay dividends. Not just in project time and cost, but also in employee self worth. Sometimes one can sit in a slump wondering if it's them thats the problem that they dont know the information or dont know where to get it or the company itself.

Pros

1. Very casual and relaxed atmosphere - you can have your ipod with headphones, not a strict dress code, which in the spring, summer and fall is great when its 100+ outside.
2. Challenges - Live Entertainment ticketing does not sit still. Acts, Events and Technology are always changing. What worked yesterday may not work tomorrow. Having to think and be creative with solutions that will keep you one step ahead of competers has it's rewards.
3. Diverse and well seasoned staff - some of the emplyoees have been here since day one, and they offer great perspective on direction of the business, from where it's been to where it could be going.
4. It's live entertainment and sporting events. While you may not always get 'free' or reduced prices to shows, you have the oppertunity to take part and work or help in special events like the Super Bowl, the Pro Bowl, the NBA All Star Game, a Presidentail Innaguration.
5. It's never the same day twice - your job isn't the same thing day after day. The challenges and tasks change in an instant. It's very fast paced at times and you have to be quick on your feet.

Working at Ticketmaster is not for everyone, if you think by just working here that you should be given free tickets to everything, this isn't the place for you.

Cons

1. Poor communication with Senior Leadership - many things go on and you are left wondering some days just how things in the economy or the market impact your position and the Ivory Tower in Sunset are silent about them.
2. You let your competitor that you purchase run the place. They got purchased for a reason, now letting them run it? Their business model must not have been that great if they were loosing enough money that Ticketmaster had to purchase them.
3. Egos - Many of the Senior and Executive staff have a complex of look what I do for the company and take the credit their staff deserve more so than them.
4. Benefits - the benefit package gets worse and worse every year, costing it's workers more and more. This year one holiday was removed, granted it was a half day, but it was just taken away. Also, for as much work as people crank out around here, would giving everyone January 2 as a holiday been too much to ask for?
5. Salary - not competitve at all. Live Nation offers better salaries for the same level of work.

Advice to Senior Management

Don't let the newbies run the place. You bought Paciolan for a reason, now letting them run the place with their business model which put them into debt, not the smartest move.
Be fair to your employees. Give credit where credit is do, don't hog the spotlight with the work your group does, give someone in the group their due time in the spotlight.
Continue to be the leader in the industry, listen to what some of the newer employees have to say, fresh faces and ideas are great to hear.

Pros

Great people! Opportunities to try different career paths. Leadership mostly open to new ideas. Very flexible regarding schedules, working from home etc. Every day is different and challenging, in a good way.

Cons

Lack of employee development programs. Not as nimble as we used to be, allot more competition out there which causes concern regarding future growth opportunities.

Advice to Senior Management

Recongnize and reward! Whether you go the extra mile or coast, pay and recognition doesn't change much. offer company equity and bonus at lower levels. The salary gap from the highest to the lowest employee is pretty huge.