Ticketmaster Reviews in Phoenix, AZ Area

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

Good benefits.
Extra perks like free tickets, meals, etc.
Reasonable schedule and support for work-life issues.
Telecommuting supported.
Dress code casual.
Can learn lots of technical stuff (as long as you don't need documents)

Cons

Horrible politics and people talking behind your back.
Senior management not competent and does not support or trust other 1st level managers.
The people that like working there are not managers.
Limited written requirements and technical documentation.
Lots of people are just there for the money and title, but are incompetent.

Advice to Senior Management

Need management overhaul. Bring in experienced 1st level managers from other companies and trust and support them. Let them clean house of the technical folks that should not be there.
The different offices CA and AZ don't really know how to work together.

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.

Pros

Flexible Work Schedule
Good People
Great Opportunities
Fun Employee Activities
Relaxed Atmosphere / Corporate Culture
Good Vacation Benefits, though it can be hard to find time to use them

Cons

There is a lot of paperwork that helps upper management do their job, but disrupts the workflow of those below them.
There can be extremely long working hours.
Workers rarely receive any meaningful recognition, and it is hard to be sure how good of a job you are doing.
The general consensus is that nearly every worker makes less than they would doing the same job for a different company.
Roles, procedures, and responsibilities are not clearly defined.

Advice to Senior Management

Standardize training. Make sure every positions job responsibilities are clearly defined. Be willing to pay those that earn it more so that you can keep them.

Pros

The company has very challenging and interesting technical problems. There are lots of really good people who are fun to work with. Being part of live entertainment is a lot of fun, and depending on your role you sometimes get a chance to help out with big events. If you are part of the technical part of the business, many many consumers will use your work on a daily basis.

Cons

The pressure can be very high. Everything has to work perfectly and when there is a problem the impact can be huge. Ticketmaster is busiest during the weekends and sometimes it is difficult to plan around this fact. A lot of people misunderstand what Ticketmaster does. They blame you for things that are out of your control and don't give you credit for doing a good job.

Advice to Senior Management

Work on consistency across the organization

Pros

In no particular order:
- Every day is a learning opportunity
- Flexible schedules
- Good people
- Love of the industry
- Possibilities!

Cons

- Knowledge of the ticketing industry comes across as being a negative - there should not be a single person at this company who can not sell a ticket.
- Little or no chance of promotion as a woman
- Too many middle managers who do not have the experience to manage teams - don't know how to motivate or reward
- 'Thanks good job' is a phase too frequently/almost never heard
- Too much change for the sake of change
- No open discussion on the course of business
- Huge gap between senior management and local managment's communication of initiatives
- Little or no training of new processes/procedures

Advice to Senior Management

If you want a company thats innovative and creative, go out and actually talk to the employees who do the work. Create an environment that encourages honest feedback. Stop hampering workers with process and micro-managment.

Pros

Nice benefits packages, good balance between work and home life even at management levels. Very nice new office in Scottsdale.

The people I work with are great.

Cons

Over the years product/systems have been broken up and dedicated teams have been created - QA, Network Systems, Product Management etc. There is now so much bureaucracy between these teams and power struggles that nothing gets done.

If you don't work in West Hollywood or suck up to management forget about promotion.

Advice to Senior Management

Since being spun-off from IAC the mood has definitely changed. Letting go of Live Nation and SMG leaving to join Live Nation is not looking good for us. There seems to be no clear strategy other that we are a ticketing company.

We need people thinking out of the box. How can we use our skills and technology to take Ticketmaster beyond the turnstile and into the Arena, Stadium etc. Remember every butt in the seat means additional opportunity to sell concessions and merchandise. How can we create loyalty for our Clients.

It is now more that just selling the ticket.