Trader Corporation Reviews

Pros

Vacation time, the people that you work with.

Cons

Silo'd information, very little communication between departments.

Advice to Senior Management

More communication, especially with the front line managers.

Pros

Pays well, allows you to have free time as long as sales are good, good vacation time, easy to sell brand name product.

Cons

Management is not savvy or forward thinking, too many third party products that cause technical glitches in the software and drive prices up to expensive status, not too many internal promotions.

Advice to Senior Management

Create products from within the company instead of using third-party products, promote from within, offer affordable entry-level products, stop acting like a monopoly.

Pros

The immediate manager is excellent and considerate

Cons

The Senior Management doesn't adjust salary or bonus based on outstanding job performance.

Advice to Senior Management

Treasure and attentive to talented people and people who give constructive advice.

Pros

Fun teams to work in

Cons

Very poor upper management
Negative attitude from direct supervisors and managers
No team building activities to help grow closness in teams and bonding with other groups.

Advice to Senior Management

Change at any level can be a good thing. Having mangers who have been under a role for 10+ does not mean they're always the best fit.

Pros

Average Salary
Close to home at the time
No stairs to climb!
Some of the people were nice to work with

Cons

YPG buyout was a joke. Upper management would parade around and try to figure out how to manage a weekly publication when they have only worked with publishing an annual publication. They did not ask the people who do the work the hard questions like...how do you do your job and what impact does it have on the weekly publication???

Management was distant...no involement was ever required again by employees.

Advice to Senior Management

Listen to your employees!! Get some competent management in place and figure out how things work when you buy out a company BEFORE messing with it.

Pros

Trader is a good place to start as a graphic designer. It is useful in getting that ever-so-important 7-11 months experiance. And the benifits aren't bad.

Cons

There is virtually no vertical movement of positions. You're basicly stuck where you're hired at. Management has no problem slapping long-time employees in the face by promoting a new hire who knows nothing but how to ass-kiss. Raises are few and far between and require years of union negotiations. New hires tend to get paid better than people who have been there for a long time. Obviously they don't appreciate their long-term staff all that much.

Advice to Senior Management

Pay attention to your long-term employees. Give them chances for advancement and raises. Don't be so cheap with your company and stop downsizing just to save a buck. The stress of wondering if your job is going to be cut makes for a lousy work-environement.

Pros

-Money - The money is ok...Consultants get paid in the mid-range, which is good in this industry.

-Product - The AutoTrader product is pretty good in comparison to everything else on the market. The other products have good potential if the right decisions are made.

-Brand - Even though your friends might not know "Trader Corporation", most people know the the flagship product as a brand on it's own (ie the AutoTrader Brand)

- People - The people who seem to be in the mid-management to lower range, seem to be pretty good.

- Location - Although the lunch options aren't the best, it's really easy to get to travel to by car. The airport is close, and it's just off the 427, north of the city. Anyone who lives close to the 407 will find it really quick.

Cons

- Product/Industry - The product/industry is in turmoil. The AutoTrader product is strong, but under threat. The other product lines are very weak. Print classifieds as a whole is dropping, and newspapers are also feeling declines in classifieds revenues of upto 40% year over year.

-Decision Making - There is a total lack of decision making capability at Trader. It seems as though decisions require 100% concensus, which is nearly impossible.

-Short Sighted - Most decision making is for short-term gains and performance, rather than long-term value. I would say this is likely because management KPIs are focused short-term, and that management seems stumped on where to take the business.

-No strategic direction

-No leadership

Advice to Senior Management

-Fix the org chart
-Choose a strategic direction
-Communicate the direction (company-wide)
-Focus and deliver...ignore the noise