Virgin Media Reviews

Pros

Great brand
Great marketing engine
Good training programmes
Great network
Excellent benefits package
Client focused
Virgin ethics
Very people orientated (for a British telco)
Employee friendly HR team (you'll need it)

Cons

Middle management clique suppresses initiative
Politics based career progression
If your face doesn't fit
Business division hamstrung by Consumer
Provide (installations) utterly broken
Pay much lower than competitors
No departmental accountability outside of sales

Advice to Senior Management

Stop resorting to price cutting to remain competitive. The network advantage the company enjoyed in the five years leading up to BT EFM is gone. The company, in terms of people, is absolutely on the money - but the years of under-investment have caught up with the systems and, most importantly, the network. The move away from the old ntl model of highly bespoke big projects and management has swung too far and you've driven the company right into the market where smaller, cheaper, more flexible resellers can now play with EFM/LLU. Oh, and listen to the sales people - Provide is broken, still, and it is losing you business... a lot of business.

Pros

Great brand for the CV and the people are a lot of fun, which makes for a mostly enjoyable experience at work. The range of products keeps it interesting too.

Cons

There are far too many politics at Director level and above and this can often get in the way of actually releasing great products!

Advice to Senior Management

A mainly reactive competitor strategy is not working. Need to be more innovative and take risks!

Pros

Benefits (Sharesave is vg), the pay is decent (although commission structure changed now for the worst), good mix of personalities and characters that bond well.

Cons

No accountability from any other department other than sales. New system that needs processes to be adhered to stringently, but no two installations and changes in telecoms are ever the same, but difficult to be flexible when something goes wrong with this system. Installations are terrible, and sales are always fighting battles to get issues fixed because if a contract is cancelled then the commission is clawed back, so singlehandedly have to sell, help project manage, help install, and then make sure it actually gets billed for, which is a whole other issue. Id just advise anyone that is going for a job to be prepared to put in some hard graft, because you have to do the job of ten people.

Advice to Senior Management

Listen to what the people on the floor are saying. We arent just moaning, we make sense and have good ideas.

Pros

good work life balance and camaradarie

Cons

them and us mentality with little in the way of promotion

Advice to Senior Management

develop and promote from within

Pros

You get to wear what ever clothes you want.
You can be fairly flexible in where you work.

Cons

There is rampant cost cutting and downsizing of the workforce across the skilled and professional areas. Recruitmant in these areas has stopped. Travel is non-existant.

The current round of cuts across the company is going to impact badly on the company's ability to manage all types of risk. The concept of getting rid of your risk specialists and buying in your risk is foolhardy at best. It is already increasingly difficult for those of us in the risk field to cope with the complacent attitude to risk management by divisional heads and the GEC as it is. Why do think your employees in this area are taking their bonuses and leaving.

My advice to prospective employees is to look elsewhere as Vigin Media is going to take a big tumble when a major hazard actually occurs and damages the brand reputation. We've been lucky so far but it can't last.

Advice to Senior Management

Where are the Virgin Values and what use is all this going to be to shareholders when the company is dragged before a Court because corporate greed meant you cut corners and members of the public get hurt or worse, again? How can you manage risks when you don't know what they are? You cannot as of today even show a credible risk management programme? Wake up before it's too late.

Pros

Relaxed working environment, not too much pressure, working with new technology

Cons

seems to be lack of promotion roles at engineering level unless you want to move into management

Advice to Senior Management

Listen to your people, they are your biggest asset

Pros

Good overtime, and nice butties... and always fun talking to someone there so many people...

Cons

Being late was not an option..

Advice to Senior Management

Understand once and while if people ar late..
Apart from that I loved you alll

Pros

Good benefits, flexible work environment, rewarded based on abilities - social activities were well planned and free to all!!!

Cons

Varies by department on how good a place it is to work. No consistency. Some departments were flexible whilst others were run like being in school!

Pros

good package
easy to do nothing while getting paid

Cons

too many people do nothing
top management not very strong

Advice to Senior Management

get rid of the contractors and get some permanent employees

Pros

* Generous Commission Scheme
* Achievable Targets
* Great Benefits including private health and dental available
* Generous Holiday Entitlement

Cons

* Very little opportunity for growth (Inside Retail Lite)
* Very poor support staff often based outside the UK
* No Incentive to maintain or create good customer relationships (Retail Lite)
* Retail lite is very isolated from the rest of the company

Advice to Senior Management

Call centers for both Customers & Staff need to be moved either back to the UK or too another English first language nation, this is the easily the single biggest customer complaint about the company and gets in the way of sales.