Walmart.com Reviews

Pros

pay for performance, easy work!, phones sell themselves, great benefits even for part-time,

Cons

little to no promotion opportunities, customers can be stressful as with any retail job, customers can be stressful as with any retail job

Advice to Senior Management

Great leaders, great benefits even for part-time

Pros

10% discount on everything at walmart

Cons

No proper recognition of work

Advice to Senior Management

Have a proper vision befor eyou get your work horses on track. Because once those horses start running towards the end line, its hard for them to chnage the direction.

Pros

I'm having a hard time thinking of any pros that would make working there worthwhile to anyone. However, there are a lot of really great people that work there (at the individual contributor level).

Cons

It's a horrible, horrible place to work. There is no respect for the individual and employees are as dispensable as Kleenex. It was a miserable experience.

Advice to Senior Management

Listen to the people who are doing the day-to-day work of making the website run. Include them in the process for making major changes that impact their work and ultimately their happiness at work.

Pros

Really smart, energetic, driven people to work with
Employees generally willing to help each other out

Cons

Strong shift towards focus on sales over employee satisfaction
Long hours, ever increasing work demands

Advice to Senior Management

Go back to the roots of what made Walmart.com a great place to work. Brisbane is not BV.

Pros

Positive culture, Growing company, Great benefits

Cons

Multi Channel alignment with stores in Bentonville, AR

Advice to Senior Management

Sr. management direction changes frequently.

Pros

One year of experience at Walmart.com or "Walmart Global eCommerce" as part of it is now known, post-reorg, is equivalent to at least 3 years anywhere else. They variety and types of projects you will work on, and their real world impact (in terms of the numbers of customers and revenue) pales in comparison to most places.

Getting even small or moderate size products to launch is a feat that involves a perilous tip-toe around politics and knowing what battles to fight and with whom. After being put through the ringer here, you will be well-prepared for many other challenges in your future career. If you choose to stay, there is opportunity to move up the ladder but ONLY if you play the political game. This game is what gets you promoted, not your competency or knowledge.

The best part about Walmart.com is the people you work with. Like boot camp or fellow soldiers having gone through a war, you develop long lasting friendships with some. Several co-workers start feel like an extended family.

Cons

There is very little true product ownership; many times projects and even features can be dictated by upper management. It is also common for upper management to change strategy 180 degrees and cause swirl and undermine the creative process. Burnout is common and sometimes the best employees, who are still in high demand even in the downturn, are the first to get frustrated and head for the exists. The irony is that more would get done in the end if the executive team would stop trying to push, push, push and simply give more decision making and accountability to those who execute and define the products. There has been talk of this changing for years, however it has not yet happened yet.

There is also a percentage of persons at the company that simply play the political game or even go so far as to move up the ladder by blazing a trail of destruction behind them. This pattern tends to be common with early to mid-career top-20 MBA school grads in the mid to senior management area that have been hired by those of the same profile. Some of the employees that actually add true value to the organization are the ones who are the least appreciated.

There is also a continuous mode of crisis and the need to get things done NOW (due to the lack of focus and constant change in direction). This is setting the stage for turnover and burnout, and also keeps individuals from having the time for things such as industry research, professional development, and even trying to identify and solve problems creatively. This is one of the biggest shames because there is percentage of very talented and smart people that would add value to the company (and ultimately save customers money in line with the organizations mission) if they were just allowed some breathing room.

Advice to Senior Management

A radical cultural transformation is needed within the e-commerce team in Brisbane. This used to be the rockstar team when the Bentonville HQ bought the tiny Homewarehouse.com in the dot-com crash. To get this back, we need benefits that compete with other Bay Area internet companies (not retailers) and to bring in outside senior and mid-level leadership from "fun" silicon valley companies that know how to get the best out of smart people. To do this you must cut the leash and give them a budget and full authority over benefits, policies, and structure separate from the Arkansas home office. This will in the end benefit the company and the customer more than the current path.

Pros

work with smart people from top business schools
exposure to campaigns that reach massive audience
job security is strong unless you are an idiot
loyalty
access to resources
location - Bay Area

Cons

slow growth within company
poor benefits
unhappy employees
office politics
lack of creativity
reputation of company
Bentonville
MBA Manager's ego's
long hours

Advice to Senior Management

employees have a tough time outside of the office dealing with company reputation...help them out by rebranding the company positively

Pros

Bay Area job security. Ability to work in the high growth retail e-commerce space.

Cons

Rigid senior management. Closed structure based on layers of reporting and information dissemination. Low pay compared to similar positions in the industry and the Bay Area.

Advice to Senior Management

Remove bureaucratic reporting structure. Promote development and recognition of true skills of employees. Encourage Managers to openly recognize the contribution of an employee in all forums.

Pros

Interesting cross-channel challenges to tackle
Smart people
Amazing leverage (size, scale of Walmart Stores)
Wonderful people

Cons

Integration challenges can get tiring
Trips to Arkansas can get tiring
The company is now very large and with that size some of the nimbleness of the earlier years have necessarily gone away

Advice to Senior Management

NA

Pros

interesting work
great place to learn
multi-channel environment
unbelievable volume and size of projects both online and with corporate integration

Cons

process and integration issues with Corporate and online team
online has lost the .com attitude and spirit due to increase in size
too many competing priorities and lack of clear direction or support

Advice to Senior Management

hard work and performance aren't enough to get ahead - must be good at playing the game