William Morris Reviews

Pros

- Resume Builder
- Fun work environment
- Always someone to cover you when you take a day off
- You get to see and often meet celebrities
- The agents are a cast of characters so it's never dull

Cons

- The merger shifted the corporate culture and most original WMA people have left
- The pay, like at most agencies, is lousy and there was a cut after the merger
- Long hours

Advice to Senior Management

Model the corporate culture after the orginial WMA music department. Work hard, play hard and be yourself.

Pros

At the hub of information and have immediate access to the exclusive world of the entertainment business. Great experience for those that are developing their career.

Cons

There is a lot of competition amongst peers to rise to the top. Management is not always cognizant of employee needs.

Advice to Senior Management

Take more time to see how relations between managers and assistants can be improved. Allow assistants to take up more slack in work.

Pros

Good Team work enviornment. Good People to work with.

Cons

Lots of travel invloved with the job. Can be annoying.

Advice to Senior Management

none

Pros

Excellent support staff
Competitive pay
Great perks and bonuses

Cons

Unstable working environment
Ridiculous politics run rampant
Lack of cohesive vision for the future

Advice to Senior Management

Good luck, Ari

Pros

Excellent support staff
Great history
Great clients

Cons

Incompetent management
Failing MoPic and TV depts

Advice to Senior Management

Good luck, Ari!

Pros

Above average paid time off and holidays.

Cons

Very little room for advancement. Very low pay. Favoritism displayed by upper management.

Advice to Senior Management

While I understand the necessity for an "A" type personality to thrive in this type of business, the culture that is bred is one that resembles a fraternity. It takes incredible patience, to try and and climb the corporate ladder.

Pros

There is no better place to learn the inside workings of the entertainment business. I learned a sick amount about how all kind of thinks work that I didn't understand before. They don't really teach you, you have to pick it up on your own, but it's all there if you listen and watch and read, which they encourage you to do.

The people in the New York office are great - young, smart, friendly. The New York management is understanding and supportive and very encouraging to the agent trainees. Most of the agents in New York really know their areas of the business and are willing to mentor you if you are willing to help them get their work done and don't act too needy. This is a good place to keep your mouth shut and do excellent work and you will probably be rewarded if you do.

You hear a lot about agents being yellers but this was not true for me. There were only a couple of agents like that in NY.

Having the William Morris agent training program on your resume is a huge help in getting your next job if you decide you don't want to be an agent. It got my foot in the door a lot of places that I know that was the reason why.

On a more superficial note, but important in NY with a relatively low salary, they provide a lot of food at meetings for the agent trainees. They know we have no money and this is a way they take the edge off, I guess.

And William Morris closes for 2 weeks paid vacation for everyone every Christmas. Awesome.

Cons

There is zero communication from upper management to anyone at William Morris. And since upper management is in California, this leaves Ny totally out in the cold. I got the feeling that even the agents I worked for were struggling to be recognized by their west coast bosses. So this left me feeling really insecure about my future. I don't think they think very far into the future - the attitude was more like "we'll cross that bridge when we get to it."

You don't get much feedback about how you're doing your job and they believe you should be able to figure out on your own how you are doing, which is understandable in many ways, but a lot of people struggled with that.

You only get a raise once a year, and it is not a very big one. But you can work overtime fairly easily if you can justify it.

Advice to Senior Management

They are pathetic. They blow into town a few times a year and never speak to us and when they do, they expect us to bow down to them. They don't seem like they know what is going on in NY. I don't think they have done a very good job of leading us. The NY management seems like they are trying to fill in the gap for everybody.

Pros

The connections, the experience, the relationships. learning the industry from the ground up. A GREAT place for a college grad who would like to learn the industry to start. If you are unsure where to start, consider working at an Agency. Working in the Mailroom is even a better idea. Although its pretty competitive to get a position in the mailroom and you often feel like you are doing menial tasks, it will pay off. Lawyers even start in the mailroom. Try reading "The Mailroom" and you will get a feel for how an Agency works- including personal interviews with founders and execs.

Cons

The pay and the hours were pretty harsh.

Advice to Senior Management

keep up the good work!

Pros

You have opportunities to network within the Hollywood System. You quickly learn about upcoming entertainment projects and studio plans. You also learn the names of important studio executives, producers, directors, actors, etc. You also get to meet many celebrities and other clients. It's a good place to learn about marketing people. There are also a number of other young people that you quickly become friends with and form last relationships with.

Cons

There are long hours and terrible pay. Your training as an agent trainee is in becoming an excellent assistant, not in becoming an agent or producer. You learn about scheduling meetings, calls and sending out promotional materials. Your opinion and input is never requested in dealing with clients if you are not an agent. Reading script and other things that may advance your career are you own personal prerogative, not a requirement in your training. You are rarely involved in client or pitch meetings and never really learn about the context of your bosses business, only about setting his or her meetings.
If you do assist your boss in any projects and help him generate significant revenue, you will not get a share of the rewards.

Advice to Senior Management

Treat every employee in a manner in which they can advance and pay them in accordance with market rates.

Pros

The name brand cache that goes with William Morris is definitely something that travels with you in or outside the industry. Doesn't matter what else you have on your resume...if they see William Morris that gives you instant credibility. Other agencies like CAA or Endeavor may claim to be sexier agencies, but WMA is still the class-act. Beyond name cache, there's also the fact that its a great starting off point in the entertainment industry. You can go anywhere within the industry with the relationships and aforementioned credibility which WMA gives you. The other great thing about the company is that there are tons of young people. Your work as an assistant can be grueling but you always have tons of people who are going through it with you. A great experience when you're young.

Cons

The pay, the hours, the long road to promotion. If you come in as a trainee, you can expect to be worked hard and long with very little feedback on your performance. It's not a traditional model where people tell you what a good job you're doing. Usually you only hear feedback when you've messed something up which can wear on those who need that constant communication. Agents and execs are too busy to give it. Not surprisingly, this lack of communication from higher ups also translates to bigger things like promotions. There are certain desks at the company which, if you work them, will improve your chances of promotion but there are really no hard and fast rules on how you make it. If you're there longer than two-three years and no higher-ups have tapped you on the shoulder or taken you under their wing, you should start thinking about leveraging your relationships at WMA to get a job somewhere else in the industry. As entertainment is an industry built on relationships, you'll find that agency to be quite helpful in assisting you in your search. They know that wherever you land, you may cross paths with the agency again. As such, they usually have a vested interest in seeing that you land somewhere good.

Advice to Senior Management

I'd encourage senior management to take a more proactive approach to retaining their most promising young agent trainees. Trainees are sold on the idea that they're the future of the agency but then when you get there you're treated like another face in the crowd. For the ivy league grads, business school grads, and law school grads who make up the trainee ranks, there is a definite sense at times that you've been sold a false book of goods. Here are people who have the intelligence and know-how to think big and be very entrepreneurial and they're willingly submitting themselves to pretty mindless jobs. Management should give those with promise a better sense of how they're doing and where they stand. While execs do organize some interesting events for trainees, there's just not enough direct contact and feedback from the execs who hold the strings on promotions. While the whole "sink-or-swim" mentality can help separate the promising from the uninspired, even the promising talent who likes the business can become disenchanted when there is seemingly no light at the end of the tunnel.