XM Satellite Radio Holdings Reviews

Pros

Great people, fun work environment

Cons

Too many people micro managing

Pros

Casual atmosphere, open door-policy with management, ability to work from home, convenienet to metro, shuttle buses provided to and from train station, in-house concerts, free subscription to satellite radio; room for nursing moms

Cons

Merge caused lack of company morale, budget contraints and insecurity regarding job stability; lack of communication surrounding merger lead to lack of trust in management

Advice to Senior Management

Be open with employees on upcoming changes. That will prevent feelings of dissapointment and disbelief when changes take place. We often felt like we heard everything from outside sources before we did from our own company.

Pros

Cool product and work location.

Cons

Management doesn't get it and needs to focus.

Advice to Senior Management

Focus .. Focus .. Focus ..

Pros

Dynamic environment. Programming team was great, especially music programming

Cons

Senior leadership didnt listen to top strategic partners. Very arrogant

Advice to Senior Management

Sit and talk with strategic partners (retail, OEM, distributors) and ask for help in becoming relevant again

Pros

Flashy Brand (at least it was), Great for resume, generated interest needed to get in the door to other employers, good cross between tech/manufacturing, retail, and media.

Cons

Company was split between products vs. media content, and could never make up its mind. Result- little synergies. Also had no structure for developing bench, proper resource allocation for projects, and no pervasive mgmt ethos. Messy financials=empty promises. Unless you can use it for your resume in a media/marketing field- have an exit strategy upon entering.

Advice to Senior Management

Mgmt- all ideas, no execution. If it's still the same- Nate- that is a big ship to turn around.

Pros

Good company in the beginning. Exciting new technology and growing future.

Cons

Short-sighted management who made decisions based more on "gut feelings" and personal competitiveness with Sirius Management.

Advice to Senior Management

Sirius should unload as many of the "strategic" thinkers that they acquired from XM, or else Sirius will also fall. Clearly, all they managed to do, was make XM ripe for Sirius to acquire.

Pros

Although this company was recently merged into Sirius Satellite Radio, this was a fantastic place to work. I always felt supported by senior management and was encouraged to learn, grow and try new ideas and launch new projects. It was a supportive, creative, but sometimes tough environment to work in. We got lots of feedback and the review process was actually something that managers took seriously. Senior management was accessible and definitely practiced a "open door" policy at all times. All in all, I have to say that I really loved working at XM Satellite Radio. It's too bad that it was merged into Sirius.

Cons

Long hours and some behind the scenes sniping. When we were launching new projects -- like anywhere else, I'm sure -- we could have incredible stressful evenings of putting projects together. These were often disorganized, but some liked to use the words "controlled chaos" to describe it. As the company's business prospects soured during the past few years, and a lot of new managers were brought in from the outside, the attitude of the place definitely went south. There were some key hires, I believe, that were mishires in programming. But the big mistakes were made in the financial management of this company, which is why it was puchased by Sirius Satellite Radio.

Advice to Senior Management

I cut my journalism teeth here, and miss it a lot. I wish you guys didn't mess it up!

Pros

XM is a place where you can be exposed to lots of things. Marketing, Creative, and of course music. Depending on your position there are ample opportunities to travel. Also to go to concerts. Even if you are stuck in your desk most of the time, so many artists come through the building studio you have a good chance of seeing a really big artist in a really small venue. Also the benefits package is pretty good. Not google good, but few packs are. The building itself is also pretty amazing. All I have to say is X M Radio.

Cons

Working here, like many places these days you are going to be overworked and underpaid. Plus now is especially bad with the merger nearly complete there is a good chance many positions will be cut. Also the management team is not the most competent in the world. Almost all the people who founded the company have moved on to other positions. This does not bode well for the company. As the company has grown they have seemed to take a bit more into consideration employee morale, doing such things as employee recognition programs (at least they did a year ago). However overall I found the morale to be quite low and the recongition programs didn't do much to boost morale.

Advice to Senior Management

Respect your employees more, especially in hard times