How many art directors does it take to change a lightbulb? - Design Paramount Employee Review

3.0
Feb 14, 2020
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

The benefits are good and the pay is not terrible. There are a lot of fun and interesting people to work with and the projects I worked on were enjoyable. The work hours weren't bad either. When you leave after a few years, (which I recommend,) having the Viacom brands on your resume will impress future employers. If you're newer to the industry, it's a great place to learn and gain experience.

Cons

There are soooo many incompetent art directors and vice presidents with fancy titles that don't mean anything useful. My team's general policy for dealing with incompetent directors was to add more layers of incompetent directors to do the original incompetent directors' jobs for them while they took long lunches, left early, and scheduled meetings about meetings in which they complained that there are too many meetings and we should set up another meeting to discuss how we can reduce meetings by adding another director. If you felt my usage of the words meeting and director was redundant: good, you've had the Viacom experience. I will leave the finer details of my bosses' shenanigans out of this review, but add that such stories have received the frequent response from friends and family, "How have they not been fired?" The answer: firing someone requires effort. Giving someone a raise also requires effort, so don't expect one. The incompetent directors are also thick as thieves, so if you question any of them, they will defend their dysfunctional hierarchy and outcast you from their high school-style clique, usually by gaslighting you. Don't feel too bad when this happens though, just take it as a sign it's time to take your talents elsewhere.

Explore other reviews about Paramount

5.0
Mar 10, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Great company culture, kind people, good pay for interns.

Cons

I honestly had no notes, I really enjoyed my time at this company.

2.0
Jun 11, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

- Benefits - At the Digital Specialist, Account Manager, and Account Executive level the people are mostly incredible to work with internally - Most AEs are able to have their own offices, which helps significantly to drown out the noise of senior management

Cons

- CEO / Culture post Skydance merger: I never thought I would ever be in a position where I would want to leave a company because of the people. But that is starting to become the case. ELT/SLT does not care about the culture, hard workers, or rewarding loyalty. They will treat you like a number because the only thing anyone cares about (and its so apparent more than ever) is the bottom line. - Compensation and values - working for Viacom and CBS / ViacomCBS / Paramount before Skydance actually felt like it meant something. Now, no one knows if we're even valued and more often than not we're made to feel like every day of our lives here we have to prove our value over and over again. You never genuinely feel safe or comfortable here because there's going to be layoffs every 6 months. Other tech companies will give better compensation - Paramount needs to up their game if they don't want to continue losing their best talent. - You're literally just a number here. The company does not reward hard work or loyalty so it's best to just watch your own back because no one will have it here. They have let go of the best leaders that I've ever come across and have kept toxic egos only because they know how to play the toxic game that working here has become

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