Pros
Working here for a year looks good on your CV and will lead you to much better, higher-paying opportunities. Are you willing to spend a year of hell to do this though?
Cons
I'm shocked by the amount of fake reviews... let me save you from joining a toxic company. Tips * Do not be fooled by the name change, “Rakuten Advertising” has NOTHING to do with an advertising role. They most definitely changed the name of the company from Rakuten Marketing because of the bad reputation it has. **Look at the reviews from "Rakuten Marketing" and you'll understand why they changed their name * The awards they win means nothing and has zero to do with how “well” the company is run or how “talented” the senior staff are. - As soon as you start the training videos are mind-numbingly boring and so outdated that the system they use doesn’t even come close to correlating with it. The videos are pointless and you learn nothing wasting 1 week of your time doing this. There is no additional training beyond this. - Very toxic work culture. The majority of people are young and it’s a very cliquey high school atmosphere. People talk behind everyone’s back and it’ll chip away at your self-confidence as you go into work every day. - A lot of two-faced people in the company- You’ll never be confronted for a mistake you make, instead, they’ll go behind your back and tell your line manager. Your line manager will not hear you out first, they'll point the blame at you and tell you to do better without any constructive advice. - As an account manager, you’ll have on average 8-11 clients, even if you tell your line manager it’s too much work, due to the high turnover you’ll be loaded on with even more clients even when you already work from 8 am to 8 pm every day. - You don’t get any overtime pay or any time back. Flexi hours is a joke and should be taken off from the CV, that’s their loophole to get you to work more. - The only quiet period is August, the rest of the year is manic, you’re overworked, will do 12 hour days, and still get complained at for missing one of the literal one thousand emails that get sent into your inbox every day. So many pointless meetings, you have hour-long meetings - 3 x a week baring in mind you don’t have enough time in the day to do your own work. - If you have 10 clients, that’s one 45 minute call with your client per week. 45 minutes x 10= 450 minutes (7.5 hours). You also have quarterly reviews with each client and a tonne of admin work. - The work is not fulfilling, take a deep think before you considering joining an affiliate career, it’s mostly mind-numbing admin work, with calls and presentations. A lot of your workload would be lessened if they automated the admin side. - It’s common not to pass your 3-month probation, everyone’s too busy with their suffocating workload to help you with anything you’re stuck on. I’ve seen colleagues' loved ones dying during their probation and the company not being understanding of the situation and still laying people off. Anyone who does not pass their probation, the managers send that person home that day, hold a meeting after with the team, and says “ x will not be working here anymore if you have any questions come and ask us” - If you’re in your probation and you realise it’s not for you, the management will hold another meeting, embarrass you in front of everyone and say “they have decided not to work with Rakuten, can you tell us why?” I’ve seen it happen to other people and it’s such a toxic way of doing things. - Nepotism is the core culture of this awful company - They pride themselves on being transparent, they’re anything but. You’ll be forced to move to a different role you didn’t agree to. They don’t ask you, you’re told. CEO’s leave and you’re not told why and to mind your own business. There have also been sexual harassment cases that are swept under the rug. - You have to deal with mean clients (unless you’re very lucky), annoyed publishers, and unskilled managers. It’s the most stressful job I have ever had in my life….by far. - A pay rise is non-existent here, if you ask for a slightly higher increase, management will call you money hungry. They either promote you or don’t. - You’ll be expected to work the next role up for a good 6 months before they even consider promoting you- all with no additional pay of course. - Very high turn over, 20-25 people left when I worked there for a year (all these were from client-facing roles). They have such a high turnover that they probably won’t even know which ones of their many, unhappy account managers left this review. - DO NOT TRUST the fake reviews- everyone is miserable and is ready to throw anyone under the bus just to get promoted or to remain in the good side with the management. - If you ask about the bad glass door reviews in your interview, they’ll just tell you what they told me which is “We’re taking measurements to sort this all out” then you waste a year and realize you should have trusted your gut instinct and never joined the company.