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Rakuten Advertising

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Rakuten Advertising reviews

3.9

75% would recommend to a friend

(220 total reviews)
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Nick Stamos

75% approve of CEO

46% positive business outlook

Rakuten Advertising has an employee rating of 3.9 out of 5 stars, based on 220 company reviews on Glassdoor which indicates that most employees have a good working experience there. The Rakuten Advertising employee rating is in line with the average (within 1 standard deviation) for employers within the Media and communication industry (3.7 stars).

Reviews by job title

220 reviews
1.0
Jan 9, 2021
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

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 - As soon as you start the training videos are mind-numbingly boring and so outdated that the system they use doesn’t even come close to correlating with it.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.

1.0
Jun 4, 2017

"immature and unethical leadership"

Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Middle management is friendly and witty

Cons

top management is old and inexperienced, give hints of snobbishness and arrogance, don't make an effort to listen and learn. Jingoistic culture is encouraged, one of rallying around the CEO. “we have a unique culture” – you will hear this till your ears bleed. Doesn’t every company have a unique culture? They like to think of themselves as different from Rakuten (parent company) and make fun of them but not really. Distributing Badges with CEO's picture (embarassing), diaries with his picture sent to Ukraine. Rakuten does the same. People who are close to CEO and sing his praises get promoted. Praises compensate for incompetence. Rakuten has a similar top down culture. 2 women in leadership of about 8-10, less than 10% of the company reports to them and they speak less than 5% of the time in meetings. Slice boasts of meritocracy, take one look at the CFO and that theory goes out of the window. up until 2016 back they did not know how many people worked at Slice and what each of their compensation was. No points for guessing, G&A reports to the CFO. I have never met another CFO who is so challenged on both Finance and management. There is a very high emphasis on “fitting” into the culture. I found different teams to have different cultures. Most of management don't see any fault in themselves or in their business model or their product or their company culture. I found most employees to be quite green, this being their first job or no big company experience. Seems like kids high on candy. The company is mostly run between the Stanford alums, everyone else is there to support them. They are high on the free money they get from Rakuten and have no qualms in making fun of Rakuten in return. CEO cannot handle difference of opinion and it does not take long to figure that. CFO lack basic ethics and CFO skills. My current CFO is a superstar and can put together more sophisticated models than the entire team put together. I have learned more in 2 days here than in several months at Slice. I did make friends and found the middle management to be smart and witty. Everyone in the company is well aware of the individual who yells at people, in front of the CEO, CFO and rest of the leadership team. And yet the CEO calls it a respectful environment. If top management yelling at subs is respectful, then yes, it is very respectful. I have worked at other places and my current workplace is “actually” respectful. Another favorite is the good cop-bad cop game. It takes a few times to make sense of it. One of the CEOs buddies will play the bad cop. The CEO will sweep in, say he had no idea and start the good cop part. You only need to disagree about something for the shame game to begin. You will be belittled and told how insignificant and replaceable you are. If you express your opinion, CEO says your opinion is not worthy of a response, who asked for a response?!. Will try to control what you say while you worked there and even when you don't work there .. geez No sense of boundary. you manager will take the liberty to text you any time of the day, any day of the week. I worked very closely in the G&A function, with the CFO and sat in executive meetings. My experience was quite forgettable. Even though the CFO wanted me to continue I chose to move on. I am now at a pre-IPO company with a wonderful team. If culture is not a very important criteria or you are still in an entry level position, or looking for a stop before your next move, this might be the company for you. When I took this position, I had more than a couple of offers and chose this one. In hindsight, I could have benefited from a realistic review. Accepting a position is an important career decision. Reviews are just to share the experience so candidates can make an informed decision. Goodluck.

1.0
Jul 13, 2019

Worst company I've worked at

Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Health benefits, free lunches, gym, unlimited PTO, some really smart, great people

Cons

The list is endless...First, the lack of leadership. Upper management was never there as they were trying to find a way to exit. Middle management was horrendous and incompetent. They didn't know how to manage nor display any real leadership capabilities. They had no direction and little to no idea of what they were doing. Communication was nonexistent throughout the company and there was three different cultures. Each group was insulated, distinct and operated independently. There was not much team cohesion. So, depending on which group you were part of, you could have a very different experience. Slice emphasizes its great culture. Well, now that it's been acquired and most of the people that made that culture "great" left, there isn't much culture. What's left is the leftovers and the stains that couldn't be washed away (and I am only speaking about the managers/leadership). Bottom line - don't work here!

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Glassdoor has 258 Rakuten Advertising reviews submitted anonymously by Rakuten Advertising employees. Read employee reviews and ratings on Glassdoor to decide if Rakuten Advertising is right for you.