associate manager

theatre team member

team member

server

line cook

Cinemark

I've been working as an usher for three months at the Tanforan Mall located in San Bruno, CA and thought it'd be an excellent experience for a college student, but boy was I wrong. Management treats employees without respect and expects them to be familiar with concession stands within one day of training; an example of this was during Christmas Day, I had to operate the popcorn machine for the first time and when I burnt the popcorn, an assistant manager took over and told an Hispanic employee that I didn't know what I was doing in his native tongue. The Hispanic employee than tried to console me, by telling me that I was doing a "good job"; fortunately I am educated and realize that the employee was trying to send a positive reinforcement message and I responded with a smile. Unknowingly to both employees, I understood what the manager said in Spanish, since I took a beginning conversational Spanish class last semester. Either way what the manager did was unprofessional.

Also it is hard to impress management, no matter how hard an employee works, he/she will never get recognition. I guess its because majority of the managers are Filipinos and their culture is different from the Western Culture, but they do give preferential treatment to the ones who can speak Tagalog(Filipino), I should know because I am a Filipino American yet cannot converse in Tagalog, but can understand the language. Back to my point, if you cannot speak in Tagalog they'll management(Filipino Managers) will gossip behind your back; I've experience this because when I entered the break room about ten Filipino Managers were gossiping about employees and when I had to check my schedule, one of them gave me a stern expression like I wasn't supposed to be there, as I left one of the managers giggled behind my back. One more point about the management team at this location is that if you are an unfavorable employee they'll cut your hours to six hours a week, and if that unfavorable employee is scheduled to work on the next day, he/she will be notified that their shift is cut; yet for the favorable employees they'll have an average work load of twenty hours per week.

My advice to upper management especially to the Filipino Managers who works at this location, is to treat your employees with the utmost respect, and to give constructive feedback to employees. Remember constructive feedback is a tool for employees to improve at their field. Lastly give the unfavorable employees at least ten hours a week, so that he/she may have an adequate paycheck to pay for tuition and books for school.

Typical day at work would be to: make sure everyone has their breaks, assist different positions in the theater if they need help. For example hop on a register in concession, get on a register in box office, help clean theaters with the ushers, then I go back to my duties as a manager. Almost every day,there is a customers who needs a managers assistance, it could be an employee compliment or complaint, a complaint about their movie, something happening in their movie, something that happened when buying tickets or food, I would do my best to solve their issue. Handle large amounts of cash and properly take it back to the vault. I also managed inventory. Counted thousands of items and managed the numbers of product flow every week. Answer many emails from corporate or customers. Speak with different people who have many different questions over the phone. I would also have responsibility of shutting down and properly locking up/setting alarms of the building.

I learned leadership skills, how to be a role model for my employees.
It was a great place to work because my employees were in a great mood a lot of the time. I tried my best to keep morale up because that is what I love to do most, make people happy. It really helps to keep everyone happy when things get very busy. I learned how to deal with frustrating and intense situations, for example a big fight or a very angry customer.

Hardest part of the job was seeing eye to eye with other management. Some have been there way longer than others and think themselves higher, even if we have the same job title. Also some had high levels of un-professionalism. I was there to work, not mess around and cause issues. Other than a few of the management team, everyone else was great and joy to work with.

There is no room for growth with this company. I want to work my way up ranks with my hard work and dedication to a company. If I see there is no room for growth, I feel it stops my growth as an employee. The wages were also not competitive as the same theater chain across town, much lower rate of pay and I dealt with the same, if not even higher levels of work and responsibility. Couldn't transfer over because the same theater was a great place to work and it's management team is full.

This theater however did work really well with my balance of school and outside activities throughout the years I was there. Class schedule or family vacations.

I will not be unfair and say that the whole job was overall a horrible experience when truly, it wasn’t. However, I will say that the way employees get treated sometimes is unfair.

You got decent benefits like free movies. However, this job can be very impractical. Ushers get barely and hours. My coworkers would constantly complain about this. I got no real training and had to learn a lot of things on my own. I got no job orientation. I didn’t even mind this! But I’d recommend management works on this. 


Concessions workers are the ones that got the most hours. I got paid around $9 an hour and it was my first job. However, there was a strict policy that if you can’t work EVERY SINGLE HOLIDAY including Thanksgiving, Christmas, Christmas Eve, Memorial Day,  you get fired. And they will NOT be nice about it. You’re extremely replaceable. 

I requested off for Christmas and Christmas Eve WEEKS in advance because my parents made plans to go out of state to spend the holidays with family I hadn’t seen in ages.  I’d have no way to get to and from work. I’m a smaller girl and my parents also weren’t comfortable with me getting Uber’s. (Look at statistics on how unsafe they can be) And if I stayed, I’d miss Christmas with my family. 

The head manager suspended me for a week or two JUST FOR PUTTING IN A REQUEST. She told me I was suspended in the lobby in front of coworkers and customers. She didn’t even bring me back to her office. She gave me the option right there to work Xmas or get fired. I told her I’d work Christmas because I was embarrassed! Terrible professionalism at that cinemark. 

Long story short, I’m currently with my family. I called in advance to tell her I couldn’t be there and I wanted to. And she made it clear I was going to be fired. They wanted me to work 1-9 pm Christmas Eve and Christmas. I already worked thanksgiving and missed celebrations with my family and thanksgiving eve. I tried to stay to work but I couldn’t! It wasn’t possible! No leniency whatsoever. Even for a good employee that went above and beyond to try her best for her first job! 

I was so excited for my first job but how I was treated towards the end is just really disappointing. 

Overall, benefits are decent. I liked my coworkers. I also liked some of my managers. Had no real problem with anybody. But just a warning.. don’t even apply if you want a good work/life balance because if something comes up that’s out of your control, they will replace you.

I’ll take it with a grain of salt and move on to better things.

The job—in and of itself—is fun! Both the floorstaff and assistant manager positions/departments; if the scheduling manager is flexible, you can totally find your niche (i.e. Usher, Concessions, Pizza Hut, et cetera) and mainly get shifts there. Department responsibilities are simple and easy-to-understand.

The work environment heavily depends on the assistant managers running each department day-to-day; if they don't care/are inconsistent/inaccessible/break policies and procedures, the floorstaff employees that day will suffer majorly. This leads to the other department managers that day spread too thin trying to manage multiple departments and a ton of employees. Unfortunately, there are next to no consequences for assistant managers. They frequently get away with a lot that severely impacts employees and the other assistant managers. It hurts to see the employees get treated terribly under some other managers.

It felt as though Corporate doesn't give a darn about the people actually running their theatres. They are stingy with Work Hours Earned; most of the times, we suffered immensely during opening weekends due to understaffing—so the turnover rate goes up. The Customer Satisfaction and Cleanliness scores are often low as there were very few staff to keep up with business. When they forecasted our attendance extremely low for an opening weekend, the only thing suggested as compensation was snack and cookie trays in the floor staff break room. Nothing for the management, no pay bonus, no raise, nada.

I like the job. I did my best to treat my employees fairly and consistently and put their wellbeing before profit. I looked for and implemented new ways to increase department effectiveness and ease-of-understanding, but there's only so much one AM can do. They need to majorly increase the cap on how many people and managers can be employed and the overall budgeted hours. We could be more effective and happier if so. Large buildings need more people per role per day and definitely more allowed managers because the background theatre responsibilities are a lot of work for 1 manager in 1 shift.

All in all, I'll stayed here for a bit longer and continued to put my best foot forward, but Cinemark needs to take a step back reflect on how it treats its people.

This is by far my favorite job I've ever had. I started off as a concessionist in March of this year but they are quick to cross-train people into the usher position as well, which is awesome as it gives more opportunities to pick up hours. I left for about a month due to personal issues (unrelated to Cinemark itself) and when I asked for my job back, my GM was very welcoming.

The hiring/interview process can take a little while, depending on how in need they are of more staff. When I applied, it took about a month to hear back (even with an employee referral), and then another few weeks to a month to actually start the job. The interview was fairly easy, with the standard interview question (strengths/weaknesses, experience, examples of handling customer concerns, etc.). Interview dress code was jeans and a t-shirt, although I recommend going business casual to get some bonus points.

Weekends are the busiest part of the week, of course, but management usually keeps the theatre well-staffed, so everything typically goes fairly smoothly. It isn't uncommon for management and/or other staff to help out if they aren't busy and other departments are (i.e. concessionists helping ushers if they're behind, box employees helping concession if they're super busy, etc.). Management are typically welcoming to new ideas. Overall, a great atmosphere.

There's the occasional rude employee/customer, but they're few and far between; most people are very understanding and patient, even on busy nights. We've had an issue with a manager bullying other staff (both employees and other managers), but the problem seems to have been taken care of. Otherwise, it's very easy to make friends at Cinemark, especially if you're an opener/closer as those shifts tend to be given to the people, for the most part, since most workers want to just work a normal shift.

Not a whole lot of training was given when I was initially hired, but Spotlight is an excellent resource and most employees are totally willing to answer any questions you may have or teach you things you haven't learned yet. My location is currently departmentalizing, so the amount of training provided is definitely improving.

Currently working toward an Assistant Manager position, which I'm really looking forward to. It's the kind of company that you'll want to keep working for as long as you keep a positive mindset.

I work at Cinemark usually over 40 hours per week. Here I am considered one of the most valued employees because I am very versatile; I can work the concession stand (mainly what I am assigned to do), I can work the box office, I can work behind our quick-service restaurant, and I can be an usher as well. In short, the only job in the theater that I cannot do is work the bar, for obvious reasons. 
In this job, I have learned that good customer service is always the best way to assure yourself a good day at work. Even if the customer walks up with an attitude, smiles are contagious.
The majority of the management staff here is pleasant to be around. I am one of the few employees that actually respects them sadly because I am one of the few that is not lazy and when the management does their job and gives us a task, I do not huff and puff- I do what I am told with respect and a good attitude. 
The hardest part of my job is having to be the person that everyone goes to for answers when I am busy solving my own problems. I understand that this is because, as I mentioned before, I am one of the most valued employees and have been there much longer than almost all of the others, but it gets frustrating. For example, say I am working on my own order, two #2 discount combos (which in total is four large drinks and two large popcorn, and of course the customers always want layered butter) and I have just started this order and someone at the end of the stand yells, "Hanna! I need you!" This happens constantly due to my fellow coworkers lack of knowledge of the business and lack of motivation to learn.
Hands down, the best part of my job is when a customer walks away smiling, obviously satisfied with the delivery of their order and the customer service they were given. That one very satisfied customer gets me so happy that I am smiling so big for the next customer which in turn puts them in a good mood and I then give them excellent customer service as well, etc. It is a never-ending cycle that all starts with a smile.

My job was pretty easy. I would get through lines pretty quick and it was a lot of fun. I learned communication skills, how to upsell, and how to be fast and efficient while making the customer feel good. All of my managers were awesome and I got to know them on a professional and personal level. They were also very efficient and understanding. My first general manager was absolutely amazing. Whenever it was busy he would always help where help was needed and he was very friendly and understanding. He made everyone feel good, and also was very professional and was good at his job. My second general manager was good at taking care of employees. He put a couch in the break room, he let us spin a prize wheel if we were mentioned on a survey, he put food we wanted in the vending machines, and a bunch of other things. The hardest part of the job was when it was the first Tuesday of a big movie. In box, I would have to make sure people weren't leaving single seats and kids 1+ got a ticket. I would have to get through lines as fast as possible while making sure I was making the customer feel good. I would smile until my face hurt because I was talking so much while being super sweet. In concessions on those days, there are lines that seem to have no end. It's also a lot harder to hear what the customer is saying because there is so much going on and the machines are pretty loud too. In concessions, I would have to be running around and making sure I was getting the customer everything, making sure to upsell and offer any other treats such as ice cream or candy. As soon as there was a break we would restock everything and clean as much as we could until the next rush. However, it was still fun. The most enjoyable part of my job was when it was slow. I was able to talk to other employees and just enjoy myself. Sometimes we would even watch a movie after work or hang out on a day that we weren't working, all because we were able to enjoy our time together when it was slow. I loved it.

To be fair, this review is possibly pretty location-specific, and said location is now closed so it may not really be applicable to others, but hey here goes.

The managers were for the most part pretty relaxed, we low-level employees were allowed to goof around to a reasonable degree when no movies were starting and there weren't any customers coming in (the location I worked at was not very popular, so that was pretty often).  The upper management people were not so great though. They liked to come in and change up our layout into something worse for no reason, but I usually just did things the old way anyhow and I didn't get too much grief for it.

On the other hand, when none of my friends were working the same shift as me, the boredom could become mind-numbing. There was a list of daily cleaning tasks for us to do, but you could complete all of them within the first hour of your shift if you wanted to, so if your buddies weren't there to talk to and there was nothing going on your consciousness could begin to wane. 

Luckily most of the managers did let me listen to stuff on my earbuds, which I don't think they were technically supposed to allow me to do, but it didn't matter since there wasn't anything better for me to be doing as long as I kept my eyes peeled for customers.

Speaking of customers, they can be a little obtuse as always when working a job like this. Be prepared for a lot of "do I REALLY have to do this?" when you ask them to select their seats on the little screen, but like I said stuff like that is to be expected.

A typical day at the company would involve being placed at either the box office, the food preparation area (popcorn, frozen pizza, hot dogs, drinks, etc.), or the concession registers (the latter two would often be in the same shift).  As previously mentioned there was a daily cleaning list to complete, and there was also stuff like taking the garbage out, cleaning the theatres after each showing, cleaning the bathrooms, etc. in addition to serving guests. There were night janitors to do the more intense work though. Obviously if you opened or closed you would have to set up/dismantle and clean some of the machinery and cooking implements respectively. 

I learned the MOST about guest services at this job. I definitely had more pleasant experiences than not. Guest services has always meant a lot to me, but here is where I was able to exercise everything I knew about customer service, as well as how to not take some guest's comments personally. I learned how to remain professional during the worst days and always try to make the customer happy before the left. Being a manager at the movie theater put me in a great position to be close to my employees but yet gain their respect as their superior. I wasn't their 'friend' so much as their manager. I had to draw lines where situations could have teetered the fence of what to let slide at work. During a typical day, I'd count down the safe, including all drawers inside the safe and distribute drawers to the cashiers for my shift. I would make sure my employees were on time and were in dress code. Once a rush would start, I would 'float' making sure movies started on time, concession items were stocked and maintained, the box office employees were up to speed on any last minute movie schedule changes and the overall appearance of the theater was kept up. I also did inventory, counting every cup, lid and drink to prepare for what was needed for the following week. I worked very long hours sometimes but did not mind because I loved my job. My co-workers and I were around the same age so we experienced some of the same obstacles, which made working there flow easier. I would say the challenge at the theater was my schedule. Being a manager meant that I didn't have the luxury of a flexible schedule, I had to be available if another manager couldn't come in or if we were short employees. If a new movie was expected to do well, then I'd have to be prepared to work the entire day. At the time, my oldest was 7yrs old, which meant finding a babysitter to cover the entire day. But overall, I enjoyed my time working for Cinemark.

I've learned a lot working in the kitchen for the last two years, but I'm learning things through experience rather than training. I wasn't trained on anything working here, I was just set to fend for myself. The hardest part of the job was the 7 o’clock rush and closing there was no night manager and we were forced to work long hours just to make sure everything was completed. The work culture needed desperate help when nobody was around. People weren’t trained to know what they were doing so they relied on others to do to work for them. The management would rarely help, even so much not being in the kitchen. It was very hard to get raises through Corp. You had to have a high work performance, even so, one little thing could mess that up. So I did not enjoy my time here I was constantly overlooking and fixing people‘s mistakes, training people, and doing my tasks at the same time. I was overworked and underpaid. When I would mess up they would cut my hours. I do not recommend this job to anybody. It’s not worth all the hardship that that put my body through. This kitchen is very unprofessional, and I expected more from the kitchen. The kitchen doesn’t even have an eyewash center. There were a lot of things I didn’t make sense for example, before I said something they used to leave the bacon strips out overnight as well as the bacon bits I had to go to the general manager of the building and have a conversation on why it’s not OK to have meat like that sitting out overnight. I shouldn’t have to go out of my way to let them know what is right and what is wrong. I’ve injured myself endlessly along with my colleagues and they just batted their eyes. I would not recommend anyone to work here in the kitchen, concessions, and ushering. They don’t take you seriously unless something truly bad happens and I’m sick of this.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Associate manager 1006 salaries reported	$18.82 per hour
Theatre team member 388 salaries reported	$14.16 per hour
Team member 1 salary reported	$11.00 per hour
Server 200 salaries reported	$15.00 per hour
Line cook 105 salaries reported	$16.77 per hour

Working at Cinemark: Company Overview and Reviews

Cinemark

Cinemark Ratings

Popular jobs at Cinemark

Salary Satisfaction

Job Seeker Tools

Employer Tools

Browse

Stay Connected