systems administrator

business analyst

Hearst Networks EMEA

A&E is a very large cable TV network conglomeration.  The job I had there could be fun or stressful based on the amount of work to be done and the people you worked for.  For the most part it was creative and collaborative, other times it was territorial and crazy.  

A typical day for me was supporting the legal team that brokered multi-million dollar deals with cable providers and created the contracts for those deals.  I managed the physical and electronic housing of those contracts, and helped make the work lives of my team run smoothly by processing expenses, making travel arrangements, setting meetings, drafting correspondence, and getting invoices paid.  My team worked with the companies that provided cable programming to their viewers.  This area of the business brought in half the revenue for the network.  It was a very important part of the television delivery system.  

I had great co-workers!  Many of them became my close friends and we had a tight-knit, supportive workplace because of the relationships built within the company.  The hardest part of the job was managing the different personalities and management styles that can be found when working in a creative team environment.  The most enjoyable part of the job was the close working relationships I had with my team and other people in the company.  I learned a tremendous amount about the cable industry as a whole, in addition to the specific legal, sales and marketing aspects of the business and how the business side of television works.  

All in all it was a great work experience and I learned a lot.  I will always be grateful to A&E Networks for the opportunitites and knowledge that I gained there.

A typical day at A+E Networks, especially in the Technology department was extremely stressful, toxic, and hostile. Unfortunately, there is zero level of trust and respect between teams and management. 

The management supports extremely hostile people,and believes in stepping on hard working people in order to succeed and promote others that only share the same unprofessional values and lack ethics. 

There is no sense of unity or pride among the teams and the company motto is win as a team but fail as an individual. 

Projects rarely find support from leadership, and funding often gets cut from projects. It seems that only aggressive people who will sabotage and entire team and project get hired and promoted. 

There is very little satisfaction and pride in the jobs of employees here throughout the company. It seems employee morale is very low.

In the last 20 years of my working career, I have never experienced a company that thrives off disrespectful conduct and stepping on good employees. The turn over rate at this company is the highest I've seen in the industry.

Nice place.

It is def. a Merit sometimes losing out to "who you know" as bosses will pick favorites (sometimes over merit) and minimal feedback for career advancement as there is much reorging happening and it seems to make management tense and non staffers disposable.

A typical day here is trying to navigate the layers of bureaucratic nonsense, do the few things you need to do to get your job done while keeping your head down to avoid getting hit with the drama of people's egos.

I have worked here for a long time, through several departments and managers and I am noticing a very disheartening trend.  This company used to reward loyalty and instead actively encourage people to seek experience and pay increases elsewhere.  Bottom line, if you're looking to move forward your career don't work here.  They consider this a job and expect you to treat it the same.  You are a number to them and nothing more.  

So between the petty drama and the corporate culture, the most enjoyable part of the day is 5 pm.  Which is an awfully sad thing to write.  I used to love working here.

Medium sized cable outlet that is collaborative and a very cool place to work. Most of the folks are supportive and make for great colleagues. Network is very departmentalized and tends to lack uniformity in processes. There's a million different ways to "get things done" with different steps that vary from team to team, manager to manager. Onboarding can also be a bear as their is no succinct orientation for new employees beyond the standard HR basics. The greatest amount of frustration will come with growth in role opportunities and knowing clearly how to get ahead. There is no clear path, no review process, and a ton of people sitting at the top. Not grooming talent and promoting up. This - combined with lack of inclusion, diversity in voices and senior management team - will continue to erode the cable network.

I enjoy fixing the washers and dryers that people rely on in their lives. The look on their faces when you get it, makes it all worthwhile. I always enjoy working with my hands doing something productive. Unfortunately I got laid off and have been waiting to be called back for the last 3 months, so to that end I am looking for a new situation at this time. 

One last thing I would say about the job, the hardest thing is when you don't have a part to fix the machine and are forced to order it, you just see the disappointment in the customers eyes. It is just a major let down all around. The only way to counter it is to get the part ASAP, so they can resume their normal routine.

During my tenure of over six years at the organization, I did not encounter opportunities for career progression. It appeared that advancement was predominantly accessible to individuals with direct affiliations to senior leadership or those who exhibited excessive deference to their superiors. Furthermore, although there was ostensibly an encouragement for open expression of diverse viewpoints and constructive critiques within the department, it was evident that certain higher-ups engaged in information withholding and covert actions for their own safeguarding. The resulting atmosphere was markedly deleterious, rendering it an unsuitable establishment for establishing enduring professional roots.

Pros
The people that work for A+E Networks are dedicated, hardworking and creative. They are not just there for a job but really want their networks succeed. Management also rewards creativity and taking chances, even if they do not lead to a win. It is a great environment for risk takers.

Cons
Management also takes a lot of chances and thus the organization is constantly changing. Staff at all levels are moved around, branding shifts as needed and you are likely to change offices about once a year. Also, due to the industry struggles, there is lot of competition between networks within the company and programming and other resources are sometimes fiercely fought over.

Like many other cable networks, A+E has been faced with the challenges of the changing media landscape brought on by Netflix, Hulu, Amazon and other streaming platforms. My first few years there were great in that I was given a lot of responsibilities that served a purpose. There were a lot of perks including travel. It was a creative space. With the change in market came internal changes and hyper reactive decisions from management. It became uncomfortable. The work shifted from being innovative to being consumed with managing decline.

During the new work calendar year, work in very busy with updated all spreadsheets and making sure the new budgets for the year are calculated correctly. On a daily base I can have either a full 8 hour work day or some days when work is slow I can have a full 5 hour work day. Employees are very helpful when working on projects and vise versa. I enjoy working with others especially when the team is fully committed to getting the job done. A&E is all about having fun and enjoying yourself no matter how hard things can be. Love that everyone is so joyful so when you might have a not so good day there is more than enough people to help make that better.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Systems administrator 1 salary reported	$35.50 per hour
Business analyst 1 salary reported	$90,000 per year

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