media planner

supervisor

associate director

brand strategist

assistant

Horizon Media, Inc.

The interview process was an omen itself. One of the managers in my department wasn't very welcoming: they gave me a weak and disinterested handshake and didn't smile at me once. Another manager was really trying sell me on the position and said other departments have high turn over rates (the department I was also has high turn over). 

I was trained by someone who was on their way out of the company and only had seven months experience. The manager I was assigned to didn't want to work with me and always said they was too busy. They pushed reviewing my work on to other assistants and the other manager. I often worked through my lunch break and after others had gone in order to complete my work without being trained to even understand my work.

The director of the department wasn't helpful either. They were always yelling and complaining about everything and anything. They really dogged one employee out on a conference call during our department meeting.

Also, there was a company event that took everybody away from the office, but hardly anyone in my office could really enjoy it because they were answering work emails.

Horizon Media is a Social Firm, where employees have all of the advantages for growth. HMI hires people from all ethnics and its population is diversified. Horizon Media cares for its employees, mental, and physical well being. Once a year HR brings in a wellness week, where many different vendors affiliated with the current Health Care come in to show employees, the different venues they can access. HMI opened a gym for the employees. overall the company was a great place to work in. I enjoyed my time there. There was always some type of event happening, it was never dull. I learned to interact with clients, vendors and a diversified group of co-workers, as well as different types of programs. Management had to keep an environment of good interaction every day. The hardest part of the job was for me none, i enjoyed working there always. The most enjoyable was at the end of the month when all my deadlines were met and clients send me kudos for a job well done.

I worked at Horizon in the Next division from 2021 until 2023. I really enjoyed the team members that I had; they kept me at the company for a long time and I felt they were always acting in my best interests when it came to promo's and workload. I started as an assistant and was promoted regularly each year following great performance reviews and lots of growth opportunities. The pay was not competitive, however we had great relationships with our ad vendors and were frequently treated to dinner, concerts, and more, so those extras made work worth it for me.

I became  a bit bitter when the RTO policy was enacted in the summer of 2023 and I was not granted an exception to WFH/live closer to my family in Boston. I was upset that upper management couldn't recognize my value/contribution to my account (working 60+ hours per week) and be more flexible, despite having team members who were also remote (pre-COVID hires). Our work could have been done 100% remotely and we were still on Teams meetings with clients across the country. I was also loosing a lot of confidence in executive leadership during that time and decided to leave the company.

Working at Horizon you have opportunities to grow at your disposal. There is tuition reimbursement, internal courses, and college designed long term classes for entrepreneurial education. In addition, work life balance is pretty flexible though depends on your manager. There are a lot of company perks such as extended time off for federal holidays, 20-days PTO, plus 2 additional days off for digital detox. You have a chance to work with some really intelligent people who are open to new ideas and cross team collaboration. Horizon is a great stepping stone in understanding the industry. 
While the company offers a lot for the success of their employees, pay is low and teams are understaffed and overworked. In the past few years higher employment of post-college aged hires are brought on causing a challenge in training due to lack of experience in the industry. While this can diversify the agencies creative knowledge in some ways, it challenges it in terms of overall competition in the industry.

All my learning at the company felt self-guided, I felt like the team only cared about making their own lives easier over the idealistic collectivism the company preaches, and there was a bit of a sink-or-swim mentality to my training. 

I was shown how to use a complex workflow process twice and was expected to replicate it perfectly with no errors in less than two months of working there.

Management always seemed overworked and unable to provide support, plus, the management who interviews you may not be the management that you work under so team compatibility is a coin-toss. 

Lastly, there are very high standards expected so if you are not deeply driven without managerial support, you will not last long.

Sure, there were some perks like free food sometimes or employee-led events but the culture falls quite short of their lofty ideals.

The CEO is an amazing person, very inspirational. There are many cool perks and benefits. However the pay isn't that great and the work/life balance isn't exactly there. They do try! There's a gym, and breathing classes, a relaxation room. But when you are at the beck and call of the client, life's rough. You don't get OT unless you're an assistant and you'll likely end up working 60 hours a week. On some accounts they make you feel like this is mandatory. You pretty much have to alert the whole team and get permission to leave on time.

Some people are workaholics and that's great. Otherwise the people are mostly nice and boy do they try to keep everyone happy. While I got a slight raise when coming to Horizon, at my old job working the same hours I would've easily banked an extra $20k a year.

A typical day at work means every day is a busy day filled with meetings along with an over abundance of emails to sift through then action on where applicable. Most people are pleasant and are willing to help, but everyone is mostly focused on their work load. Management can use a little more work but is fairly driven...definite room for improvement. The workplace culture is pleasant but at the same time very work load driven. The hardest part of the job is not always having full visibility to all the other departments and their roles, or an understanding of whom or what department to reach out to for certain needs / situations. The most enjoyable part of the job are my fellow co-workers.

Company does not deliver on the key pillars they publicly boast about: Culture and Innovation.

The culture is basically non-existent, senior leaders are not transparent and rarely interact with junior team members. The CEO speaks about a "buzz inside the office" but there is no energy in the hallways and teams typically sit quietly with their headphones in throughout the work day. 

In terms of innovation, their data and tech capabilities are unproven and very far behind the top agencies which has led to limited new business wins and an inability to retain or grow existing client business.

Horizon Media is a great place to work overall. They however share(d) the common issues of diversity that the rest of the industry suffers from. This review is a reflection of this reality. While there I found that everyone is excited/anxious about their work - the environment is great for collaboration and its quite comfortable in terms of dress and communication. Positives abound as there are great places for co-working and a general encouragement to think and try different approaches to advertising. However, there is a solid regional bias here that permeates a lot of your interactions. If you are not from the tri-state you may feel somewhat isolated.

There are a lot of superficial perks at Horizon. The office space is amazing. However, you work on tier B and C clients and you are expected to work like a dog. And take a lot of client abuse. Management is mostly made up of the loudest client suck ups. Rarely is it the people with the greatest skill. There is opportunity to learn a lot of skills, but only in your immediate silo. There is not enough cross training. And like I said, the clients run the show and most are unsophisticated and knowledgeable about any aspect of marketing.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Media planner 3 salaries reported	$57,000 per year
Supervisor 5 salaries reported	$92,000 per year
Associate director 6 salaries reported	$112,917 per year
Brand strategist 4 salaries reported	$58,750 per year
Assistant 1 salary reported	$45,000 per year

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