Flight Centre Travel Group Reviews

Pros

Great working environment and culture

Cons

Better pay in other companies

Pros

The direct team I was in was fun and I genuinely became friends with my workmates. The energy at HQ is mostly upbeat and they have plenty of activities/ groups to keep you interested.

Cons

Due to the mentality that a consultant can rise up to be the COO, there is a definite lack of appreciation for those with technical skills. It's clear that management believe anyone can do any role if they apply themselves, and this is projected onto team members in that everyone is replaceable and anyone can do your job. FC salaries are far lower than industry average for technical positions which, paired with... technical people being under appreciated, leads to turn over. As FC pays less (with the lure of culture and cheap flights as the trade off), less experienced people are put into those positions and are trained up, not paid inline with industry, and the cycle continues... I've had some great team leaders in my time at FCTG and also some very average ones. The average TLs were often promoted before they were ready and weren't the right fit for the team and role.

Advice to Management

1 - Pay technical people what they are worth (research what the going rates are for the role) and then the benefits are just that - a benefit, not a trade off for accepting a lower salary. 2 - Promote people to TL positions when they are ready (rather than using a period of time as the gauge) and if they're moving to a new team, allow the new team to reverse interview them. This could resolve the huge attrition... rate of teams when the TL changes. 3 - This needs to come from the top down, the BoF mentality doesn't always apply - especially if you are a technical expert. A consultant without any prior education shouldn't be able to put their hand up for a technical role. I was made to interview internal candidates, ahead of external, for positions even though they were clearly not suitable.

Pros

A great place to grow as a person whilst working with a great product. The Culture is second to none. We take booking customer holidays seriously but not ourselves

Cons

It is a sales environment and some people see the world travel without anything else.

Pros

Learnt a lot about the importance of how to manage and take responsibility for you own productiveness. It's tag line is to "open the world to those who want to see" which is true as it will open your eyes to see what other opportunities there are in the travel industry. As unless you are/have been in the industry long enough, you won't survive.

Cons

heavily based on repeat clients. With the changing nature of the booking industry, its easier for customers to do it themselves. Its a sales job, You need to strong enough to handle using different tactics and manipulations to be able to convince your customers to book with you when they could just as easily do it themselves.... and that is without showing the customer you are so desperate for the sale. Be aware..., with new changes to their award, they have implemented Performance Plans which they now use on the regular. Novices are exempt from them, however if your sales drop below their target, they can put you on a "pip" plan, and if you don't imporve you get fired. Of course this is common in most roles, however this does not take into account any quality of the work you produce, the satisfaction of your customers, the attentiveness of your customer service skills - its all about numbers and getting the money in. Very difficult as I said if you are trying to build up your client base as a newbe, in an industry where stores will soon be of no point.

Pros

Great opportunities to gain experience in a top ASX company in many different areas

Cons

The uniform is a bit boring but it saves money on buying work clothes

Pros

Friendly people, great social culture

Cons

Return from maternity leave is not adequately supported. Separately, there are known instances of male employees being paid more than females for the same role and/or with the same amount of experience. Overall, FCTG does not support females properly. Whilst there is 'womanwise' and other initiatives, when it comes to practice FCTG doesn't 'walk the walk'. More also needs to be done to allow staff to enable... staff leadership positions to be in a Part Time capacity (within reason ie perhaps there is a threshold of 0.7 FTE or something).

Advice to Management

In practice, support maternity leavers and ensure equality in salary.

Pros

travel perks, work travel incentives for those who make the most money

Cons

management only after commission... toxic workplace environment

Advice to Management

Encourage a fair and honest business practice. Increase base salary so consultants are not needing to rip clients off.

Pros

Annual Leave Gain lots of knowledge about travel industry

Cons

Low pay Crazy amount of hours Huge amount of responsibility/stress