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Marketing Breakthroughs

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Marketing Breakthroughs Reviews

3.1

50% would recommend to a friend

(20 total reviews)

Andre Mersereau

Not enough data to show CEO approval

40% positive business outlook

Marketing Breakthroughs has an employee rating of 3.1 out of 5 stars, based on 20 company reviews on Glassdoor which indicates that most employees have a good working experience there. The Marketing Breakthroughs 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

20 reviews
1.0
16 Dec 2015
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

For a company of its size, the healthcare benefits are decent. Total compensation packages and salary are decent. Again, for a company of its size and resources. Drinks with the team every Friday in the kitchen is nice. If you can survive the pressure cooker environment, you'll learn a lot. Really quickly. Career experience is accumulated at 2:1 or even 3:1.

Cons

Lengthy. Let's focus on the root issues that have a shot at being addressed by management. There's no longer any real vision for the company other than sell stuff to clients and scramble to get it done because unreasonable deadlines have been promised to close the deal. Project execution is hobbled before it even starts when deals are signed without any meaningful communication with the people accountable for operational planning. People are chewed up and spit out at an alarming pace. Though there's sometimes a valid business decision behind the terminations, proper exits are simply not done. There's a seriously troubling revolving door here.. if you dig a bit, you'll find that the entire staff (as of late 2015) has been employed here for less than two years. For a company that boasts of a twenty year history of success and growth, that's a question mark. 'Flaky millennials' aren't the root of the problem. They're the canary in the mine. Working late or on weekends is frequently expected, and is usually necessitated by unrealistic project deadlines. Though there are nice words said about work/life balance, it's mostly lip service. If you actually exercise the kind of balance that will help keep you performing at a high level (and in turn doing great things for clients), you'll likely be snarked about behind closed doors. Eventually that will fester with management, and you might find yourself on the short list to get the boot. Engagements are consistently under-budgeted or sold at a discount, creating incredible pressure on operational planners and the execution team to deliver 'best-in-class' results with little regard for what it actually takes to create those results. The company's time-tracking software and policies make it easy to obsess and reprimand over the bean counting when the focus should be on managing expectations realistically and delivering value for clients. Eventually, the really talented creatives get disillusioned and driven away as a result of this disconnect between outcomes and fifteen minute increments.

1.0
17 Nov 2015

DO NOT WORK HERE

Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

The office is clean. Is there a rating lower than one star?

Cons

Marketing Breakthroughs was, by far, the worst place I have ever worked in my life. Dubbed the "revolving door" by current and former employees, you shouldn't expect to get to know any of the ghosts that have made their way through the MB doors; the company prides itself on constantly hiring and firing the majority of its staff members. If you are an MB employee that isn't fired right away, you are faced with working unpaid overtime hours (which is simply an expectation) and will be bombarded with constant verbal abuse from management. Employees of MB are grossly underpaid for their workload and skill sets. Plus, MB is a deceptive company. Clients of MB (which are few and far between) are under the impression that the faces that they see on the company website are, in fact, current MB employees. In reality, the majority of those faces have either left, been fired or are on their way out.

1.0
25 Jan 2016

A Company On Its Way Down and Out

Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

A reasonably decent training ground for new marketers. You get exposure to a variety of clients and industries on a hyper local scale. It teaches you to work on tight deadlines, but unfortunately the vast majority of them are grossly unrealistic and unnecessarily forced. Consider Marketing Breakthroughs a first step in your marketing career, but nothing more.

Cons

There are too many negatives about working for Marketing Breakthroughs to name. Pretty much every single one of the following negatives falls squarely on CEO Steve Klein's shoulders, as you will quickly realize if you decide to work here. The first con is the over the top hypocrisy that Marketing Breakthroughs is managed under. Steve Klein continuously preaches and attempts to force a culture of respect and accountability among all employees. Sounds great on paper, but unfortunately this is very rarely adhered to by Steve Klein himself. Employees are regularly and unfairly chastised and berated, in addition to being bad mouthed to other coworkers behind their backs. The real kicker is that more often than not, the "reason" for Steve Klein's displeasure is the fallout from his constant overselling, unrealistic promises, ridiculous deadlines and assumption that anyone who works for him should be at his beck and call whenever and wherever he wants. Steve Klein preaches respect, but then turns around expects employees to work ridiculous overtime hours and weekends without additional compensation, and often doesn't notify you (notify, not ask) that you're needed until the absolute last minute, regardless of whatever personal obligations you may have. To be clear, this is not legitimate overtime that is to be expected in a project-based marketing firm. This is daily and weekly overtime that needs to be worked because of poor planning, even poorer project management and a sporadic work schedule that changes whenever Steve Klein decides. You can expect to have no idea what your work day will entail, whether Steve Klein will be in a good mood or bad mood, or when your day will be finished. Secondly, Marketing Breakthroughs is on a downward spiral in regard to both quality of work and culture. Projects at Marketing Breakthroughs are sold without the proper foresight or consultation with operations or the people who actually do the work, resulting in grossly under budgeted projects and deadlines that are doomed to fail from the start. As an employee, you’ll be expected to work as part of an understaffed team on projects that lack any real planning or thought into whether or not the scope of work or deadline is even achievable. The result is lackluster projects and missed deadlines, which results in employees being berated by Steve Klein for “underachieving”. Doom your employees to fail right off the bat and then berate and degrade them when they don’t live up to your ridiculous expectations – not exactly a winning strategy. This is a regular and ongoing occurrence for virtually all projects at Marketing Breakthroughs. Thirdly, employees at Marketing Breakthroughs can never expect to be anything more than temporary pawns in Steve Klein’s chess game, hired and fired when it suits him. Within a 2 or 3 year period at MB – if you make it that far – you can expect to see upwards of 25 or 30 people come and go. Sometimes the firings are justifiable, but most of the time they’re sporadic and a knee jerk reaction to Steve Klein being dissatisfied with how HIS company is running. Rather than ever sitting down and truly working with people to learn why they’re under performing, Steve Klein is more inclined to give you the boot. Steve Klein regularly reminds you that Marketing Breakthroughs is his company, so don’t ever expect to be more than a sidekick, regardless of how well he tries to sell you on career potential (again, if you’re not fired within a few weeks or months). Lastly, and by far the most disturbing, is the fact that because of this culture of hypocrisy, poor management and unrealistic expectations, there is a prevailing feeling of mistrust and uncertainty at all times. That’s because you’re never really sure if you’re being talked about behind closed doors. And that’s not an issue of one or multiple employees being paranoid. Steve Klein regularly speaks poorly of his employees when they are not around. Respect your coworkers (and Steve) at all times, as the company policy states, but sit and listen intently while your boss openly berates your friends and colleagues (especially those he’s decided to fire) with seemingly no realization of his own hypocrisy and the inappropriateness of the situation. People are not happy at Marketing Breakthroughs, regardless of how the messaging is spun. This is an overworked group of people who spend most of their time spinning their wheels and trying to figure out how to deal with a narcissistic boss who never seems to be pleased with anything his staff does. But you’re expected to shut up, smile and grind away under whatever constantly changing system is put in place otherwise you’re likely to find yourself without a job.

Viewing 1 - 3 of 20 Reviews

Glassdoor has 25 Marketing Breakthroughs reviews submitted anonymously by Marketing Breakthroughs employees. Read employee reviews and ratings on Glassdoor to decide if Marketing Breakthroughs is right for you.