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AOL

Acquired by Verizon

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AOL reviews

3.8

50% would recommend to a friend

(1,511 total reviews)
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Tim Armstrong

68% approve of CEO

48% positive business outlook

Ratings by category

3.8

Compensation and benefits

3.7

Diversity & inclusion

3.6

Culture & values

3.6

Work/Life balance

3.5

Senior management

3.0

Career opportunities

AOL has an employee rating of 3.8 out of 5 stars, based on 1,511 company reviews on Glassdoor which indicates that most employees have a good working experience there. The AOL employee rating is in line with the average (within 1 standard deviation) for employers within the Media & Communication industry (3.7 stars).

Ratings by demographic groups

Reviews by job title

2K reviews
2.0
Aug 4, 2016

My Brain Has Been Asleep for a Year

Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Autonomy, flexible WFH hours, cool office (in New York)

Cons

-Very little room for creatives to be, well, creative. Very much an environment where the creative work suffers because higher ups in other departments like to micromanage and are deeply afraid to change course on any given project. -Constant reorganizations and evolving work descriptions. -Little to no creative oversight or feedback. -"Hurry up and wait" culture and unclear vision for most products I work on. I felt like none of my work had a definitive scope or execution plan. Often wondered at the end of the day if what I did made any difference in the long run. -Teams in Palo Alto were extremely hard to work with. Very fragile egos made it impossible for any one person to do their job to the best of their ability. More than once was shocked and discouraged by internal communication between teams, whether on Slack or via email.

3.0
Jul 22, 2015

Good times, and not-so-good times

Senior editor
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

At times, this was a fun, pleasant, energetic place to work, and I was happy to be part of the team. Benefits were good, there was flexibility, and everyone was given fairly free rein to do their best work. Especially if you are on a team that is part one of the "good" properties, the ones Tim Armstrong mentions at the big meetings, you will feel positive about being at AOL. And during the periods when they were relaxed about telecommuting, that was a great benefit.

Cons

The culture of frequent stealth layoffs is a terrible waste of talent that saps the otherwise good morale (and I felt that way long before I got pink-slipped). I saw far too many instances of management cutting strong performers in order "reallocate their positions," and then watched those spots be filled by people whose talents mirrored the folks who'd been laid off. What I rarely saw was anyone simply offered a chance switch to one those new jobs. Terrible waste of institutional memory, too. Beyond that, they work people HARD. Long days, and managers answering emails at 2 a.m. were common.

5.0
Dec 22, 2014

Work hard, play hard.

Analyst
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

AOL takes fun seriously. There are always activities like happy hours, group outings, company parties. AOL isn't cheap either. The events that the company hosts never has a shortage of booze or food. There are other random perks like celebrities that visit the office and come talk to the employees and we're given the chance to ask them anything random question. There are ping pong tables, NAP ROOMS, snacks, and amazing/ passionate people. Overall, great place to work.

Cons

I didn't have much of a work life balance, but it all depends on your team and the nature of your job.

Viewing 16 - 18 of 1,511 Reviews
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Glassdoor has 1,682 AOL reviews submitted anonymously by AOL employees. Read employee reviews and ratings on Glassdoor to decide if AOL is right for you.