A good place to start a media career - Anonymous employee PBS Employee Review

3.0
Oct 25, 2015
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Extremely positive brand reputation, enthusiastic co-workers, relatively easy hours, decent benefits. PBS (I'm referring to the main headquarters in Crystal City) is a great place to start a career in media. If on the right team, you get a fair amount of autotomy and you can feel proud to be creating a quality product. Most co-workers are easy-going and good natured.

Cons

Confused/muddled overall strategic direction, weak upper management, absurd waste in certain areas (e.g. bad content and platforms) but penny-pinching in others (e.g. salary). As the rest of the media world is trying to rapidly innovate in a changing landscape, PBS always feels a few steps behind. Well-intentioned managers with poor strategic vision tend to delay and ruin projects. Lots of mid-career folks just parked at an easy job while raising kids. HR seems to ignore management quality issues that have led to high turnover rates in certain departments.

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5.0
Jun 16, 2026
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CEO approval
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Pros

Full of people that love and care about their work

Cons

It is a very dangerous time for public media, so opportunities may be limited

2.0
Jun 24, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Job was fairly autonomous and relaxed.

Cons

Complete lack of communication from senior management. Decisions constantly made that affect your work by people who fundamentally don't understand what that work is and will never seek input by those who do. Plans regarding media processes and abilities remain secretive until the last moment from employees, channels and partners. Senior management on the media side of things comes off as delusional towards their knowledge and capabilities of the systems they poorly implemented. Would rather take the advice of vendors trying to sell a product than the staff who knows what needs to be done and how to do it.

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