Pros
1. Moving to a new building in the fall of 2016. 2. Some of the top leaders are incredibly brilliant. 3. Really great opportunities for exposure to top level management. They're willing to talk people of lower positions and not have an ego about it
Cons
1. Tired leadership that lacks a fundamental understanding of digital marketing. Leadership consistently makes decisions based off emotional whims. I.e., one HTML email came through and did not download properly, therefore we switch to all plain text emails instead of addressing the coding issue of the one email. 2. When looking at a job within the marketing department, be sure you're ready to give up anything that might resemble a work-life balance. It's a slow fade, you'll start out eager and fresh and then you slowly realize that there is this unspoken expectation for giving up any sort of time that resembles a break. Lunches will be scarce, it's best if you arrive early, no later than 8 and don't even think about leaving until well after 5:30 when the rest of the parking lot is deserted. This of course is due to leadership that models this and expects the same of their direct reports. 3. Are you a strategic thinker? Someone with a vision? Maybe someone that likes to create a plan and adhere to it? Turn around and walk away. While most publicly traded companies have some sort of marketing plan, RealPage does not. Internal feuds between marketing, sales, and product have created a free for all in regards to strategic roadmaps. The end result is a hostile environment where leadership vies for the ear of the CEO. The problem is further exacerbated by aging leadership that is desperately trying to hang on to a position that has been over their head for too many years. 4. Do you enjoy the Hunger Games? Perfect. You'll enjoy RealPage's favorite ritual called "PMC". Every 60 days you'll have the pleasure of going through a process reminiscent of prepping for your final college exam (except with a lot more at stake), scrambling to make up appropriate numbers, slapping together PowerPoint decks and presenting your progress as a team to the CEO. And by team, I mean 30 people in a board room with the CEO (not exaggerating). Why the CEO cannot conduct smaller meetings with his reports and leadership is beyond me. Seems that we're looking back at the past 60 days a little too often (he does this for each product group) instead of looking forward. Personally I believe that this contributes to the sad state of the company's stock price. PMCs are a tremendous waste of everyone's time. 5. Career path. Non-existent. Of course, this primarily applies to marketing. What they'll tell you is, "Oh, we've had plenty of promotions lately." You should ask them specifically what roles were promoted and what merited that promotion (accomplishments aren't exactly well documented). This is a department ruled by favoritism and agreeability with leadership. 6. Verbal abuse is alive and well within this department. I have never seen a leader manipulate and intentionally destroy the confidence of their team before. I understand business can become emotional, but when it becomes a detriment to the department's confidence and ability to act effectively and drive revenue, that's when it becomes a problem. One that needs to be addressed. Sadly, most don't speak up about such situations. 7. Pawns are a part of the game of chess. And at RealPage, in the marketing department, you'll be treated as a political pawn to ensure that "we win". This is ironic because you would think we would be striving to "win" as a company, and not a department. This is another attitude that stems from the top and negatively impacts culture. 8. This is more just a side note, but the positive GlassDoor reviews that you see all of a sudden for the marketing department have been purposefully crafted or encourage to be posted in order to counteract many of negative comments that are starting to be posted. Take everything with a grain of salt, including my post. 9. Upon hiring, they'll tell you all sorts of wonderful things about flex-schedules and how they're going to combine PTO with sick days. Don't bet on it. Get it in writing if you're serious about it. Also, don't get too wowed by any stock they offer you. There is a lot of small print that ensures that you won't reap any sort of reward.
