Pros
- You work for a leading entertainment brand - By association, you work for a company with a much better reputation in Disney - If you like comics, you've reached Nirvana in terms of access - You get Disney-driven benefits like an annual pass to the theme parks
Cons
Where to begin? The New York office lacking trash cans at people's desks? The twilight zone that is compensation? I knew several people making less than 30K working full-time jobs where overtime was expected. If you can survive in New York or Los Angeles that way, my hat is off to you. Marvel is managed with an astounding degree of ineptitude. HR is a dead god, there are maybe 2 to 3 people running the department for the entire company. Much of the day-to-day function is handled by extremely questionable admin level employees who basically wear two hats. Have a problem with your lack of training, questionably livable salary, or with your supervisor who is more platitude than man? Good luck. You will be attacked the moment you raise your hand. We've all seen too many good people forced out the door by vengeful supervisors with a pittance severance. Fine, you're a Spartan and you'll give up anything to work for Marvel because you grew up loving the cartoons and/or comics. Get ready to back that up because you'll arrive at a desk that has at best an older laptop and one working monitor. No mouse, no pens, no staples. Maybe if you're lucky, you'll have access to water. Not in New York though. Then one night you'll realize IT didn't properly scrub your laptop prior to handing it over, and you'll find innumerable personal files, and in my case several folders of pornographic material. If you're like me and you keep your space clean, I fear to tell you what you'll find the first time you try wiping down your equipment or work space. Much of the management structure will astound you with how difficult and petty they can be. Whether that be ignored email, shouting matches on the phone, or just inept and uncaring people who seem to lack all social grace. I pushed for regular sync meetings over coffee, and these immediately devolved into 30 minute lectures and tired rants about everyone we worked with (and of course, myself). Pure hyperbole. We never discussed my work, or how I might improve upon it. We never talked about my career or what my goals were, let alone how I might promote myself. The toxic culture has a slow poison effect. By the time I'd been with Marvel for a year, it felt like I had experienced it in dog years. I was advised to "never invite someone to a 1 on 1 where they have to walk". This sort of vacuous "coaching" is what you can expect in terms of feedback. In short, you're never doing well and you're probably coasting through life on your talent. Does that mean you need to work more hours, build bridges with key people, change your approach to reporting? No one knows! There are no relevant work-related items worthy of feedback, but you will receive a steady stream of negativity regarding life & work from leaders who show up at 10 and are home by 4. Marvel promotes a progressive ideology regarding gender/ethnicity/sexual orientation to the public; but the exact opposite is what you'll find behind the aging doors of their offices. I think half of the slurs I've heard in my life were yelled into mid-air at Marvel. It was all supposed to be funny of course, except that it basically never was. Everyone at Marvel has something to say about everyone else, and if that sounds like High School - well, not a coincidence. As a woman, I would say that it felt like an inhospitable and barely safe place to work. Marvel is something of a misnomer. The films and much of the consumer product suite are governed by Disney. Marvel Entertainment is essentially the leftovers, a fact checking brand assurance company boasting all of the excitement of a small insurance office. While the comics are perhaps best known, the modern quality is embarrassing. Marvel keeps a busy tradeshow calendar, and like clockwork, each show tended to coincide with a public gaffe. With brevity - almost all companies include some folks that can be unpleasant either as supervisors or coworkers. But few of them can match Marvel top to bottom. If hearing a kind and likable co-worker fired, loudly and after about 7 weeks on the job, while being told that the company doesn’t hire “stupid or lazy” people bothers you as much as it did me then you, like me, will likely be better off almost anywhere else. You need only read a few other reviews here, or to Google around to discover the depth at which Marvel is currently residing.
