SmartBrief Reviews

Former Employee – worked at SmartBrief full-time for more than a year

Pros – Unbeatable location in the heart of downtown DC, very friendly community, beer machine, interesting challenges

Cons – Incredibly sales focused atmosphere leaves little room for modernization or innovation

Advice to Senior Management – Determine and focus more on long-term goals and don't sacrifice progress towards them for quick cash infusions.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Former Employee – worked at SmartBrief

Pros – Working at SmartBrief is like being on drugs. It's fun, especially if you're younger. The people are genuinely nice and hang out together, the office is pretty, there's free beer, and the CEO can be quite inspiring, actually. Also, to stay there, all you really need to do is just go along with the program (not so terrible, really, not like they're manufacturing anthrax or something); you don't really need to try very hard. If having an easy, pleasant, work environment is more important to you than making money, it's a good place to be.

Cons – Working at SmartBrief is like being on drugs. It's bad for you, especially if you're older, and really, you probably shouldn't do it. Telling other people about your experiences doing it makes them bored, at best, and respect you a little less, at worst. It feels bad to stop doing it, but after a day or two you realize your life is better for it. After I left, I discovered a lot of my more casual acquaintances had thought that I had been working for a non-profit. Must've been the "working for the experience, not the paycheck" vibe that I was giving off. If you prefer making money, building your resume, and accomplishing difficult tasks to having an easy time at work, and you could care less about having free beer at work (not at all a shameless ploy to make recent college grads work for less money, right?), maybe you should look elsewhere.

SmartBrief is a real businessman's business (not necessarily a "Con", depending on who you are). It is very much a marketing and sales organization. Let's face it, E-mail newsletters for trade associations are boring. This is good if you're a businessman, because you have less competition. But do you really want to just write summaries of others' articles if you want a career in journalism? Do you really want to just work with e-mail and websites if you love technology? This doesn't mean it's a terrible place, it just means that senior management does best what it knows best.

Advice to Senior Management – To be honest, watching management in action was one of the highlights of working at SmartBrief for me, because I would probably do some of the same things they do if I were to start my own business. They certainly know how to get good value for the talent they acquire. Also, SmartBrief seems like a solid business. But hey, so is Starbucks; just because I want to be a shareholder doesn't mean I want to work there.

So, the advice: I think the majority of SmartBrief employees are vaguely dissatisfied, but are comfortable enough that they don't want to bother finding something else. Some like their jobs, but not as many as you seem to think. Maybe more really liked their jobs in the past? Was there a great start-up culture that isn't surviving big business bureaucrats moving into management positions? I'm not sure. I think maybe SmartBrief tries to hire ugly ducklings, and I think maybe, deep down, the CEO thinks everyone has a bit of the ugly duckling inside them. But what if they're mostly just ducks after all? Then you end up with a duck pond, not Swan Lake.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at SmartBrief full-time for less than a year

Pros – For the most part, SmartBrief hires great people but as soon as they learn what's what and find out how much they could be getting paid elsewhere, they jump ship. Everyday I see new people in the halls and don't know if they are employed by SmartBrief or somehow mistakenly wandered in through the front door. Upper management is not to be trusted and it seems like they like to work people to death for the lowest wage and toss them out as soon as they start complaining. The benefits are pretty good and the office location is convenient.

Cons – All the things mentioned above and some. The smell of death is in the air. Advertising is getting harder to sell as our clients are finding little to no return on investment. Personally I think their advertising dollars are better spent elsewhere. Email is outdated and most people are deleting our briefs without reading.

Advice to Senior Management – The same advise that was given to me, "get with the program."

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend – I'm not optimistic about the outlook for this company

Current Employee – been working at SmartBrief full-time for more than 3 years

Pros – Autonomy, relaxed environment, earning potential

Cons – Mini-fiefdoms, departments don't collaborate, lack of communication

Advice to Senior Management – Management from the top must regularly communicate the values and goals of the organization. Share the good news, spread the love.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

Former Employee – worked at SmartBrief full-time

Pros – If you're just out of college you may think this is greatest place in the whole world for a first job. No real dress code is enforced, everyone eats together and drinks together after work. Many people live in DC or nearby NoVA and most get along well. Editorial and overall content and products are solid and respected.

Cons – Opportunity for career advancement is limited as is overall pay and benefits. Working remotely is discouraged, which for an digital media company seems silly. Implementing changes to processes or new products takes a village.

Advice to Senior Management – Write down some processes (and if they do exist, share them with your teams) and endorse people implementing changes with the essential personnel instead of a "decision team" that takes 20 phone calls and endless emails with no real result.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at SmartBrief full-time

Pros – For the most part I work with some pretty cool, fun people. Hours are flexible and I can pretty much come and go as I see fit. Most people seem to be 'getting by' and working at this job to gain experience to move into a better one. The benefits are pretty good but the pay sucks. The company is in a time warp.

Cons – Zero room for advancement. HR department is extremely unprofessional and do not set a good example for the rest of the company. I'm actually surprised that the company hasn't been sued yet. If you are not part of the 'clique' than what you think is not important. HR department is the worst that I've seen in any company. Turnover is extremely high and all the bitching and moaning is taking a toll.

Advice to Senior Management – Get a real HR department that knows how to set an example and handle issues. It's pointless to ask them any questions as they will not know the answer. Do something about your turn over rate. Has HR ever heard of employee retention?

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Former Employee – worked at SmartBrief

Pros – Fun people make working at SmartBrief worthwhile. The culture is quite relaxed and most people do not take themselves too seriously yet they remain professional.

Cons – SmartBrief really doesn't have a business model and has little idea of how to communicate what it is attempting to accomplish both within and outside of the organization.

Advice to Senior Management – Leadership at SmartBrief should really sit down and think about what the business is trying to accomplish. While working there there was rarely a sense of moving forward and it felt as if employees were simply there to get a paycheck but were never really engaged nor could they be because the company has little vision.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at SmartBrief

Pros – If you want to hide behind office politics and pretend to be getting things done, it's easy. People with no real or appropriate experience will be given major responsibilities and won't have to do much to keep their job.

Cons – Product has not evolved in many years and has become dated to the point that advertisers are not interested. Office politics and established cliques are a huge deal and process is more important than results. SmartBrief turns over salespeople at an alarming rate and has no sense that the company may be at fault. "Because that's the way we've done it before" is a mantra.

Advice to Senior Management – Promote from within. Get real about the fact that no one is going to acquire you and get busy being a better company. Thinking your product and service is "good enough" is not good and is not enough.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Former Employee – worked at SmartBrief

Pros – Beer machine, nice/smart people, casual work environment

Cons – zero leadership from senior staff.

Advice to Senior Management – Please understand that betting on a short term exit strategy can backfire when all long term prospects haven't been made priorities.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at SmartBrief

Pros – Smart, friendly and motivated people who genuinely like each other. No lack of challenging projects and problems to solve. Encouragement to go off and investigate new technologies and areas of interest. Massive growth in recent months and more planned for the future.

Cons – Smartbrief has existed for 10+ years. Time to give up the casual dot com environment and start structuring things. There is no formal process for yearly evaluations to get raises. No performance reviews. Salaries are not competitive. Terrible company-wide turn over rate. No transparency in career progression process. No 401k matching. Not enough vacation time.

Advice to Senior Management – Employees are learning whats happening within senior management through gossip. We have little idea where the company is headed. Increase salaries and you'll decrease the massive turnover rate. From the outside we are simply a company that sends email... lets innovate on that before email dies. I am putting "no opinion" for the following question because I have no idea how the CEO is leads SmartBrief.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend