Q&A With Mattel, Inc. Employees

Our policy is "dress for the day" which means "whatever you're in the mood for" so you might be interviewing with someone wearing a sweatshirt and jeans. For you, business casual is probably best. Suits are too stuffy.

I would be all in, but the CEO doesn't understand the toy industry specifically, and has no background in consumer packaged goods, so it's not going to happen in the foreseeable future. Also making this highly desirable result unlikely is the fact that we don't do enough market research into what kids and parents like. Product ideas come most often from marketing and based on what the legions of marketing people have seen other companies do.

Depends on your title and what department you are in. In the G&A functions, it is extremely challenging being constantly pounded on to "do more with less" while being told to enable whatever initiatives the marketing people want to pursue. Those groups -- and there are several of them -- seem to have bottomless slush funds of cash for non-essential trips and pet projects that don't actually produce measurable positive results (i.e., sales).

The best thing I can say is that I've only heard rumors of people who yell, but that doesn't mean managers aren't just quietly mean and terrible to work for.

To the extent we still make toys kids like, that the products bring smiles to children. That happens less and less though.

Depends on your group and where you sit.

Depends on the in-house recruiter assigned.

The senior exec team is growing fastest. Most difficulty is in the support functions (legal, finance, quality, IT, customer service, design).

Change the model, foster a culture of inclusion, not clicks. There are too many people in marketing, which practically runs the company. That means they are only in it for themselves. Instead, focus on making quality toys that kids and parents want (not just what some mid level marketing manager thinks is cute and relevant because they saw something similar on social media) and only hire people who believe in that vision.

Everyone seems to be afraid of her. She speaks like she still works at Google and knows very little about working at a kid-centric company.

Terrible for the last 3 years.

Very arbitrary and stingy. GC micromanages the process and holds people back to keep salaries lower than market in many cases.

In reality, it depends on how much the GC likes the person, but officially, "No."

The 401K is amazingly generous

Stale management. Marketing execs run the company. They act like petty children. Why is the COO sharing the CEO's office? That is a bad sign

Be ethical. Develop real values and make them important, not window dressing. Communicate better and more often. Show respect to each other.

Lead by example. Make better products. Have & focus on a cohesive strategy. Don't chase shiny objects. Get new GC, COO. Less marketing staff