Pros
I am a manager at Future. I’ve been at the business a while now and seen a LOT of change but I am still here. And while I have little use for Glassdoor, colleagues have told me about the comments here. After reading them I wanted to try and bring some balance, in an effort to try and be genuinely helpful to anyone considering a career here. There are probably four types of person at Future. There are the recent hires who have no baggage and are happily building a career here. They’ll probably write the least critical but most useful posts as they are giving an accurate snapshot of the present moment through the eyes of a new joiner. Then there are the people who have been recently acquired (Future does a lot of acquisitions) and traumatised by the experience, sometimes because they lost their role as part of a restructure and sometimes because for whatever reason they just didn’t want to embrace a new cultural identity or they got too attached to the hypothetical value of a benefit that changed. These people will make at times quite bitter posts that will galvanise the viewpoints of people in a similar headspace but contain little constructive for complete outsiders because their views are so subjective and personal. Then there are the old timers who have rolled with the punches, been through some tough times, tasted success at other times and have a sense of pride in what the company has achieved. These people will be advocates for life at Future and are probably from Bath, but they will still point out flaws because they care. Their viewpoints will be useful and balanced long term takes for anyone reading the comments here who wants insight into the heritage of the company. The final group of people is the people who have been at the company too long and seem to default to cynicism. Every company has people like this and they are almost impossible to please so their viewpoints are interesting, occasionally very well written but of little use for outsiders. Take 'em with a healthy pinch of salt. Now let me tell you some truths about Future. It is not a perfect company because no company is, and there is always room for doing things better, but here's my take. Future is a dynamic and incredibly fast paced business, probably the fastest I have worked for and I have worked in some intense places! So if you are looking for a safe 9-5 job, don’t want to be challenged and don’t like change it is 100 per cent NOT the right company for you. As mentioned already Future does alot of acquisitions and that means near constant change to almost all areas of the business: Finance, IT, HR, you name it. This can make Future a very exciting place to work, but again it is not for everyone, you need to be psychologically prepared for this level of constant stimulation and unphased by every day potentially presenting a fresh challenge. Somehow I’ve written alot of words without mentioning how creative and ideas driven Future is. This is the unifying aspect of the culture and the reason why people from so many different corporate backgrounds, countries and lines of work can gel together and do consistently good work that leads to strong financial results. There is constant experimentation in everything from how people are trained to the way content is presented on a web page by developers. Every person in the business seems fundamentally creative and dedicated to improving what they do. There are also millions of people around the world whose lives have been touched by Future’s magazines and websites over many years and that’s a genuinely special thing that didn’t happen by accident. Another aspect of life at Future is the opportunity for progression which is significant for people with talent and the right attitude. There are plenty of examples of editors who worked their way up from junior ranks on the editorial side. The same is true of people who joined as graduates and then became leaders in critical departments like audience marketing or ad sales. Obviously there will always be people who complain about not getting a rise or their manager not promoting them. That sucks but its certainly not unique to Future. I reckon if I went to my boss’s boss and said “I’m feeling blocked but I want to grow”, and I said it constructively and professionally, that I’d be listened too and eventually given an opportunity to show I deserved it. Talented people who work hard do well here and people who grumble and expect things to fall into their laps do not.
Cons
So what isn’t perfect about Future? Well, for one it can be TOO intense at times, mainly when those acquisitions I mentioned happen around really busy times or stretch people further than management anticipated. We probably also have to many meetings. That’s got to be the most common complaint you hear. Maybe this is just the modern workplace, maybe we have a problem with it – I honestly don’t know. At the most senior level of the company the turnover of managers is quite high, which means departments regularly having to adjust to new managers and strategies. You probably won’t have the same manager for very long and again this can be due to acquisitions which can lead to regular reshuffles. If you like continuity and fear change you’ll find this quite disruptive so again I’d say if that’s you then Future isn’t the right fit for you. The other thing I'd say and meetings and acquisitions have an impact on this is that work/life balance can be tricky at times. Its difficult to park your work at the door and if you have any complications in your home life you might find things difficult to juggle. Overall though Future is an incredible business that has it's positive and negative points like any company, but those positives far outright the negatives for me, which is why I’ve stuck around. It's creative and exciting here, you’ll never be bored for sure. If you have ideas, ambitions, stay curious and open minded and are comfortable with change then you can make a very long, varied and happy career here. The people are genuinely special and very inspiring to be around. I also know people who have left Future and moved to quieter businesses who are relatively content but speak of missing the energy and the action Future offered them. I really hope thats helpful to folk here and I hope nobody is foolish enough to make a decision based on the kind of review where someone disrespectfully slags off former colleagues. That lacks objectivity and class to me two qualities you need to do well in life let alone at Future.
