Altria Reviews

Current Employee – been working at Altria

Pros – over all wonderful company to work for, but

Cons – if you are young in your 20s and not willing to relocate there really is no upward mobility for you. once management see's that you are young and moldable, you are automatically grouped into a category, which is develop and move forward into another territory. if this is what you want then it really is the perfect company for you.

Advice to Senior Management – not every one wants to relocate, some just want to stay put.

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

Pros – Pay is reasonable.
Travel is available.
Good amount of seminars, nice gyms in richmond.
Different companies to go and work for under the Altria umbrella

Cons – Terrible management..
Awful communication.
Declining businesses.
Poor decision making and talent retention.
Long hours required without the compensation for overtime depending on what position you are.

Advice to Senior Management – None.

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 Altria full-time for less than a year

Pros – Excellent salary for a new college grad, company car and gas, excellent benefit package, business casual dress

Cons – This is NOT professional sales!! If you do not want to be a merchandiser to not apply for this position!!! You will be working with over 100 retailers going around and putting up POS (point of sale...signage), merchandising products on fixtures for top space and new products, repricing signage, looking at sales data to increase market share(yet you dont control pricing, distribution from manufacturer, advertising budget, etc.), and "selling" in new product (really just suggesting it and maybe placing an "e-order" for a couple of cartons of cigs..which RARELY per "sale"/retailer is over $200 total of merchandise). The vast amount of your time will not be selling anything. The company says they are trying to go to a "consultant sales position," but you can't separate what you truly are and what the customer (retailer) sees you as..a merchandiser from the companies idea of "sales." The position once learned (for someone of average intelligence..about 2-5 months) can become very boring and for anyone with more than basic sales (ie: summer sales jobs at the mall and a basic understanding of financial/sales concepts) this position won't be fullfilling. To illustrate this isn't really a professional sales oreinted position...the company feels the most complex financial concept learned is calculating retailers profit margin, penny profit, and mark up. The income is majority base salary (95% of it) and making a decent sales income (over $60k) will require you to move into management (generally at least a minimum of 2 years into your career). Also you have little say where you will be relocated to once promoted. Another HUGE CON is the company hires a lot of kids straight from college and they get stars in their eyes based on position title and base income out the gate...and have little to no practical sales knowledge or ability..therefore they feel selling $150 of goods in a "sale" is setting the world on fire. People also get promoted WAY too fast and without any true management experience or knowledge. Promotion is based on being liked and having a cheerleader mentality, with sales goals being secondary. Everyone talks about getting promoted even at the first training meeting. While it is a good company with great benefits...for anyone with true sales ability or who wants their income/promotion somewhat dependent on their own abilities and merits...stay away.

Advice to Senior Management – Rename the position to "Merchandiser," or redefine the position and hire people with true sales experience (more than working at the mall and getting a good GPA in college). Not promote people within 2 years based on undefined metrics and a popularity contest. Stop trying to release countless variations of the same product..just in different packages with new names...so retailers will actually respect your knowledge instead of seeing you as "pushing product."

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at Altria full-time for more than a year

Pros – -High entry level pay (salary started around 56k, at second year 59.5k)

-Quality deferred profit sharing program

-Flexible work schedule (you essentially build your own schedule)

-Approximately 18 paid vacation days not including around 6 company holidays

-Upper management is fairly in tune with how the sales force feels and is sympathetic to the amount of initiatives we have to deal with monthly, however, only minor changes have taken place.

-Upper management are extremely personable, knowledgable, and mostly come from the sales force which is nice to see.

Cons – -Although you are a member of a team "unit" there is no feeling of teamwork or unity

-You will do 95% of your work independently with no direct contact from team members, or managers (This may be great if you have held a job for several years and have mastered time management but for an entry level position there is little to no guidance other than what comes down from HQ).

-Your manager will heavily dictate your success, which sounds obvious, but in theory one should be able to pay their own way based on how this system is structured. Because managers are constantly being promoted and shifted around it is difficult to build a relationship.

-They bait you with talks about promotions but constantly change career advancement opportunities.

-Company sells the idea of their high employee retention rate and small turnover percentages however in the past year they laid off 125 employees which created a 1984 type environment to work in.

-You are essentially crushed with initiatives which is normal of a sales organization of this size with so many operating companies, however, everyone is measured on their ability to "sell in" new products which can be extremely easy in some areas and extremely difficult in others. There is no balancing tool in place to accurately assess an employee's ability to sell. Your territory can make or break you.

-Their seem to be a lot of Unit Managers with their own agendas that put themselves and their personal success above the team's ability to grow and outperform.

Advice to Senior Management – FieldEdge will be one of the most costly mistakes of Altria's future (less lawsuits). This program should have been purchased from an outside CRM company. It is decades behind in its ability to track and record sales, customer information, and give the sales force what they need to sell your product. It may have saved some money in the beginning but considering all of the updates in less than 2 years, it is obvious FieldEdge is in trouble. Giving employees more technology to sell in addition to their laptops (tablets) is a mistake. Your sales force is aging and they can hardy use FieldEdge. You will just be placing already flawed software, into extraneous hardware, into the hands of a generation that has no interest in adapting to this type of technology.

I don't mean to rant because in all honesty, upper management are great, I think they just have a lot of "Yes Men and Yes Women" Unit Managers looking for a promotion and no one is telling them what is actually occurring in the store with our customers.

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

Former Employee – worked at Altria as an intern for more than a year

Pros – Security, Payment, Advancement Opportunities, Exciting Industry, your own car, you meet a ton of people, respectable company, practices what they preach

Cons – Monotonous, can get stuck, have to go into gas stations every day, tobaccoo, if you want to move up you have to put in crazy work in 1st year, sales stuff is pretty cut and dry

Advice to Senior Management – Limit time sales people spend in gas stations...those places get pretty disgusting. Also you need to realize that some of the C-Store owners really just don't want your product, so stop pushing so hard

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend – I'm optimistic about the outlook for this company

Current Employee – been working at Altria full-time for more than 8 years

Pros – Good pay and benefits. At one time, they cared about, and they fully invested in your development.

Cons – Highly stigmatized product. Telling friends and relatives that you sell cigarettes. This is a very mature industry. Highly regulated and highly taxed products. Taxation, which will never go away and is a major threat to the industry. You have to be willing to relocate any where in the U.S. and at any time if you want to get promoted. Random Re-deployment of Territories.

Advice to Senior Management – Please don't tell people its "life time employment".

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at Altria full-time for more than 10 years

Pros – Excellent benefits! Pension, 401k (company % profit sharing deposited in yr 401K after end of yr), comprehensive medical, great people to work with...

Cons – Excessive litigation that drags employee morale down, sometimes a political atmosphere, nepotism, very hard to get it!

Advice to Senior Management – Where are the women in the higher echelon's of the management structure? You know they are out there in the company...

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at Altria as an intern

Pros – Supportive Environment with endless career growth opportunities
GREAT people
Great compensation and benefits

Cons – TSM Job can be exahusting
Admin Work

Advice to Senior Management – More opportunity to see other position within the internship program

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend – I'm optimistic about the outlook for this company

Former Employee – worked at Altria full-time for more than 10 years

Pros – Good stock performance and great dividend. Good Company with many resources. Good benefits. Altria sells a legal and what some people view as a "politically incorrect" product, they are all about social responsibility by doing the right things in marketing, selling and communicating about tobacco and wine products. Great training in many functional areas. Fiscally responsible.

Cons – General Comments - Altria is a top-notch company and requires the best, brightest and thick skinned to take on roles in their industry. Growing top line revenue comes from successfully increasing pricing with volumes remaining the same, selling more product and / or introducing new products. Lets' face it, tobacco (overall) is a declining industry, particularly here in the US. Cigarettes are their major source of revenue and income for Altria. While the company is most likely developing new products, these will not take the place (in revenues & income) anytime soon to offset the decline in cigarette volume. In order to increase top line revenue in the short term, the company needs to raise prices or price promote their products. Either of these negatively impacts the bottom line either by reducing volume or buying temporary share gains at a cost. To increase bottom line EPS, cost cutting is a major strategy which effects the pro mentioned above; Resources. Think of it this way, if you promote a 40 share brand vs. a smaller competitive brand with a 10 share, the 40 share brand needs to outspend the competition by 4 to 1 in that market place.

Just like anywhere (not just at Altria), depending on your direct reporting manager, they may have a tendency to have their favorite employee(s) and overlook their shortcomings. In some cases, need to be more politically astute vs. competent. Reflects in performance ratings, promotions and other internal career opportunities.

Also, most employees with 20+ years experience won't take risks (rock the boat) to drive the business forward. They do what it takes to get by (no more) in fear of losing their job / pension. Again, not solely an Altria issue, rather a sign of the economic times.

Advice to Senior Management – Still have opportunity to consolidate positions and reduce headcount by eliminating non-essential work.. There is a considerable amount of "busy" type work and individuals trying to protect their jobs. There are several Managers and Directors rewarding these individuals. Employees are in fear of their jobs and will not take risks to move the business forward as in the past; even though Senior Management wants this to happen and encourages appropriate risk taking, some in middle management are fearful and discourage this behavior from employees. Wish you all the best in the company's endeavors; keep the stock price up and raising the dividend!

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at Altria

Pros – Money, Culture, Company Car, Life Balance

Cons – Environment of the tobacco industry

Advice to Senior Management – More Autonomy

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend – I'm optimistic about the outlook for this company