Merlin Entertainments Management FAQ

Pros

Great benefits, the food is great, and young people can get experience as managers quite quickly if they are responsible and have a desire to grow.

Cons

They expect you to work as much as though you are making $100,000 salary but only pay you half of that. You are held to a high standard, but not given the tools to succeed. Middle management is good, but operates in fear for their jobs so will not stand up when the situation warrants it. Upper management takes a authoritarian, holier than thou approach most of the time and is inaccessible. They also only focus on the negative, rarely giving compliments or appreciation for a job well done but focusing on the minute detail that wasn’t perfect. This is a good place to spend a couple years and get some management experience then move into somewhere that takes running a business seriously.

Advice to Management

Invest in your people, your business, and your infrastructure. Budget training hours for new hires, and realize that every year can’t show a growth in sales with a reduction in cost, especially when minimum wage continues to rise. If you are going to add an attraction, spend the money to do it right and quit embarrassing yourselves. You’d think after that rollercoaster accident in the U.K. that you’d quit using the lowest bidder for attraction contractors! Take a look at what you pay, and give an equal work load amongst departments. Keep making the kids happy but pretty soon if the state of repair and product offered doesn’t improve, mommy and daddy will just go see the mouse up the road for an extra day rather than see this carnival.