Great place to work if you speak German and are a really good networker
Pros
Bertelsmann gives you a lot of freedom and responsibility from day one. They promote an entrepreneurial culture which, in practice, means that if you have a good idea that fits to their business, chances are they'll let you work on it and they'll also fund it. If you are a good networker you're career can take off very fast. At Bertelsmann, everything is about knowing the right people within the company and making sure they know you. If you're on the radar of one of the big guys, there is a good chance they'll simply put you in a position that's two or more levels above your current role.
Cons
They claim to be the most international media company which may be true but doesn't mean that you'll get transfered to another country easily. Even if you work at their German headquarter it will be a long and painful process to land a job in another country. There is no support whatsoever so you have to manage the whole process yourself. Mostly this is due to their decentralized structure which is beneficial for the entrepreneurial culture but hazardous for a number of other things like international assignments, knowledge transfer, or building global networks within the group. Moving from one division (e.g. their Broadcasting arm) to another (e.g. RandomHouse, their publishing business) is nearly impossible. You may have worked several years at Bertelsmann but that other division will treat you just like any other applicant. Again, a problem that arises from the decentralized structure. Your career and salary highly depends on your network. If one of the presidents likes you, you'll get those international assignments easily and a ridiculous salary on top of it. It's been often reported that some of the German folks who work in the US receive housing allowances and travel allowances (to go back to Germany) as well. Their management development follows the same principles outlined above. If they know you they'll put you into all those great programs. If they don't, well, you'll have to market yourself very aggressively to be considered for seminars, etc. Bertelsmann spends a lot of time and money on employer branding which is, obviously, targeted at prospective employees. They recruit from top-tier business schools and host costly recruiting events. These efforts lead to two problems: 1) The high-potentials from Harvard, Columbia, and ISEAD who actually accept an offer from Bertelsmann get frustrated very fast and leave the company, often within their first year. They expect to be promoted to VP or president of a smaller Bertelsmann company but mostly find themselves stuck in whatever division Bertelsmann decides to dump them. Once they leave, Bertelsmann has usually invested significant training dollars in them - not to mention the initial recruiting costs. 2) Current and loyal employees feel frustrated as well since they have to watch Bertelsmann pampering those new hires while they don't receive any training or promotions. That being said, it should be obvious by now that Bertelsmann is not good at identifying top talents or top potentials within their existing workforce. Every marketer knows that retaining top employees is multiple times more effective and cost efficient than hiring new employees.
