Working at PSAV Presentation Services in Cleveland, OH: 1 Employee Job Reviews by Real Employee working in Cleveland, OH Area

What do you like about working at PSAV Presentation Services?

"Great working with experienced freelancers who had years of experience in their specialties. Free to perform job functions without much interference from upper management. Fortunate to work with another manager who was very respectful and helped foster team synergy."

Do you have any tips for others interviewing with this company?

"Growth opportunities are almost always tied to ability to relocate. Unless you're in a major market, odds are you'll need to bounce around a bit. Also understand that as long as you're in the hotel services division, the hotel you service makes the final call on whether or not you work. I heard countless stories of people who were asked to move on at the request of their hotel partner. It doesn't mean you've done anything wrong or that you should lose your job. Turnover is apparently common in hospitality. While working at my hotel, I saw numerous sales, catering, and conference service managers go through the hotel's sales office. I'm told that 2-5 years seems to be the average time PSAV managers spend at a given property. If you plan accordingly and stay networked, it's not difficult to move up the ladder and have a demanding, often stressful, often under-paid career. In all fairness, PSAV is probably one of the most stable AV companies out there. None of the smaller AV companies around here can offer the kind of benefits at PSAV."

What don't you like about working at PSAV Presentation Services?

"On my second day working for the company I gave my manager a crash course in reading profit and loss statements. Mind you, my manager had been with the company for several years, but our Regional Vice President had never taken the time to give instruction on how to interpret the data. That set the tone for my time there. I kept my manager in the loop with what was going on, but acted fairly autonomously. While I feel as though my manager supported my decisions, I was really looking for someone to help me make better decisions. When I would reach out to other managers and people at corporate, they were always very helpful and I appreciated their guidance. The single most annoying aspect of being sales manager is the way the company would alter their sales compensation package. The company saw no irony in emphasizing the importance of sales while finding new and creative was to pay sales people less and less for their work. The company seemed disjointed and almost ad hoc. Corporate was involved enough to where our branch never felt autonomous, but it was distant enough that we often felt disconnected. The most stressful part of this type of work is understanding that you're never really off the clock. I worked during every vacation I took. I worked almost every weekend. I worked on holidays. I worked early in the morning and late at night. If the phone rang I had to answer it and help solve a problem. True story - two hours after my son was born (on a Saturday) my manager called me at the hospital and asked that I take care of a minor situation over the phone. It wasn't even client-related and surely could have waited until I returned to work on Monday. But the boundaries that would have helped my manager differentiate between work time and personal time were non-existent."

What suggestions do you have for management?

"Many of the managers I came in contact with started out as hourly technicians. There's a big difference between knowing how to perform the technical functions of the job and knowing how to manage the time and talent of others. Unfortunately, most of the managers I reported to had never received any type of formal management training and were unable to help me grow professionally. During my career, I reported to two managers - neither of whom had any sales experience. They were willing to give me their best guess as to how I should negotiate and interact with clients, and they were empathetic when I went through difficult situations. But their advice never came from experience. Is was sort of management by best guess."