host/hostess

actor

guest service agent

engineering team leader

engineer

Merlin-Entertainments---Corporate

I worked for 8 months in the hotel food and beverage department at CWOA and if I'm honest as a 16-17 year old the salary was much lower than other people my age but it was decent. management was rubbish and as a student I was never allowed time off as it collided with school holidays and weekends which I understand was peak periods however I wasn't allowed time of in October when it was end of season for a family holiday? I'm 17 I don't have a choice on dates. for a company that claims to be flexible, they weren't. I was also given shifts that constantly went against my availability because I was at college and was told I had to find cover or I would get a 'no show'. 
my boyfriend also worked on park the same time and he got the same treatment, even a friend of my parents whose an engineer worked there as a full time job has expressed the mistreatment and disrespect he has. 
it was also such a stressful environment, shifts where always under staffed, the restaurants where poorly managed and there wasn't enough space for people to eat there when the WHERE STAYING IN THE HOTEL. Imagine how stressful it was telling guests they had to order in as there are no other restaurants in walking distance.


However it does give you a lot of experience in the working environment and is an ok first job, it's was easy to get the job and helped me advance quickly in my current job due to being much more experienced in stressful environment. As a young person the pay is ok, but if you have college 5 days a week, its not ideal as they don't consider your availability that often. benefits of the magic pass was the best part I believe. however a lot of people that have a summer job there are denied the pass or just never get it unless its chased.

the most important thing I brought from the job is in my current job I'm much more grateful and have enjoyed it much more and I'm glad I now know what its like to be an appreciated worker due to how unappreciated we where at chessington. leaving there was the best choice I ever made.

A typical day at work at Warwick Castle was very varied, no two days were the same. Depending on visitor numbers I was sent to units as and when they needed someone. 
Typical duties involved selling items on the till in the gift shop, working on the outside tent units selling items on the till, serving Cornetto Soft on the manual machine and supervising craft activities such as Paint Your Own Shield. We were also expected to fill out daily checklists for cleaning duties, health and safety, food hygiene and daily requisitions. 
I learned how to provide excellent customer service and how to deal with customers with varied temperaments in a calm and relaxed manner. I learned how to use a till, both selling items and inputting floats. I learned how to fill out finance paperwork for inputting floats and logging till voids. Working as a team was highly emphasised but there were also sales units (such as selling people's Coat of Arms) where you had to be sole representative. 
Management and co-workers were constantly pushing you to be the best sales representative for Merlin Entertainments you could be. The work environment was one of challenge, competition and fun. 
The hardest part of the job was dealing with difficult or unhappy customers, but I learned how to stay calm in difficult situations, for example when customers were angry. 
The most enjoyable part of the job was meeting tourists from all over the world and feeling like I had contributed to them having a good experience at Warwick Castle.

When the team is good, you'll want to stay despite the high-pressure and terrible pay. 

I did enjoy working there, however that was all about the type of work: hands-on, guest-oriented, using your brain, rather than Merlin itself. If you are looking to work in the attractions business it is not a bad place to start, and you can transfer between attractions (but not necessarily up the ladder).

Busy days can be hard to handle and post-joining you have to learn a large amount information to do a minimum wage role. Can be useful to have that health and safety training and experience with crowds etc on a CV though. However some of that training was to be done at home online. 

I would recommend for a part-time or summer job (though it gets busy), as the shift times are regular and the experience is useful, but many people even in "senior" positions are living by pay check. The lower-level management can be great, but they are putting far more effort in than they are getting paid for. 

The lauded benefits of free annual attraction tickets do not promote longevity, and the turnover rate at every attraction is abysmal. Someone who joined the company a couple months ago is seen as an "older" team member and is expected to help train the influx of new people hired for the summer. 

Also the notice period is long: up to 3 months depending on length of employment (On a permanent contract). 

What is the best part of working at the company?
Working with amazing employers who care and understand about your professional development and traine you to become the best version of yourself.
Giving customers an unforgettable and great experience in the role that you are doing. 

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
Depends on the role that you are doing.
Some roles are challenging and require more time.

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
The company is known globally around the world and so the culture depends on which country they operate in and how they incorporate the culture of that country to their attractions to entice visitors.
The values of the company are very important as you get recognised for the contribution and your dedicated hard work from your colleagues, team leaders and onsite managers. They see that they you always go above and beyond in delivering great experiences for their customers and award you for one of these values.

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
A typical day for me in Retail at the London Eye in the morning, is restocking the shop from the previous day and getting it ready for the new day.
Then it's using the till; scanning items and placing them in bags.

Although working for over x6 years with Merlin Entertainments I had to push for all development opportunities - organising my own secondment, courses and continued development. 

Change of senior managers on a yearly basis which meant very little consistency when it came to being able to develop and flourish in the Leisure Industry. Some staff were given a full induction within x4 weeks of starting work while others didn't get one in x3 years.

I trained over x150 team members in ride operation, guest experience, parties, character costumes, and performance. Organised my own secondment in York. After repeated requests for career development since July 2012 -  known as PDP's (Personal Development Plans) - and none being forth coming it was time to move on.

The most enjoyable part of the job was making memorable experiences for half a million guests. Often working with disabled and terminally ill children I was able to use my basic sign language skills to make their day more special. Knowing that Annual Pass Holders would request you for parties was a great feeling.

Thank you for the opportunities and the lifelong friends made.

I have worked at 2 different sea lifes across the UK. Very different people at both but I felt like part of a little family. Everyone is very young (usually in 20s early 30s) so you can talk to the managers and your colleagues as friends. They're understanding and fun! They try to give incentives and motivate the teams with trips and rewards!
You get free tickets for your friends and family to any merlin attraction in the world which is brilliant. 
They also have an online work rota which allows you to request time off, trade shifts, check upcoming shifts and message colleagues. This is really handy if you don't have time to go in to talk to managers about shifts and time off. There's no minimum hours per week so you can book considerable time off if you need to go home or on holiday. 
It's also easy to transfer between resorts, I wanted to go home for summer so transferred to a different sealife and it was all sorted by my managers. 
They can be a little unorganised and the hours aren't the best if you're working part time but as a student doing a weekend job/holiday work it is great!

- Appalling pay for the amount of work people do (took a pay cut and ended up doing more work with huge pressure).
- Seriously poor management teams. Don't care about progressing, only care about lining their pockets and making sure they get ahead in their careers. The company promotes employees to senior positions with lack of experience and it really seems to go to the majority of managers heads. 
- Your face needs to fit and you need to say what senior management want to hear (rather than whats right) in order to get ahead. You'll be pushed out if you don't.
- Little investment in staff. Offices are currently portacabins, warehouses, derelict buildings and basements (whilst the CEO's sit in brand new sea front properties). 
- Money is only ever invested front of house (roller coasters, restaurants). The things that staff need to do their jobs such as laptops, tills, and other basic technology/software is seriously hard to get hold off. The company doesn't even have enough licences to use its analytics software!
- Charity work gets invested back into the company.
- Really backstabbing environment. Everyone is talking about everyone, and not in a good way!
- Merlin people really aren't great. Seriously unprofessional company for a £1 billion revenue maker.

Merlin was a fantastic place to work, it taught me a lot about myself. The work is very monotone and mostly boring, scanning and selling tickets. The pay is just above minimum, which makes it virtually impossible to live unless you take maximum hours. Benefits are truly fantastic such as being able to visit any Merlin entertainment attraction for free. Hours were very hit and miss, during school holidays you would get many hours (up to 48 a week) but during slower periods hours were very minimal. Management was very good in my experience but there were bad apples. Sometimes it did feel as if you were punished for taking holiday by being given terrible shifts consistently the week before you left. Shifts are given 2 weeks in advance so making plans is very easy but you are very understandably working weekends given the industry. Customers in my experience were very entitled and I was frequently verbally abused or sometimes physically threatened.

I worked here for several years, at first it was a lovely place to work, great management and very supportive, I loved my job, yes it is hard work for poor pay but you were appreciated and recognised for all your hard work. However it all changed under a new manager, he had his favourites and would push you out if you weren't one! Give you the worst shift times and generally make life difficult you had to leave. Slowly the atmosphere turned sour, with so many people leaving you were constantly training new team members which was tough with such a heavy work load already and so many upset guests it was common to receive verbal abuse on a regular basis with no support from management! HR don't care they just cover for the manager how can this be with so many team members complaining about being bullied and leaving! I really wouldn't recommend you work here it is 100% about business needs you are not expected to have a life outside of work and risk being treated poorly! 

Working at Merlin you will recieve great benefits, from discounts at local retails and the park themselves to the famous 'Magic Pass' allowing for 20 free tickets per season for you and your family/friends. You will also meet friends for life, people who are enthusiastic about working in the Resorts and their job and with the regular monthly park and department/team social events you'll meet amazing people.

On to the work itself, working at Merlin you have to keep your head down and for the love of god DO NOT COMPLAIN about the workload - the amount of workers I have seen quit because they complained and thus were given the worst tasks and basically forgotten about as internal politics is huge at Merlin due to the fact most Supervisors and Managment are under experienced, young and under trained. 

Overall it's brilliant as a first or temporary job no matter the department (I was in Rides) however if you're looking for a Career you would be better off going for another company as you would learn to many bad habbits and be completely out of your depth in a similar role of another company/work sector.

Top Job Titles	Average salary
Host/hostess 64 salaries reported	£13.19 per hour
Actor 29 salaries reported	£13.46 per hour
Guest service agent 23 salaries reported	£12.73 per hour
Engineering team leader 9 salaries reported	£12.90 per hour
Engineer 6 salaries reported	£41,919 per year

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