Anyone work/worked for Pocket Kings??

Quandary

Hi all,

I have a 2nd round interview coming up for Pocket Kings in the Fraud prevention dept. Has anyone any experience working for them? If so what are they like as a company? is the atmosphere relaxed/hectic/stressful?

any thoughts?

thanks...

AARRRGH

I know a few people who have worked there. From what I hear -

The place is totally disorganised
Relaxed atmosphere
Treat their staff well
Full of tossers

Mena

AARRRGH wrote: »

I know a few people who have worked there. From what I hear -

The place is totally disorganised
Relaxed atmosphere
Treat their staff well
Full of tossers

hah, I've heard the exact same thing

m5ex9oqjawdg2i

Applied for that job that has been advertised for the last 6 months, I bet it is still up. Anyway, I never heard from them, I rang quite a lot but always got the "oh they are in a meeting right no, can I take your number and name and he will get back to you". After hearing this for the 4th or 5th time I just got pissed off and left it. Usless shower of ****...

Eoin

They seem to be hiring constantly. I've heard that it's good pay and benefits, but I only know a couple of people there so don't know if it's full of tossers or not.

http://www.pocketkingscareers.ie/Careers/IT

daigo75

I know only one person working there, and he told me it's quite stressful. He's working on average 10-12 hours a day, and many times he works from home in the evening (after the normal working hours). It's only one opinion, though, so I cannot guarantee the absolute accuracy of what I've been told.

Tar.Aldarion

I just applied for a QA job there a few days ago, heard nothing as of yet.

NullZer0

They're talking about an interview for a long time now... as the people above have mentions... very disorganised. Not very professional from my experience.

dazberry

I was talking to a recruitment guy last week and he told me that he stopped dealing with them as their HR was so disorganised.

D.

tricky D

I was told to put my CV in by one of their staff as I had good poker, security and net experience. This was about a year ago for this job and I've heard nothing since despite trying to get in touch a few times. Ho hum.

JJJJNR

Heard they are very bad to work for, very stressful environment. BUT they pay very well if your prepared. Although I think the high earners got in at the very start, and they have lowered the pay rates in line with the downturn..

I do think they are here for short term, and when the gambling bill in the US is changed I think they might be out of here.

dorothygale

I have must've had about twenty or so different recruitment agents ring me regarding the same Pocket Kings job... and they all claim to be exclusively working with them. :rolleyes:

My impression of Pocket Kings is that they are very unorganized.

InReality

i heard they were high stress high pay , a year ago. never worth it imo.

dade

got a call from an agency about them a few months ago and heard nothing back since when i said fire away. i then looked into it and noticed that they had the same positions open for a while so figured people just kept leaving teh place which isn't a good sign IMO

Capt'n Midnight

I thought they were a fake job for CV harvesting, might as well be considering the number of places pimping for CV's for them

123unome

Quandary wrote: »

Hi all,

I have a 2nd round interview coming up for Pocket Kings in the Fraud prevention dept. Has anyone any experience working for them? If so what are they like as a company? is the atmosphere relaxed/hectic/stressful?

any thoughts?

thanks...

Hi there,

How did u get on in ur 2nd round interview?

What kind of questions did they ask you?

Might be going for one myself

Quandary

Hi,

Update - didnt get the job but not too bothered.

The 2nd round interview was pretty intense for a bottom rung of the ladder type job really.

• It lasted over 2.5 hours, i was interviewed by 4 people at different times.
• Had to do 2 aptitude tests. one of which was to analyze 7 different poker hands, determine if collusion had occured, where and why. 2nd aptitude test had some questions about the company Full Tilt poker (they own pocket kings) ie - name some resident pros there like Chris Ferguson, Gus Hansen etc etc. Also when the company was founded(didnt know that ). There was a lot of questions regarding the mechanisms used to cheat in online poker ie types of collusion, poker bots etc etc...
• Final part of the interview was with the dept Head. very HR style interview with usual crappy questions:) like where dya see yourself in 5 years, strengths, weaknesses what you can offer the team etc etc...

My advise would be to brush up on your poker knowledge as that is 90% of their interest in you. The reason i didnt get the postion was because my poker knowledge wasnt good enough.

I was asked questions on Omaha, Hi Lo, Texas, Horse etc etc....

Hope this helps m8 + best of luck!:)

razorblunt

2 lads in my class have gotten jobs there, starting in the next few weeks, the said alot of poker knowlege (basics of each game) is a definite plus.

Fraggle

Hi All, Disappointed with the word on Pocket Kings as I was thinking of applying for a position. I wouldn't mind getting a contact for someone who works there to find out the real deal...if they'd be willing to talk to me. I'm in a high pressure job at the moment that I'm looking to break away from but I don't want to jump from the frying pan into the fire. Last thing I want to do is land in another high stress role.:(

Faolchu

Fraggle wrote: »

I'm in a high pressure job at the moment that I'm looking to break away from but I don't want to jump from the frying pan into the fire. Last thing I want to do is land in another high stress role.:(

what i heard was it's pretty intense. I've seen them advertising for people for over a year now and teh positions all lok teh same so that could be an increase in business or high staff turn over. i heard that people get burn out pretty easy there. but that's not info direct from someon i know more third or forth hand info

DublinWriter

I saw them advertise some high-end Data Warehousing jobs about two years ago for crazy money.

mohenley

Hi apologies for jumping in on this topic but I have a second round interview with Pocket Kings next week and it is sequential interviews (with 5 people) lasting over 3 hours. Just wondering if anyone has any experience of this and can advise what I can expect?

kravmaga

Pocket Kings- Cherrywood

I got a call from an agency in the city centre about this role yesterday.
A bit skeptical about it as it is only offering 30k pa.
Also it's shift work? Late/Night shift and they have 10 vacancies apparently for this type of role.


Overall Purpose of Role:
This role will be part of the Security and Cashier- Fraud division of the company and will responsible for mitigating risk relating to the companies cashier activities and payment services. The role holder will possess a skill for recognising very subtle patterns of fraudulent activity and communicating them to other team members and management.

All comments welcome from previous or current staff, cheers


Has anyone actually worked there and what is the

Kipperhell

Pocket kings are with so many agencies I am sick of been asked would I work for them. Some agents have complained about them to me as they don't give any feedback and then come looking for more CVs a months later as if they never got the CVs.

Something very odd about their recruitment process. Strange thing is I had an interview with them about 2 years ago and told them I was not interested after the interview. Mainly due to location but the other factor was they had developers asking me questions about testing. Developers are useless for such interviewing as they want the testing to act in developers' favour rather than a quality point of view.

katiejane85

i know people who work here, one of whom is my best friend, and im told they're a great company to work for - serious perks and you're looked after very well. you work hard, but they compensate you for this ie through perks and above average salaries. huge company - 750 people working there. very casual attire, comfortable environment im told, but you work hard and you have to be dedicated. but upside is you're working for a company where the recession stops at their front door. they're hugely successful. if anyone wants more info, pm me

Lothaar

I also know someone who works here and says it's a seriously great place to work. The benefits are quality, pay is good, cool atmosphere. The bar is set very high, and they tend to employ people who are 'seemingly' over-qualified for each job. So, people at managerial level in another job will step down a rung when they move to Pocket Kings. I guess the idea is that they're looking for the best and brightest across the board.

Because the bar is so high, you do have to perform and mistakes will be noticed. This can be stressful... but it depends on how you look at it. My friend uses it as motivation, and says that it kinda makes the job more fulfilling, knowing that there is high-visibility when he does things well.

PrinceMax

I applied to them directly back in March and never heard anything back. I saw an advert for the same position about two months ago through a recuritment agency, so I applied. I heard back the next day and got an interview. The advert said they were hiring for early and late shifts. At the interview though, I was informed that they only hire new staff for the later shifts. They did make the company sound really good though. Loads of benefits. I got a call from the recruitment agency two days after the interview to offer me the job. I turned it down though. I would have taken it had it been day time, but I don't know if I could adapt to working for a new company while at the same time adapting to 10 hour days, and working nights.

pkps3

It's a terrible place to work in, the entire place is run like a prison. People can not have any ideas, if you do then you get fired. On an earlier post someone mentioned its full of tossers, well that for sure. A load of very small minded people, the swearing and general bully tactics employed on a day to day is out of order.

My advice is to say away ..

booba

I'have been working for them a year and left as it was too boring and the people working there were very incompetent. I think the best remember that I have from this company, it was the interview with a HR girl. I have done this interview 3 times with the same girl in a month as I sent my cv to different recruitment agencies. The first time I haven't been choosen cause they told me my english wasn't good enough, they call me a second time a week after cause I applied from different agencies for the same position. I went to the new interview and the girl didn't realise one second that she interviewed me a week before : but this time I was too graduated for them. They call me a third time a week after : the same story, the same girl but this time they choose me, I was the man.
So I you want to apply for them, just keep send them your cv, the girl from the hr which is normaly interviewing is quiet stupid, easy to recognize : she is speaking too fast, like she has not time and like she doesn't give a **** about you.
enjoy

John_Cultane

Booba>

That has got to be some of the weirdest approaches to applying for a job I have ever heard. 3 agencies for one job is going to eliminate you from other positions instantly. Be grateful they have a bad process as otherwise you wouldn't get an interview or be used by the 3 agencies again.

I have read some pretty disturbing descriptions of the working conditions which generally suggest they over work their misguided staff.

mtsachev

I've had the same thing with pocket kings and 2 other companies too. Applied directly - nothing, like I never sent them anything. Apply via agency and I get a response very quickly. Not sure if agencies modify your CV or something or call them 10 times a day to get an interview.

I was told by one agency that pocket kings are very slow when processing applications. And I was also asked by 10 agencies if I applied with pocket kings so I guess they are all over the place. Similar to web reservations/hostelworld btw.

I'll still give it a try if them call me for an interview. I don't want to end up in another stressful position but the salary on offer looks very attractive.

billymitchell

Have a phone interview with them this week. I presume it wont be very stressful in comparison to the rest of the interview process. I'll brush up a little on my old poker skillz, hopefully that comes in useful at some stage.
Seems to be a bit of a mixed bag of reports on what it is like to work for them.
I suppose it would depend on which department you are working in. Sure i'll see how I get on Thursday and if it goes well, I'll call back here and see if i can get any more feedback on what its like to work for them

mccarte2

Had a phone interview last week with them and a face to face interview yesterday with them. To most of the people who have complained on here about revolving doors / prisons / incompetent bosses etc. What type of jobs have these been that you worked in? Are they technical roles or others?

Is anyone on here still working for them and do they have any comments to make?

dario28

An agency sent them my cv for a job which was a carbon copy of my cv - heard back about 2 weeks later thier HR said that my cv didnt suit the role , i couldnt believe it , so I changed my name to irish and sent my cv though a different agency , got a phone interview , did grand but thats all I heard..at the time they were phoning over 50 people a week , really strange hiring process

Their restaurant menu looks class though !

Narraaja

I have applied Customer Service Agent (lingual) role, but haven't heard of PocketKings anything yet. How soon they are usually contacting to applicants?

And what kind of interviews is for that position? Currently I'm living abroad, but hopefully I'm able to move back to Dublin ASAP (second time ).

If someone is working there, and could help with this, please PM.

_Kaiser_

Just stumbled across this thread after a Google search...

I've applied for a job with them through one of the agencies and so far they seem pretty keen, but the comments in this thread are a bit worrying.

Is anyone who posted here actually (still) working for them, and if so in what departments? My experience so far seems a bit mixed - yes they seem keen but the money on offer seems a fair bit more than the average, yet their screening process seems basic?

Any feedback much appreciated!

Stench Blossoms

My CV was passed onto them through a recruitment agency.

The recruiter was an absolute nightmare to deal with.

I was assured I didn't need any poker knowledge prior to the interview but from what I've read online thats a basic requirement.

junipernet

Hi,

I have been working in PocketKings for the last 8 months. I went through an agency to get my role there too.

I had a mixed hiring experience as the first agency got no where and after 1 month a second agency had me an interview in 2 days. Then after getting an offer (whole process took less than 2 weeks) the first agency demanded that they got the fee as they had sent in the cv first , even though they hadn't got me an interview (I don't know what they actually did do). You can apply directly if you want on their site.

I find PK a fine place to work, there are times when it's very busy, when they release new software for example, and times when they are less busy. This is common in most companies I have worked in.

Some of the managers are promoted within but there are plenty of very good hired in managers and directors that really know what they are doing and I have always found them approachable

PK is still like a startup and are still a very young company so they can be less organized than more established and mature companies, but I like the startup feel, and the focus on moving quickly.

The pay is good and the benefits are very good (free food, gym and other google-like benefits). The christmas party and summer parties are Amazing, nothing else like them in this country that I've seen, seriously beats them all.

It's a big enough place with several hundred employees, so my view is limited to my area (IT and software engineering which is 200+ people).

oh yeah, I don't play or know how to play poker (well) but some departments will want poker experience , especially if you are dealing with poker players.

shoegirl

daigo75 wrote: »

I know only one person working there, and he told me it's quite stressful. He's working on average 10-12 hours a day, and many times he works from home in the evening (after the normal working hours). It's only one opinion, though, so I cannot guarantee the absolute accuracy of what I've been told.

That kinds fits with the image of "tossers" working there.

In my experience in a place full of "tossers" it means about 30% of the staff are sitting around going on about how amazing and wonderful they are while another 30% are doing their work for them plus their own. It generally means in about 2 or 3 years time somebody externally will start asking questions and looking at whats going on, timesheets etc, and start realising that nearly half the staff are unproductive, and shut the place down, leaving nobody at all.

Hate to say it, but seen at least 2 places close due to having lots of "passengers" on board whose work was being done by their colleagues at they sat back and swanned themselves.

mccarte2

shoegirl wrote: »

That kinds fits with the image of "tossers" working there.

In my experience in a place full of "tossers" it means about 30% of the staff are sitting around going on about how amazing and wonderful they are while another 30% are doing their work for them plus their own. It generally means in about 2 or 3 years time somebody externally will start asking questions and looking at whats going on, timesheets etc, and start realising that nearly half the staff are unproductive, and shut the place down, leaving nobody at all.

Hate to say it, but seen at least 2 places close due to having lots of "passengers" on board whose work was being done by their colleagues at they sat back and swanned themselves.

Are you a fan of sweeping generalisations by any chance?

seamus

mccarte2 wrote: »

Are you a fan of sweeping generalisations by any chance?

To be fair, the entire company has mixed reviews. I guess it depends on where you're working and at what level.

From what I've heard (I know someone who works in QA there), they pay you well because they expect you to put the company first and foremost before everything - family, friends, social life, whatever. If the company need you to stay back and work 14 hours tonight, well then you can either cancel what you had planned or you'll be out of a job.
This is offset by big salaries, huge benefits and Xmas parties involving trips to New York with fully paid hotel and bar.

That would work well for single people, but for people who have other priorities, probably not so much. You couldn't pay me enough to put work before family.

Apparently politics are an issue too - if a manager doesn't like you or needs to find someone to blame their own screw-ups on, then you'll be in the firing line and dropped from their payroll without so much as a second glance. I'm sure they have a "disciplinary procedure", but by all accounts they don't use it and just fire people for the slightest of things.
This is why they seem to be constantly hiring.

mtsachev

Someone mentioned that their hiring process was very basic. I'd think that this explains high turnovers.

I don't really understand why but many companies have very basic interviews that many people would pass w/o too much trouble. Only a few would have more demanding interviews that really screen out people.

LindaMary

Does anyone have any recent experience with PK?
I've applied for a job but it's been a month and my cv is still 'under review'

MIN2511

tbh i'll give up now if i was you... If they wanted you, they would have contacted you already...

Lux23

An agency sent my CV in for a role and they called me the next day, I went for the interview and I quickly realised the job that was advertised is not what the girl interviewing me was talking about. I don't think I will bother going back for a second interview.

Gobby75

Hi folks

Some very negative comments there about Pocket Kings - anyone have any good experiences of working with them? Have they improved at all in the last year? A lot of those comments were in 2009 so I'm just wondering if maybe they've become a bit more organised and the door is revolving less? Particulalry interested in experience of working for Marketing in there.

Thanks

G

Pittens

Someone mentioned that their hiring process was very basic. I'd think that this explains high turnovers.

I don't really understand why but many companies have very basic interviews that many people would pass w/o too much trouble. Only a few would have more demanding interviews that really screen out people.

They had a 4 round interview - meeting about 10 people in total when I applied a few years ago. Not basic.

starbucks1!

Hi,

I also have an interview there next week for one of the support departments. Has their salary decreased because of the economic climate and are all their benefits still in place??

What is the atmosphere like now, still disorganised?

Is there parking?

Thanks

El Camino

Hi all,

Another recent updates on developments within Pocket Kings. I've an upcoming interview for a role in legal/compliance area. I've been told it's a new role but based upon the reviews in this thread they're probably lying and simply worked the previous person to the bone...

Any experiences on this side of the house within PK?

Thanks in advance...

PKWORK

according to him it's very stressfull, and all you do is copy past existing templates.
If you work nights there is no food.
The team leaders have no idea what they do.
There are a lot of other things wrong there but that will be a new thread he plans to create.

tHE vAGGABOND

according to him it's very stressfull

Its a successful company, one of the world leaders in their field. So working for one of the world leaders in any field of work will often be stressful. If it was all cool and relaxed, sitting around playing table tennis all day, I would think they would not be as successful as they are

according to him it's very stressfull, and all you do is copy past existing templates.
If you work nights there is no food.
The team leaders have no idea what they do.

It does sound like he is speaking about one specific team, working in customer service on the night shift.

Pocket Kings is a huge company now, employing a lot of people, over many teams, in many different disciplines. So just because one person [in this case] has one bad experience with one specific team does not mean an entire company is the same to be honest.

If you have a fast paced company employing many hundreds of people, some people are indeed not going to like it, and leave here and there. But on the other side, others will really like it, and will have worked there for years, enjoy the challenging environment and not dream of leaving.