Black Box reviews

3.0

39% would recommend to a friend

(671 total reviews)
avatar

Sanjeev Verma

41% approve of CEO

39% positive business outlook

Black Box has an employee rating of 3.0 out of 5 stars, based on 671 company reviews on Glassdoor which indicates that most employees have an average working experience there. The Black Box employee rating is 22% below average for employers within the Information Technology industry (3.9 stars).

Reviews by job title

671 reviews
2.0
Sep 12, 2014
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

The health insurance was good once you met the high deductible. In 6 years I grew quite a bit considering I did not know anything about the job. I went in through a temp service and they had not prepared me at all. The company valued the people

Cons

Over time the company began to devalue the employees and treat some employees better than other. Then started to micro-manage.

1.0
Sep 8, 2014

Run...Run Away as Fast as You Can!

Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

All things considered - nothing really. If you are passionate about telecom then that might be a pro.

Cons

The company is simply not run professionally. They claim to be trying to change and to go from a distributed branch model to a more cohesive model but there is no "there there". They are simply espousing words that they feel Wall Street wants to hear to try to improve their stock price but they are still run in a very disorganized, inefficient and unprofessional branch model fashion where each branch is basically run as a separate business. For instance - the sales teams in each branch do not use a consistent CRM product - therefore - there is no communication between offices regarding account ownership. You may have a company who is being targeted by sales people from multiple Black Box offices and they have no way to know or keep track of this. In this day and age where Salesforce and other products have been the standard for over 10 years - this is simply ridiculous and not acceptable. They say they are working on this but how hard can it be to roll out Salesforce company wide? They are very cheap and this is most likely the reason why this hasn't happened yet but this is very short sighted on their part. Another point that you will read in the reviews and which I experienced first hand is that they offer no training. They may tell you that you will receive training in the interview process but once you are in the door it's just expected that you start pounding the phone and producing results from day one with no real training. Most professionally run technology companies have a unified training process, CRM system, as well as some type of lead gen program so they can get the most out of higher level sales employees. Apparently this is all "in the works". They are far far away from having any such programs in place and are basically chasing their tails (wag the dog) trying to throw anything at the wall they can hoping that a few things stick. Many employees work remotely and there is no real standard or benchmark for communication between offices or employees regarding things such as acceptable response times between one another or with clients. It seems like this company has been such a revolving door that I supposed existing employees have become somewhat jaded and don't really expect that a new employee will stick around for long. This means that they are not committed to the success of new employees in a manner that you would find in most normal companies. There doesn't appear to be any level of commitment to a new employee on the company's part either after they have hired someone to ensure their success. They put new employees through a screening process like you've never experienced - such as checking their credit, doing a criminal background check, doing drug testing etc etc - but on the other hand they don't do basic common sense things such as checking references? What this says is that they don't really take the hiring process seriously and are simply "test driving" new employees in a churn and burn fashion. They have archaic methods in place that were formed around hiring field technicians and that don't apply to other professional positions and they are not savvy enough to tailor the hiring process for different positions. The company has an arbitrary and random approach to hiring and firing and does not take their commitment seriously to employees in any way, shape or form. There is more to say but you get the point. When your gut tells you something doesn't seem right in the interview process- don't ignore it! I would take a big PASS on this company and invest your time and talent in a more positive and professional environment and in a company in a growth industry with more potential.

4.0
Aug 31, 2014

Better before purchased

Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Prior to being purchased by Black Box Network Services, this company had a small family feel, but had a thriving active business. Folks in the Austin location worked well together. Employees were expected to work hard and be efficient, smart, and business saavy. But they were rewarded with 1/2 day paid Fridays sometimes, BBQs on site, Christmas parties with free food and flex work schedules.

Cons

Post purchase by Black Box, employees are now just a commodity and number. Team atmosphere has disappeared and so have the luxuries of a small company. Corporate is pretty far removed from day to day operations and impose restrictions that do not fit the original business model.

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