I will share SOME of the downsides of working at CoStar because I don't have enough time to list them all.
(1) The work.... the thing is the work in and of itself is not bad....it can be enjoyable...establishing relationships with people all across the country…. Actually doing research to find the meat and potatoes…if you were allowed to do that. Ok on to the next one;
(2) Management – and not the direct manager you report to because they are just minions that deliver the information from upper management. Management does not listen at all. How can you NOT listen to the actual people that do the job…. Or Not even ask the actual people to do the job.
(3) The horrible metrics…..wait, did I say HORRIBLE metrics!!! They don’t know what they want…or they want one thing on this day and another thing on another day. Sometimes it changes within the same day. Make calls, match the databases, we are one company, make calls, don’t talk to the admin, make the broker speak to you, MAKE the broker speak to you. They say “your brokers ignore your calls but they really do want to hear from you”. They say “you have to retrain your brokers”. Who is “THEY” – the managers who don’t listen. First, you have to do 20 two-minute calls, 50 dials and 1 hour 15 minutes of duration… then it changes to 90-second calls, 50 dials, 2 hours of duration…..who can keep up….but then told now you have to make the databases match…so pull your location from a report that has no rhyme or reason, compare what is on LoopNet to what is on CoStar…noting all the changes, then call the broker…don’t make the changes until you talk to the broker… so you’ve spent what….30 minutes or more doing them comparison and walk away with one attempt and 30 seconds of duration because you better not leave a long, detailed, slow, explanatory voice message. Yup, I know that sentence is a long rambled run-on sentence…but that is exactly how it is there.
(4) Moral is worse than ever. It has been bad but everytime you think it cannot get any worse… they pull something else out and throw it on the table.
(5) Upper management….when they have someone good…they get rid of them or that person rans away very fast after they really get what everything is REALLY about. Some people think it was going in the right direction under Frank C but he did not stay in the position long and the person in charge now has no clue.
(6) Turnover… a joke…. You are hit with the “what the hell did I get myself into?” not very long after hitting the floor from training. Employees that have been there for a long time…..are more or less stuck because of their tenure and/or trying to find a matching pay elsewhere when looking for a new job. Anytime you have to incentivize someone to stay by promises stock options or a lump sum of money if they stay for 3,4, or 5 years then there is a bigger problem. But guess what those people do as soon as their contracted time is up….yup, they leave.
