Frat house meets puppy mill meets red bull
Pros
Except where expressly stated, this review is mainly for the Waltham Inside Sales dept. For a sales org, the vacation policy is pretty nice. 4 weeks off total you can take, but what's really cool is that you get an adjustment on your goal for the month that you took vacation along with a much much smaller adjustment for the following month (to compensate for the leads you didn't get during your vaca that you obviously won't be able to close the following month). Coming from the car industry, where you get about 4 hours off per year total, the vacation policy here I found very refreshing. This one isn't so much about the company per se, but rather the people I've worked with tend to be good. Some are shady, sure, but most are generally good. There's a lot of opportunity to build a network that you can use later on. The company may look at employees as numbers before names, but the individuals you work with very well may care, and may help. When top dogs leave the organization, make sure you stay in touch. If you're new to sales or just a little xp, this role will develop you. Only as individual contributor, not a leader, manager, mentor, or anything else. But if your only goal is to get better as a sales rep, this job will certainly help. At least for the first 6-9 months.
Cons
Super opaque communications around employee development. If you work here, please ask about the "nine box" - the "secret managerial grading rubric that higher-ups use to determine how, or even if, you ever advance. After grinding for a year I applied, and was rejected, for an internal opportunity but encouraged to reapply when another position opened up. 6 months later it did, I reapplied, and the hiring process got strung out for another 4 months. HR offered vague deflections and no explanations. Sure, it would've been nice to be able to achieve my goals there, but my biggest hang up is that I might have been able to if management didn't try hide their evaluation of my skill set or performance. It's like driving with your eyes closed, some people do make it to their destination but most crash. Going back to the whole grind thing, it really really is. When I was there part of a rep's daily requirement aside from generating actual sales, were logging activities. 240 minutes (or 4 hours) out an 8 hour work day needs to be on the phone with a customer (not even dialing but actually on the phone). If you make fewer than 60 calls in a day you better have stellar sales to show for it, otherwise the issue is clearly your effort and they flick you on the nose (metaphorically). This one could be a pro for some, loud music. Super loud, all the time. If there were a 1:1 relationship between decibels and goal attainment, or between acoustic energy and emotional energy, they'd be at 200% of goal every month. I can't tell you how many deals I've lost, customers who've hung up on me citing the background noise as the reason. There's a huge "rah rah" atmosphere. You'll get about 10, caps lock on, "let's go!" emails per day. There have also been more than a handful of ethical conflicts of interest too. Like reps, managers get paid off the % attainment to monthly goal, and are very financially motivated to see high numbers from the individuals who compose their team. When these individuals step outside the ethical lines to artificially inflate their numbers (for instance selling a customer on a month to month subscription in month 1, getting a sale for that month, and then reselling that same customer an annual subscription on month 2 or 3, which generates 2 sales for 1 customer, etc.). Now why does it matter to you if Joey over there is making twice as much as you? It doesn't, except that performance is scaled to the whole department, things like only the top x% of reps get a promotion mean that cheaters just make more work for everyone else. A lot of times in sales you have to find that ethical line and not cross it. You're close to hitting goal, and you're talking with a prospect who maybe isn't a good fit but you need their money, and they trust you enough to take the step if you advise them to. It's all about the adds, getting sales, not really about getting customers. This one isn't necessarily a con. The job has an expiration date. It's the exact same thing, every day, every day, every day. After 6 months or so, if you trust your manager, start talking with him or her about what good next steps might be for you. Get in front of the burnout and ennui, before it starts to affect your performance. The messaging from management is sometimes contradictory too. Like with weather emergencies you'll be officially told that safety is their top concern, and in the same breath they'll say that "you don't have to, but I'm coming in. I know a bunch of other people are coming in too. Don't feel like you have to, but literally everybody is working in the office today." Yes this is an exaggeration, but not by much and the mixed messaging is 100% true. Going back to sales being in a silo, the sales team is very discouraged from any company events or activities that take time off the phones. Halloween party where everyone's invited? Nope! Get back on the phones. Hey we got a monthly masseuse coming in as a benefit for our employees, let's tell the whole company about it. Psyche! Back on the phones. Had a tough day and taking a 40 minute lunch? Are you out of your mind! Do you want the company to go under?! If you're there, and you want to succeed, just drink the rah rah koolaid. Send out the caps lock emails. Maybe a Michael Jordan quote or something. Internalize the culture and regurgitate it everywhere. Be seen talking about the virtues of the elements of the sales success map.