So far in my time at DSI I have had a fairly great experience.
Pros
The district I work in is one of the hardest in the country which poses its own challenges, but as far as company and managerial support and flexibility I have been encouraged to do my job to the best of my abilities considering the constraints. The company supports its employees well from needed materials (car, technology, supplies, etc.) to (decent) freedom, flexibility and autonomy, yet you also still get a bit of team comradery periodically as well. The company strives for open and honest communication and for the most part holds true to that on their end. Great benefits, culture, etc. all in all I think they've stepped things up since reviews I've read in the past.
Cons
Currently there are a lot of upper management and leadership changes including a new CEO and the resignation of the vp of sales. I do think the direction we're heading may look a little more similar to bigger corporate pharma but thinks hard to say now whether it's a pro or a con. They're tightening up on budget and the bottom line is bei closely evaluated but in some regard, rightfully so as there was likely a lot of waste in the past. It's smart for a growing company of our size, I just hope it's done smoothly and respectfully to the sales force and doesn't come on too extreme in the coming months. Other shortfalls have been the product pipeline in the past and still currently at the moment primary care reps are stuck selling 13-15 year old products which =not much new and exciting to talk to physicians about on a regular basis but in the coming months we'll have the first of a few new products to steer repping and that should liven things up. I have. Really hard time judging the overall total compensation package. I do think our benefits out win many others outside of pharma and even most within. Salaries on the other hand I don't truly know what's fair, good, or expected for someone new entering this industry. I sometimes feel like I shot mine low and wish I had asked for more initially. Some territories are small and dense and you can truly have great work life balance in that kind of territory but if your territory is widespread, expect to drive a lot and often that means longer days than your colleagues in smaller areas. Where they can spend in between office time keeping up on things like emails and reading that's assigned, in a larger territory your in between time is spent driving which means you're doing those such things either early in the morning, or in your evenings or weekends. Work life balance becomes a little tougher the further distances you have to drive between targets.