Pros
Potential Growth, Potential Travel, Potential Success, Even Playing Field, Promote From Within There are a lot of solid people in management, admin, and beginning roles at Acquire. Although not employed there currently, there are several other former employees who I remain friends with. Management was gracious and cordial to my face during my departure and it would be a lie to say I was never shown kindness and encouragement during my time with the company. I have witnessed many people grow through the company very quickly, make a very nice living for themselves, and remain successful to this day. It is possible; reviews saying it isn't are embellishing. Everyone is given an even playing field at the start, there are no outside promotions. You can travel once promoted if you desire, and they do allow you to clock in for your drive from the office to other locations so that does help when having to travel to and from locations. There are skills I learned that I will take with me and have been able to use in my employment since leaving Acquire.
Cons
Misleading Job Titles, Unrealistic Expectations, Unhealthy Time Commitments, Toxic Management Culture When looking on job platforms you will see multiple positions : Marketing Coordinator, Brand Representative, Client Success Consultant, etc. However, regardless of what you apply for, everyone begins in the same position, and at first it will be essentially 100% a sales role. That is fact. Promotions are made on sales success amongst others factor but consistent sales quotas are the primary factor for promotions that allow you to advance. Just a heads up because as someone who was not interested in sales, the amount of sales I would be doing was slightly vague in my interview. Interviewers are prompted to make the interviewees interests seem more in line with what their job will be than it will be in actuality. I understand that the potential is there but I believe the interview method allows for embellishments to be made in order to get someone in the door. You will be committing more than 40 hours a week to the company. There are spoken/ unspoken expectations that lead to a devotion of hours further than the typical work week. While the company events outside of work can be fun and rewarding, it seems to be a bigger deal than it should if you are unable to make it, especially once you are promoted to the Corporate Trainer role or above. While in management, I was able to hear from my coworkers and higher management that you are expected to show up to every unpaid after work event and lead by example and it is highly frowned upon if you don't show up. I have heard management say "maybe you would be more successful if you came to Team Nights, network more, etc." While I will admit spending quality time with your team is important, every Wednesday after working all day and being looked down on for showing up late or leaving early adds unnecessary stress... come on guys, it's bowling. Additionally as a client rep, we were instructed to arrive to work nearly 30-45 minutes or more before the morning meetings began but then were chastised for clocking in for this time. It is understandable to expect punctuality but the expectation of dedicating that much unpaid time per week is unfair and unrealistic. Regarding hours, I will not speak for everyone, as multiple interviews are conducted and not everyone has the same interviewer, but I was told the shifts at the location would be 5 hours max to avoid burnout + the time in the office. I assumed it was a 9-5 when it wasn't. Perhaps I should have asked but when presented as a marketing role, I feel it was a fair assumption to make. Just keep in mind that in reality you will work 6 days a week and most days for me looked like 7:30 AM -7:00 PM (with an hour break, travel time, and that awkward downtime that doesn't allow you to do much ). On nights with a team event my day was much longer, especially once in a management role. If this is something you are okay with, great. For me it was fine at first and got exhausting as time went on and caused me a lot of stress. When speaking to management about the amount of hours and my concerns as a client rep I was told they were working on hiring more people and encouraged to get promoted to management so I could hire people to alleviate that work load. As management you are encouraged to simply hire more people. On that note, the hiring/interview process can be problematic. Once promoted to a Corporate Trainer the goal is to hire people and build your team. Okay, awesome. The company mainly stresses just getting people hired. We were essentially encouraged to say whatever it took to get them to accept (without lying), and make it seem like they were being selective so the interviewee would want the job more. I was told when hired they were only hiring the top 20% of applicants and when I got to the job there was a training class every week and we were instructed to say yes to everyone who interviewed unless there was something really wrong. (And of course we were, how else are you going to reduce your own workload once it becomes your responsibility to hire people to share the schedule with? Don't forget you have to train them first though so your workload will only increase at first ). I understand that this method gives everyone a shot, but I believe a lot of time is wasted for those who were hired because they were misled and for the person who hired them, took them to coffee, and had their new hire quit once fancy talk couldn't do the trick and the reality of the job was in front of their face. Finally I will say I witnessed a lot of negativity and toxic work culture hidden behind a veil of positivity and enthusiasm. All management roles are expected to be upbeat, positive, and never tired. If you say you are tired or exhausted it's seen as an unhealthy mindset, "negging out" or letting your environment beat you. In reality, it can just be hard to keep up with the expectations and human beings get tired. We are encouraged to go "up" with our problems which I believe is healthy but then you hear essentially it's all in your head and to get over it. When you are a new hire everyone is really kind, encouraging patient, friendly, to your face. Little do you know every Wednesday morning all the management team gets together and writes everyone's name on a board and discusses if they should be promoted, fired, who should have extra attention paid to them, etc. That is good in theory but it turns toxic quickly and I heard people get made fun of for the way they look, dress, speak, and act with no intervention from higher-ups. I witnessed a lot of speeches on techniques for how to manipulate your team into ignoring their concerns. I've heard management joke about just firing someone for not making enough sales (even though they preach to the teams they would never do that). It was uncomfortable to witness but with management being in those meetings and laughing along I didn't feel I had anyone to speak up to about the issue. I also witnessed a lot of trash-talking of other employees, bad mouthing the success of others, and just a lot of non team-oriented behavior that I believe was cultivated by there not being a safe place to go with negative emotions and a high pressure to be positive at all times.
