Pros
A steady paycheck while working toward a REAL career elsewhere. Having several incompetent managers really makes you feel highly intelligent. Seriously one of my old managers was caught sleeping in his cubicle. Yes there are good managers but I guarantee you they are biding time until something better comes along. Bonuses can be good.
Cons
It really does feel like they hire just about anybody. Once a month I would see the trainer parade a group of raggedy clothed new hires who looked like they were picked up from the local homeless shelter. Less than a professional dress code. I was told you were supposed to wear collared shirts and Khakis or slacks Monday through Thursday or you could possibly get sent home, only I consistently saw managers wearing shorts and untucked shirts. If I'm taking the time to dress professionally, why are others constantly allowed to dress like slobs. Complete lack of screening when hiring agents. In my time working at Bridgecrest I witnessed an employee get into a fistfight with another employee right on the floor. I know for a fact that people have been fired for hitting other cars when exiting the parking lot and leaving the scene as well as fighting with other employees (And this is after having been written up several times). Limited opportunity for advancement. Occasionally people are promoted to the Senior Loan Advisor (manager trainee position), but more often than not, managers are hired from the outside. Kind of hard to work under a manager who didn't have to spend day after day dealing with angry customers and try to get them to make a payment. Not that the managers hired from the outside stick with the company. Most of the managers hired from the outside quit and move on to something better when they get a chance. Inability to keep quality employees. Again this comes back to turnover. I saw one of the most knowledgeable and respected managers get frustrated and walk right out of the building. This was after already putting in a two week notice. Employee development is non existent. Why bother when Bridgecrest is always willing to hire a fresh group of poorly screened applicants? The concept of being willing to invest in it's associates seems to be a foreign concept. I doubt it ever occurs to management that it is more expensive to have to constantly retrain new hires. Ask associates who have been at Bridgecrest for 4 years or more how many associates are still there from when they first started. Chances are they can count them on one hand.
