Pros
- There is the possibility for huge earning potential in sales/account management. - Promotions MAY happen quickly and explanations for the promotion can be vague or mysterious. - Many professional skills and abilities are quickly learned. - Communication lines with middle and upper management are mostly open but can be tricky to navigate at times depending on the issue and advice/answers given often differ depending on who you ask your questions to. - Employees do see their efforts directly affecting business development and the company's bottom line. - Strong friendships develop easily and quickly and a strong feeling of camaraderie exists within each member of each promotional level. - Fun and young company in general.
Cons
- Hours are a minimum of 10 per day, the day starts early at 7:00 am sharp and goes until 5:00 pm but it is very unlikely that you will actually leave at 5 - days are typically 11 hours long, to add to that it is encouraged that you arrive before 7 to get your day set up because the minute the clock strikes 8:00 am you need to have the hand-held, bulky phone glued to your ear. -Working on Saturdays and Sundays is highly valued by middle and upper management if and only if you achieve something worth talking about in the following work week. - Goals and quotas are set ridiculously high and the management technique behind this is based on fear: you become fearful of hearing that you are not cutting it and that you may not be working hard enough even though you are most likely doing a great job by putting in extra hours and cutting off other parts of your life to meet the unachievable goals to satisfy middle and upper management. - You are expected to complete the tasks and duties that most companies would have 3 different people complete and this is why it is especially difficult to meet goals and quotas and is also why you are likely to work 60 hour weeks. - You are secretly expected to attend all office outings, company meetings, large conference trips (2 per year). In other words - although middle management will not admit it, you are only likely to be a candidate for promotion in their eyes if you demonstrate complete dedication to the company and all its events. - You are expected to follow the strict dress code: only blue or white button downs are acceptable and middle management will make an example of you if you wear another color, you must wear a full black or charcoal suit, you must tie a full Windsor knot and the tie must be tasteful (according to middle management), clean cut and shaven everyday is a must but is typical of many sales roles. Distasteful Practices: - The company is overly concerned with the bottom line which encourages ripping people off such as low-balling numbers to contractors and high-pitching numbers to clients. (Maximization of profit margin and commission pay). - The company is not concerned much at all with employee satisfaction - there is currently somewhere around a 60% attrition rate for first year employees. - Company benefits and policies are never clearly or officially explained to you as an employee leaving a lot of authority to middle management even when middle management should not have such authority. - Sick days are highly discouraged and will hurt your numbers/reaching your goals even if the sick day(s) is warranted. - The description of the job by an internal recruiter is false by many marks, some new employees do not even realize that they are entering the company as "Recruiters" in a role where they must prove themselves every minute of every day. Also, some of the perks of the role are actually non-existent once you begin such as "commission pay for recruiters" which does exist but is so low (only 1% of the profit margin you attain through your individual efforts) that is not worth mentioning. - There is very minimal training and finding out many of the fine details of how to complete tasks properly and effectively is challenging and frustrating for new employees. Existing employees and peers are very helpful here but they too are over stressed and have trouble finding the time to help. - Both upper and middle management are too nit-picky as to where there are areas for improvement. Since demands are too high and time is too scarce, this shifts the focus of lower level employees weekly or even daily to specific areas, leaving last week’s focus point behind and in the dust.
