69% positive business outlook
Pros
Great money and culture, the team is incredibly agile.
Cons
The CEO is an absolute neurotic ****. Tends to take his rage out on whoever is in the way.
Pros
The people there are some of the hardest-working people I know. People are passionate about they do and want to deliver great experiences to customers.
Cons
The CEO is the worst leader there is. He only cares about himself and treats people terribly. I felt so ashamed of seeing the way he treats people. The leadership is afraid of doing what's right because the CEO controls them.
Pros
Awesome staff. Great CEO too.
Cons
No cons. Sharp spring was great!
Pros
The leadership team at SharpSpring really seems to care about its people, rather than just paying lip service to that value. There are many examples of this throughout my time here. I had grown pretty cynical about corporate culture over the years, but SharpSpring is starting to change that view. The company culture that is oriented towards its people trickles down to all parts of the organization. The people that work at SharpSpring are almost universally really smart, friendly, and helpful. Folks work across multiple teams and you don't really encounter the "that's not my job" mentality at SharpSpring. I took a lower level position (and a pay cut) to come work for SharpSpring after hearing a lot of hype about the organization. I was seeking a better work-life balance, and SharpSpring has delivered on that hype It's a core value of the team and management. Coming to SharpSpring has been one of the better career moves I've made. I'm happier, healthier, and already working my way back up the ladder. I've been on the team for six months and already gotten two promotions. SharpSpring leadership recognizes competency & potential and rewards that. The leadership team (including the CEO) is very down to earth and doesn't just welcome feedback, but actively solicits it. Perhaps the best thing I can say - I have encouraged all my friends to come work for SharpSpring. The same thing goes for many of the team. Employee referrals are very common for recruiting. When people want to bring in their friends and family, you know the place is good!
Cons
There are some challenges with working at SharpSpring, and I will say it's not the right fit for everyone. SharpSpring is essentially still a startup. With that, there is a lot of change that happens frequently. In order to be successful, you will need to remain flexible and open to doing different things. For me, that's perfect. But if you want a job that is consistently the same across a long time period, SharpSpring might not be the company for you. Though I will say changes are usually well communicated and are usually the product of collaborative team-based thought processes. In short - SharpSpring is still figuring things out. If you are smart and want to be part of figuring that out, you can thrive. But, if you want to be part of a team that already has all it's processes done, this isn't the place for you.
Pros
There are some great people that work for this company.
Cons
There are some really great people that work here. In fact, I've made some really good friends at SharpSpring. That, unfortunately, is the only Pro to working here. Sadly, the company is dictated by a CEO that does not care about the people who work for him. In fact, the only things that the CEO cares about are sales and his sales team (Director of Partnerships as they are called here). If you continue on reading the posted reviews, you will read many positive ones, which I can guarantee you are mostly written by his sales team. However, I promise you that if you had the chance to ask employees to answer in 100% confidentiality (as I have done) how they view working here, the results would align more closely with my review. I will speak more closely on the Client Services side which consists of Support Technicians, Professional Services, Training, and the now defunct Onboarding Team. If you were to join either of the above mentioned teams you would sign on not being fully aware of your compensation plan. To elaborate SharpSpring pays client services a large portion of their pay on what they call a "bonus" plan. However, it is not uncommon for a new hire to either 1) not be given the actual details of the bonuses or 2) have the bonus plan change shortly after you sign on (there's the tiny disclaimer on your paperwork that says they can change it at any time). Regardless, the bonus is not a true bonus. Definition of a bonus: an amount of money added to wages on a seasonal basis, especially as a reward for good performance. SharpSpring's so called bonus system is based on the same metrics that are used to measure your performance as well as compare you against members of the team. So basically, if you are not earning a bonus, then in SharpSpring's eyes that means you are not doing well and are a low performer. The bonus structure here is also designed for you to lose said award money if you do not meet those certain metrics. Most of the metrics you are aiming for are almost entirely not under your control. For example, attrition rates. In addition, there's really no employee training once you come aboard. You're pretty much are thrown to the wolves and it's see how you do type of deal. When you're new, the information can be difficult to grasp and this just shows the lack of commitment to helping employees succeed. You can believe that the Client Services side is a huge revolving door. I encourage you to take a screenshot of the meet our team page of on the SharpSpring website and come back and do that same thing in 2 months and see the new and missing faces. Sr. Management also does nothing to listen to their subordinates. They will take your feedback with a smiling face and then nothing will happen. In my honest opinion, its because any feedback they actually do try to work with gets stuffed down from their own management i.e Rick the CEO. Now onto the SharpSpring application itself. As a member of Client Services you will be working closely with the application and the users of the application on a regular basis. Wow, get ready for the biggest headache of your life. The application is built on a foundation of sloppy code. These are not just my words but words used by many of the developers, both current and former. Just wait and see how 90% of your day will be troubleshooting customer requests not because they genuinely have a question, but because the application is so unintuitive or broken half of the time. I forgot to mention, the sales team has a Slack channel called "demo-killers" so that when they are seamlessly showing off there scripted demo to prospective customers they can be sure not to ruin it by showing the true bugs of the application. The Product and Development Team, dictated by the CEO, continuously launch out new features with half decent code just to do what? MAKE SALES. As a result, you will be taking the blunt force of the customer complaints. This all sounds so harsh writing it down but its the truth and sometimes the truth sucks. SharpSpring has built an illusion in the city of Gainesville that the whole company is so happy and great while truly they hide behind their social buzz events, free bi weekly lunches, and football tailgates and claim that to have great culture. Real culture is caring about your employees, helping to improve the application by actively soliciting feedback and doing something with it, and also not lying to your customers about everything. The CEO has literally been quoted saying "we do a real good job of selling our customers the dream of SharpSpring...". To be honest I could continue writing but I hope you get the point. If you choose to work here I wish you the best of luck and hopefully you have a better experience than most (or apply for a sales position i.e Director of Partnerships) Good luck.
Pros
* Most of the people you work with are the nicest people in the world. * You'll get valuable software development experience which will help you get a job somewhere else.
Cons
* The good ol' boys mentality is the absolute worst. The saying "To get to the top, you have to drink at The Top" (local Gainesville bar) is so incredibly true. I've witnessed multiple times people be passed over for promotions for someone who was drinking buddies with someone in senior management. * The sales team is treated way better than anyone else in the company. If you read a review on here from someone with the title 'Director of Partnerships' they're just a member of the sales team. The sales team are consistently given special treatment and spend most of their time harassing the development team about minor issues and going unchecked. * The way Rick Carlson (CEO) is managing the company is terrible. He surrounds himself with Yes-Men which has lead to the promotions of people who are grossly unable to do their jobs but were promoted because they agreed to his every demand. He is the most micromanaging person I have ever met, personally proofreading every single help document article that is published and wanting full reports on any downvotes that happen to articles. * On the software side, projects and development priorities change on a whim based on whatever flavor of the month idea the CEO comes up with. Every new idea is the next most important idea leaving much of the application half-baked. Iteration is almost a dirty word to SharpSpring, where a project will begin development and planning for a V2 or V3 is frowned upon, because they want everything done in V1. MVP never means MVP and new features are consistently added into V1 delaying release instead of basic agile release and iteration. * The onboarding team has gone from a great group of customer advocates and application teachers to salesmen focused on nothing else. New clients get pressured to sell more SharpSpring to their clients instead of having a helping hand in using it as a tool to help their business.
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