Pros
Softchoice is very good at selling. Most of the company are salespeople who pick up the phone to call customers. It is also a great place to be if you are white. If you are a person of color with no intentions on rising to a VP level, then it is also a good place to work.
Cons
At its heart, Softchoice, like most tech companies, is run by a club of white males. When researching the company, what attracted me was the count of awards and being rated a great place to work. Two of the 4 company values are "We grow our people first" and "We take care of each other". Under Diversity and Inclusion, two initiatives they profess to take are 'Shades of Orange' (focusing on the success of visible minorities) 'Hello Softchoice' (focusing on new employees to get acclimatized). Sounds good, doesn't it? Except that it is lip service. Under the hood, the Executive Leadership is run by an entirely white team. The CEO and all Senior Vice Presidents are white male who will do anything to keep it that way. Keep in mind that they don't disclose the identity of the executive team members on their website. A couple of months after joining the company, I had lunch with the CEO and pointed out to him that while the company was doing well with diversity at the lower levels, at the top it was completely white. He acknowledged it and said that I would see some improvements at the annual sales kickoff that was to take place in the first week of January. The sales kickoff itself featured a video profiling 2 individual contributors from minority backgrounds, and a lunch panel session on Diversity and Inclusion that did not feature anyone of color. That was it. Moreover, no changes to the executive leadership were made. At the end of the kickoff, when I met the CEO, I told him that this was not good enough, he just shut down. His face became ashen and he parted ways. This was "White Fragility" at its core. The following week, at an offsite event, I was chatting with my second-level manager, a white man. At one point, over drinks he mentioned how the company lost out on US Federal contracts because of Obama. I asked him to clarify his provocative statement. He awkwardly said that because of Equal Opportunity laws, there was no way that Softchoice would win Federal government contracts. At that point I told him how Equal Opportunity really works, and mentioned my conversations with the CEO on diversity at the executive level. He sheepishly made an excuse to walk away. I was fired the following week. It came as a complete shock, not only to me, but to my teammates and to our Partner. Three reasons for my dismissal were given. The first was that I appeared to be 'disengaged', without giving any more details. This had never been hinted in any prior feedback. They could have just said they didn't like me. Of course, that is a very subjective reason and difficult to rationalize. On my part, I will say that I had been light-heartedly ridiculed at the annual company sales kick-off, two weeks prior, for rather excessively seeking out colleagues from all over USA and Canada who had flown in. I had wanted to meet them in person and put face to name. It had gotten to the point that my teammates found it amusing how keen I was to meet co-workers in person who I could normally meet only over conference calls. Doesn't sound like a 'disengaged' person, does it? Unless the Softchoice values didn't apply to me. When I probed deeper for a termination reason, my manager said that the Partner wasn't comfortable with me. No incident or example was mentioned. This was also ludicrous because I kept in touch with multiple people from the Partner afterwards and they told me that they were in shock that I was dismissed. The third reason for the termination was that certain events from the previous week (the offsite event) spurred the decision to fire me. Again, he didn't give any particular reason. That's when the lightbulb switched on. It turns out that my second-level manager had never attended college. On the other hand, I had attended one of the best universities in the world, where I overlapped with his second-level manager (a senior vice-president). At one point in time, I mentioned it to him in passing (not on the same occasion as the Equal Opportunity conversation). It was clear that he felt threatened by me, that I could have risen above him, and so, in his insecurity, he needed me out. Keep in mind that there are a few people from minority backgrounds in the company who get recognized and rewarded. They may get invited to "President's Club" or similar flattering events, but they will *never* make it to VP level because of the color of their skin. Some of them are poster-children for the company in its efforts to appear embracing of Diversity and Inclusion and will show up in company videos and other promotional content. My experience at Softchoice was that the company was very selective in who it applies "We grow our people first" and "We take care of each other" values to.
