Pros
- Great work environment. Softchoice is really a fun place to work thinking about the human element. Regardless of the sale's floors general knowledge of technology or the enthusiasm to learn from other Pre-Sales Architects, softchoice has incredible spirit. Almost comparable to what you felt when you went to college/university (You have to work a 9 to 5 now so it's tempered. But definitely present.) You WILL have fun at softchoice, young or old (from what I see). - As a large Reseller Softchoice often has great relationships with various vendors and as a pre-sale architect, I received thousands of dollars of free courses and training from my Vendor - I had a great boss. An okay to good boss seems to be the norm across the board, very few actually bad ones on the PreSales Business Development side - Most successful "open door policy" I have seen. While I did not interact much with the executive staff, within a month of working there I had been introduced to and was meeting with Directors, SVPs and the like who were happy to answer questions. There does not seem to be much inherit pompousness with titles which is good - Slower work pace. This one is a little strange for me because I came from as close as a PreSales can get to a sweat shop to much, MUCH slower pace. My idea of "normal" might be a bit warped. - Fast. As a company Softchoice moves much faster than my previous work environments. If they say they are going to do something, expect it done next quarter rather than in the next 2 years. Allows them to adapt I could go on, but these are some of the top of mind issuses
Cons
- Silos. Oh the silos. Sales is siloed from PreSales, PreSales is siloed from Services, hell PreSales are siloed from OTHER PreSales resources (which make building complete solutions more challenging than it needs to be.) Now as I mentioned, softchoice is fast so there is already moves to fix this. Now how that will turn out? We shall see. - For a PreSales resource, the progression path is not clear. There seem to be a lot of BUs and orgs around but no defined path of entry. They may exisit, but I have not been made aware of them and I am the type to nose around. - Technical Sellers and resources don't lead deal. I had gotten used to the idea of as long as you are decent on the phone with a customer and we are talking about solutions, the technical sellers and resources should lead the engagement (not the relationship mind you. The Particular solution.) - The company seemed to have already bet on it's horses, which is usually required as a reseller, however it still tries to have a far a reach as possible with all technologies which confuses the sales force a bit. - Sales enablement while plentiful does not seem particularly, functionally effective.
