The biggest con I could list is LACK OF TIME. If you are the type of person that values your weekends and weeknights off, this position is absolutely NOT FOR YOU. Be prepared to sacrifice most of your time, especially when starting off. You'll be expected to drive up to an hour for each appointment, work nights and weekends and even due marketing events to drive referral business.
Another gripe I had with the company was the compensation structure - let me explain. You receive (1) a base salary of $30,000 and (2) commission on your jobs (sales) that install. Understand that you do not get your commission until the job is installed. PANELS ON THE ROOF! There were many jobs that I never was paid on commission for. Basically, each time you sell a job you are hoping that it will pass SolarCity's engineering standards, get approved by township and approved by the utility. If these requirements are not met the job doesn't install and you DON'T GET PAID. During the time I was there I had about $15,000 worth of commissions in my job cue that I will NOT see in my bank account.
***I WORKED IN THE PHILADELPHIA AREA AND THE UTILITY COMPANY, PECO, WAS NOTORIOUS FOR DENYING APPLICATIONS. HOWEVER, THIS IS NOT A COMMON OCCURRENCE NATIONWIDE.***
Another notable cons is quality of leads generated by the company. SolarCity has various channel marketing partnerships with companies such as Best Buy and Home Depot. You probably have seen SolarCity reps at a Kiosk in these stores asking to pull up your home on Google maps and set up a consultation. The problem I discovered with approach is that most people were not in these stores with the intention of going Solar and because of miscommunication from the marketing reps regarding savings estimates, it was nearly impossible to sign up some customers in the home because they thought going Solar would save them tons of money. Note: This is especially difficult in our region considering our Solar rate wasn't much different than the utility and in some cases it was higher.
Cons:
- Appointment schedule
- Driving times
- Quality of leads
- Quota
- Being expendable
- Leadership
- Time Until Commission Payment
- Upper management still corporate
