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SolarCity

Acquired by Tesla

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SolarCity reviews

3.5

61% would recommend to a friend

(2,336 total reviews)
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Lyndon Rive

84% approve of CEO

56% positive business outlook

SolarCity has an employee rating of 3.5 out of 5 stars, based on 2,336 company reviews on Glassdoor which indicates that most employees have a good working experience there. The SolarCity employee rating is in line with the average (within 1 standard deviation) for employers within the Energy, Mining & Utilities industry (3.7 stars).

Reviews by job title

2K reviews
3.0
May 29, 2014
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Nice People, Meaningful Work in Solar. Industry Good job for someone starting career and OK working long hours and weekends, for not great pay. Good for super residential salesman who's expert at closing homeowner contracts on one call. Good training programs. Good experience with fast paced high expectations sales. Have to give Senior management credit for Impressive growth.

Cons

Expect to work 6-7 days a week, 50-70 hours a week. While I was there they fired the local entire management staff, and kept hiring more and more sales staff making it harder and harder to make over 60K, and if you're not making that expect to get PIP'ed. Promised supplied leads and did not deliver due to changes. Change compensation plans, pricing, etc. with no warning. High turnover. Your work here is about sell, sell, sell, cost of acquisition and reducing it, very little focus on solar itself beyond that fact that more solar is better for the planet. Most people hired come from sales backgrounds other than solar. Very little opportunity for growth outside of CA. If you're looking to build a career to make 100K+ Residential solar is not a good choice. Large Solar Company's like SC have driven up hours and demands on salaried employees and driven down benefits and pay. Solar is not a great career for people who want to make good money and have a nice work/life balance.

2.0
Mar 13, 2014
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Solar City is the undisputed leader in the clean energy industry and the upper management is extremely competent. They're well funded, have developed excellent partnerships, and have streamlined the mass residential solar installation process. I wouldn't be surprised if Solar City totally eliminated all of the competition within the next ten years- maybe sooner.

Cons

As a Field Energy Consultant most (if not all) of your leads will be self-generated. The majority of a new reps business comes from Home Depot. This entails standing in Home Depot for hours, cold calling on customers who walk by. Many customers have already been approached by reps and will try to walk by as fast as possible to avoid you. Occasionally, you will set an appointment. Some of these appointments will cancel, some will meet with you, and every now and then you'll close one. Afterwards, you'll be asked by your manager to get referrals from existing clients, knock on doors, and try to sell as many family members/friends as possible. The turnover rate for this position is enormous. The quota is difficult to achieve. You'll have three months to ramp- and if not, off with your head. The majority of successful reps come from a previous role as inside sales rep with Solar City. They already have a referral base that's enough to supplement their business and in effect- hit quota. The base is minimal (35K). You'll be forced to drop price because of competition or other various reasons. I did many deals for about 100 bucks in commission. Expect to make about 4 to 6k a month.

1.0
Feb 3, 2014

A Stepping Stone with no pay Raises

Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Good Benefits. A good place to get started in Solar, those who get it down, leave SolarCity and go to other solar companies to make better pay.

Cons

No pay raises. Very high turnover, very unorganized, routinely told to violate code to just "make it happen".

Viewing 67 - 69 of 2,336 Reviews

Glassdoor has 2,374 SolarCity reviews submitted anonymously by SolarCity employees. Read employee reviews and ratings on Glassdoor to decide if SolarCity is right for you.