Pros
Your experience at Volusion may vary based on the department you work in, but if you are in Sales you can truly expect to learn a lot, improve as a sales person, make good money and carve a career path out for yourself within the tech industry. Being in sales, you truly get out what you put in.
Not in any order, but the pros would be:
- Excellent management/leadership. You aren't going to work for a better Director of Sales than Jay Motwani and he assembles an excellent management team underneath him. If you are learning from Lauren Garza and Dustin Frazier, then you are learning from some of the very best that I've ever come across. Each of the named individuals above are true servant leaders and will do more for you than most any manager you might find elsewhere.
- A core team of caring and motivated sales people. Volusion may not have the very best ecommerce product on the market, but this team busts their butts day in and day out to get the job done. You don't have to sell the top product in the world to succeed in sales. There is definitely a lot of competition in a fairly saturated market, but at the end of the day if you are passionate about what you are doing, take your role seriously, and sell yourself, YOU WILL SUCCEED at Volusion.
- The ability to quickly make an impact. Volusion is the type of place where you can come in and hit the ground running and your work will truly be felt within the company. I've seen many sales reps come in and find quick success, and then I've seen others that may take a bit more time but when it clicks, it really clicks. Just know that your managers won't give up on you unless you give up on Volusion and yourself.
- You will learn more about the tech industry (eCommerce specifically) working at Volusion in 3 months than you would if you worked 1 year at some "major" tech company. Due to the transactional nature of Volusion's sales process, you will face a VERY DIVERSE range of customers. On one call you may be talking to someone with a dollar and a dream who's credit card declines for $15, and then the next minute you are talking to a C Level Exec with a big budget. The best salespeople are the ones who can be chameleons and talk to anyone.
- It's not something that I'm particularly super into, but Volusion's People and Culture team really do a great job of offering the typical type of perks that you will find around the Austin tech companies. There are scooters, free snacks, tons of free food (you'll probably pack on a couple lbs), comfortable lounge chairs (for those with laptops), arcade games, etc.... If you are in Sales, the reality is that you probably won't take advantage of all the perks available because your phone is your money maker. If you see that as a negative thing, sales probably isn't for you.
Overall, Volusion always treated me very well and I hold a high level of respect for everyone that works there. It was very difficult to leave Volusion as I care so much about the team I left behind and the colleagues that I built close friendships with. Everyone that has a customer facing job at Volusion - Sales/Account Management/Support/etc... - you really earn your paycheck every month, but that's a good thing. If you are lazy, you will not succeed in any of these departments, so the work ethic you learn to have will bring you success in your career.
Cons
- I really don't have anything bad to say about Volusion. Like any company, there are ups and downs and there are times when you have to weather the storm, but if you focus on the things within your control and keep a positive attitude, you will be rewarded. For those that feel they are weathering the storm right now - keep your heads up because there is a lot of good stuff on the way.
