Yelp is a cool company at times. The people that they hire are friendly, outgoing & have amazing personalities, and you will make some really cool friends. Also, free healthcare. BUT......
The pay is horrendous & the actual work is awful!!
It was a shame I had to leave but I resigned before I had another opportunity lined up because the job was so awful.
First I'll speak about the pay, there isn't much to say except $35,000 a year is not enough live on in NYC. The offices are downtown - do they expect all of their employees to have less than an hour commute and live in the suburbs? I stay in the 'burbs, and let me tell you, after paying rent I had very little extra funds. They tell you that your first year you are expected to make 45-50k and that is just NOT the case and I will tell you why in a minute, but let me move on to why the job is awful.....
It is simply cold calling sales. Meaning..... YOU'RE A GLORIFIED TELEMARKETER!!! You make 90-100 dials a day and you are supposed to be speaking with small business owners but very rarely do you get in touch with them. The metrics are 2+ hours of talk time, 65-80 dials a day and 3+ appointments. Those metrics are impossible to meet because literally no one wants to talk to you. So you keep getting hung up on by hostesses, peons, auto shop workers, ESL workers, nail salon women, and maybe some business owners (in the unlikely event that you get one on the phone).
Therefore the only metric you are able to somewhat hit is the dials. If you don't schedule any appointments to show business owners the product then you obviously will not close a deal so, you won't make commission. To make commission you have to make $30,000+ for the company every month. The whole process is completely unrealistic and I feel as if you are set up for failure as an AE.
There also isn't a lot of career opportunity or choices. Neither you're in inside sales or you're a manager - that's it.
LISTEN TO ME: Cold-calling is not for everyone. 95% of the people you call DO NOT respect you and most of the time, they won't even view you as a human being. You're just another telemarketer trying to sell them something they have no interest in buying. So be ready for that.
Oh and they shove how GREAT Yelp ads down your throat from the moment you walk in the door until the day you can't take it anymore and leave. I'll never forget my first day on the job, in training, when we were told getting this job at Yelp was harder than getting into Harvard University. No, they really said that. And it was only the beginning. You're constantly told that no other job in the world is fun and relaxed like your role at Yelp. They tell you Yelp is the greatest thing since sliced bread, even though public perception of the company continues to worsen, and look at you like you're crazy if you ever doubt the company and its capabilities. They TRY to brainwash you to believe that there is truly no other form of marketing that local businesses should ever consider. IT'S ALL A LIE!!!
Also, on the sales floor we were constantly taught that over-talking and overselling the product demonstrated doubt in the product on our end as sales people. The thought process was the product is so great that all we had to do was present it, keep it simple and we were golden. Perhaps the management at Yelp should take this into account when they're telling us several times a month how lucky we are to have this job, how great it is, etc. You begin to realize that you, along with the rest of the sales floor, is sold by upper management on a daily basis. Things are carefully crafted and worded to put them in a more positive light to keep morale up, hints of promotions are thrown around liberally to inspire motivation and they always have an explanation/spin to negative press about the company, even if it's true. (Especially on the financial front)
Please, for the love of God, stop calling yourself a startup, Yelp. The company is way, way past that phase and is anything but at this point. It's a large public company and the employees do not have the freedoms/opportunities they would at a traditional, true startup. This goes back to the ping pong tables, kegs, casual dress etc. In reality, they're hardly, if ever used. The keg is strictly off limits until after 5:30, no one uses the ping pong table unless they're staying inside the office for lunch (which I would recommend always getting outside and getting fresh air, unless it's freezing of course) or staying late after work. They're nothing more than props to A) entice desperate college graduates on the job hunt and B) give a false sense of working at a fun, laid-back startup to current employees.
Make no mistake, the sales floor is high pressure and metrics are painstakingly monitored. And depending on your manager, it can be even more stressful. Certain managers even make their reps work through lunch, which is illegal, but I guess that doesn't really matter to the company when its struggling to hit its revenue numbers like never before. I can't say it enough, Yelp is NOT a startup anymore.
Immature atmosphere. I think a lot of this goes back to the startup vibe. Most of the people on the sales floor have no idea what working at a startup is truly like, INCLUDING young supervisors who are still in their frickin 20s, but they think they have this shiny, unique job at a "tech company" and it almost makes them overcompensate. We share a building with Credit Suisse and I kid you not, I would hear Yelp reps crack jokes daily about the Credit Suisse employees after they got off the elevator about their professional attire, their jobs, etc. Yes, let's make fun of the people making three times as much as we are. That makes a lot of sense.
Also, the office can be extremely high school-like. Very gossipy, cliquey. All of that nonsense. Overall just lacking professionalism in that department far too often.
Territories. You're a slave to the system of territories. You will constantly be told that territories don't matter. Laugh every time you're told that. Territories absolutely matter. All of the best reps in the company have major metro areas like NYC, Boston, Chicago etc. If territories didn't matter, there wouldn't be certain managers who do shady things to get their reps the best territories possible. On top of that, because the company is under so much pressure to hit that magical billion in revenue, they are constantly hiring in large numbers. We're talking 70-80 people a class. Because of this, territories are getting smaller and accounts are being touched way too often. If you get a new territory, chances are the best accounts in it were touched no longer than 2 or 3 weeks ago.
Oh, and everyone's screwing everyone!!! Managers screwing managers. Reps screwing reps. Reps screwing managers. It's like one big orgy at this place. Then again when everyone is in their 20s and full of raging hormones, what do u expect??
It's VERY hard to sell against this company's reputation right now. The higher ups will tell you they've always had their share of obstacles, but reps who have been around since 2012 and 2013 will tell you it's noticeably more difficult than it's ever been right now. There's just too much anti-Yelp clout out there to make it all go away like they're aiming for. Most reps, like myself included, feel that if we don't close a business on the first call, we'll never close them. The reason being that they'll most likely go to Google when they're making their decision, and what they're going to see is nothing but negative. On top of that, the company as a whole is on the way down. It's not the "next big thing" or hot platform it was a few years ago. The stock is suffering and not going anywhere anytime soon.
Conclusion: DO. NOT. WORK. HERE!!!!
