Pros
Don’t let all the reviews get you down, there are some good things to be had at Clearspan/Farmtek, it is a job, you can make money, and they do allow (for sales folk) unlimited overtime. And that’s about it…maybe experience if you need some for the old res. The rest my friends is down hill from here… Advice if you plan on talking this job, be good with change. Not good productive change, more of a change with no reason or rushed reaction change, frustrating change that will make no sense, less if you ask why and will bother you more if you understand it. Some call it Riding the wave. Just go with the flow, because if you question the wind of change you will drown.
Cons
The bad, you may not want to work overtime, because this is the land of micromanagement, be prepared to have a bunch of bosses that all have no idea how to manage people or do your job lurking over your shoulder (all day/every day), with nothing truly productive, just “what have you got for me today ? Can I drink top shelf vodka tonight?”. And the cream of the micromanagement crop would be the call reviews. Every call you take or make is recorded, so that you get to have call reviews, they happen often(daily), it’s you and a bunch of other sales piers, along with a few managers and if you are lucky, the owner of the company listening to one of your phone calls, this could be productive, but not at Farmtek, here they take turns telling you how much you suck, and what you did to screw up a sales call, very little productive comes from this, most stress about it, then feel defeated after, the ones that don’t stress about it just don’t care about the call reviews or their job. The smart sales reps cut the call off and just start talking about how well it ended, even if that’s not the truth, just make something up – fake it till you make it. This is all they do for real training, listen to some calls, and boy oh boy you better be an expert in everything, every industry, every use for the product, everything…this is impossible, they want you with no experience in a field to tell someone how they should operate their entire business, and if you can’t, because of coarse you can’t, have you ever owned a mining company or a farm or an import export business? well then you suck. As well know that what they tell you is the commission plan now will change, yearly, always in the company benefit (sell more – make less). They are hiring constantly, and not because they are looking for great people, mostly because they need people to fill seats, people leave like buffalo when they sense wolves. They don’t even like when people talk to each other, get caught making friends in the building and they will try and put the kybosh on that post haste. Friends are for the unemployed!!!. Maybe it’s because most of management doesn’t have friends. That’s just an assumption, but I’d guess it is a good one. Be prepared to be written up, doesn’t matter how long you’ve been there or how hard you work, they will write you up for something someday. And the example set by management on some of these things is laughable, Hypocrisy runs rampant in South Windsor CT, don’t get caught doing what management is doing…because you will get written up. In Sales they have Metrics, but don’t ask them to furnish any data on how they came up with your score…they don’t even know how they did it, but you can be written up and fired over it, sound like fun? there’s more. Like I said don’t ask for proof of anything. That gets you promoted. To customer. Know that management truly doesn’t care about you or your family, kid sick need a day off…well get ready you will be treated like Tom Brady in Buffalo, it’s snowing and you don’t feel safe going to work, well good luck they never close, and those that call out get attendance points, which will get you written up. My advice, don’t have kids while you work here, unless you have a spouse that can take a lot of time off work, hell you will struggle to have a dog living under managements thumb. Hey Christmas eve is a Thursday…come to work!!! Who needs family when you have Farmtek (they are your family now), you want the day off? Hope you put in for it early because they want as many as possible on hand incase people call during a holiday to order a widget, ohh the warehouse is closed and we can’t ship anything anyways…who cares stay at work family is for wimps. I would advise not telling anyone why you take time off as well, ...keep it secret keep it safe. most companies have training, have you read some piece or literature that aligns with company goals and how to get there, what to do to keep you motivated etc… not Farmtek, it’s just sales book of the month, who had a good YouTube that management liked about being the Cuban cigar or the cigarette, let’s make everyone read it and talk about their feelings about each chapter as we get through it. Literally 0 sales people here enjoy how this is done, everyone laughs at managers that love the books, but it’s a waste of your time, but don’t let them know you hate it…wait did I just spill the beans here…ohh well sorry y'all In sales get ready to fight internally Like a 22-year-old Mike Tyson for every decent order you have, most departments could care less if your order is done at all, done well, or done on time, it’s a daily struggle to get anyone motivated to do anything, getting an order through is like pulling teeth from a ticked off Bear. Be prepared to apologize a lot to customers, the quality is below the market average on almost everything they make or sell, and it's evident.