So I see that a lot of previous reviews are either short "I HEART VIN" posts or "This company now sucks!!!" posts; my honest opinion is somewhere in-between these two polar views, and here's why.
I agree with the overall idea that upper management is largely impotent. There are always big, sunny ideas presented and rah-rah talk about how great our product is, how so-and-so's team are rockstars and so on, but it's all fluff. The most popular "Solutions" are to bring in someone form outside the company who has a connection to someone high in the tree and let them run free bringing in anyone they used to work with or pick from (what seems to be) the pre-determined sub group of "acceptable" employees (which is really nothing more than the "favorites club").
And like was mentioned before, yes, a few days ago everyone got an email out of nowhere that said to come on Glass Door and "give your company a Great review." First class Bush League stuff right there.
The product could truly be great, I honestly believe that, but is stuck in a cycle of not really listening to our users (which is how the CRM was first built, coincidentally) and taking WAYYYYYY too long to make any creative changes. This is the same critique for both the CRM and Websites. The fact that we are just now converting some of our customers to a responsive website platform is laughable (seriously, it's midway through 2015) and the persistent issues that are still happening with that platform on what seems to be a daily basis are equally a joke. I will say that Desking 3.0 was the truly last significant product release for VinSolutions as it was actually a completely new piece, with a modern UI and functionality. It's a shame the CRM falls behind.
The biggest lesson I can pas along from almost three years at VinSoutions is that if you bust your tail and do your job batter than all or most all others in your department...YOU GET TO STAY THERE. Congratulations!!! If you do mostly good work, but bond with anyone higher than your Supervisors and direct Managers, than you get quicker promotions and higher salaries than the rest of us: "Go ahead and take a two hour lunch and a half-day Friday. You deserve it."
Overall, the talk is not backed up with corresponding action: the CRM is told to be the top-of-the-line, but really it's maybe a little ahead, if that, of industry standard. The new website platform is sold as the next greatest web innovation, but it's not. It's not even the best dealer website platform out there. We brag about how we build and upgrade out products based on what the customers recommend and suggest, but really, those who have been here the longest in DEV and Product get to dictate what gets done and how. Every higher-up in the company will harp that "...what separates us from everyone else in the industry is our superior support." I have witnessed how support works and know how they are treated. The truth is that nobody works harder for less pay than those answering the phones in support. What is probably the most disturbing thing is that when things really hit the fan, all those from the aforementioned "favorites club" point fingers at support, at PMs, and at WAMs and when things are running smooth, well that's when these ladder-climbers grab that credit and get some sort of "award."
And, finally, there is the Vin pay gap. If you aren't in this favorites club, you may make an average pay for your position. Those in sales and developers make much more than the other departments, but that is pretty standard across companies, so no big surprise there, but if you take them out of the equation, there are defiantly the haves and have-nots. And if you do work in support, you're lucky to make half that of what other departments make.
