Pros
Decent starting pay. Large public organization with surplus capital compared to privately owned dealership resulting in better buying power for employee benefits and business costs, unfortunately the pricing is where that ends. Locally there were some good people who cared and tried to do the right thing.
Cons
Total disarray in the company structure, although there is a structure it's just chaotic. Communication from the top is poor at best. There are no defined job responsibilities, people doing the same job at different locations have different titles, different incentives, different pay structure, pay varies greatly for no obvious reason, seemingly depends on your relationship with your boss which is a dangerous way to do business in today's politically correct world. Someone will take exception to that way of determining compensation and make a case of it. I am an accounting person not a Wall Street analyst, but the business model seems questionable, but it's important that employees and prospective employees see it for what it is....Being a public truck dealer and the only public truck dealer group in the country allows Rush to sell stock to investors and....employees. While on the surface you see tremendous growth in both revenue and physical locations it is all driven by those investors (employees) wanting to jump on the bandwagon, but this growth that all the Rush execs are so proud of is strictly a result of the investor cash flow going to buy out private dealers that exist. Essentially Rush is growing by buying business, not creating a demand and growing through success. Example (hypothetical): January 2014 Rush has 100 dealers and 100 million dollars in revenue. Say they take employee stock purchase dollars and buy 100 more dealerships each with a million dollars in revenue by December of 2014. Recap "In 2014 Rush Enterprises grows to add an additional 100 dealerships and an increase of 100 million dollars in sales thereby doubling its overall book of business in 12 months." Sounds great, but here is the problem, they are so busy acquiring new dealerships no one is paying attention to actually running the existing businesses. Operationally things are in total disarray. I would like to believe that at some point Rush will stop buying and actually have to run their core business. I suspect that than will be the end of their "growth" spurt. It is much more difficult to earn additional business. I truly feel the dealership I worked at was more efficient and offered better service and had real relationships with customers prior to the Rush acquisition, customers have turned into just numbers. There is one benefit to having multiple businesses operating under the same roof; it makes it easier to take a profitable business unit and mistakenly assign revenue or expense to another not so profitable business unit to even things out giving the appearance that all are profitable. I can personally attest to that practice on more than one occasion and it is disheartening to work under those circumstances. The senior/regional managers, while mostly inept at running their business, are good at polishing the knob and apparently conveying a sense of overall well being. This highlights another dangerous practice: to get a business unit recap from the mouth of someone who is paid to make sure that business unit is operating smoothly. Guess what, you are only going to hear part of the story... the good part, because no one wants to lose their 250k year job any sooner than they have to. I believe that they are actually surprised to find themselves in the position that they are now in, and knowing they are so far over their heads that they are afraid to do anything and potentially upset the apple cart. Only the visible apples on top of the cart are any good. All the apples underneath are rotten and if they spill out, the game is up and the kings and queens lose the thrones. I believe the obnoxious level of arrogance that most of the upper management people display is truly just a cover up for their incompetence - confidence comes with competence and it presents itself very differently.