Pros
You will earn a livable wage while learning: 1.) Sales estimating 2.) Financial Management 3.) Operations Management 4.) Developing soft skills 5.) Project Management 6.) Commercial property development 7.) Facilities Management
Cons
Promotion potential is next to none existent. Furthermore, the good ole boy system runs rampant so your chances of progressing are limited to what positions can be created to appease your appetite for a title. Beware of “Southern Region,” leadership as they could careless about what you accomplish…they will create a success narrative around those in the crew. You won’t beat these guys no matter how good the business case so go into this place with the “if I can beat I might as well join-’em” mindset. Diversity is nearly non-existent. The diversity box is checked entirely by hiring women and then show casing them on Linkdin during the appropriate month. Just go look on linkdin. Generally, you will find Caucasian women are on the agenda. From time to time the company recruits from HBCUs as a means of checking that box. African Americans have next to no chance. They hire African Americans for perceptions sake, then give them zero training or support. There will be zero integration into the local office communications architecture. The treatment starts on day 1, so conducting terminations is easy when the time comes…then they hire more AAs and repeat the cycle. Generally, the comments around these folks will sound like, “he isn’t engaged.” This strategy ensures AAs never get a foothold in the business. For those that survive, Southern Region leadership will play the game differently. For example, I observed one African American employee pulling the weight of 3 people and he couldn’t even get so much as a meeting with leadership to discuss career development. I literally observed this guy working 80 hours per week to accomplish business objectives. Finally, after all that could be done had been done he decided to quit. When interviewed after it was found that he was never cascaded goals. A tactic commonly referred to as “controlling the location of the goal post.” Be careful of this because when it comes time to hand out awards, bonuses, and promotions you could be on the negative side of the equation. In the most diverse city in America (Atlanta) Otis struggled to retain African Americans. Bottomline, the company initiatives are working to get minorities hired but attrition is high given employees in the region weren’t embracing of inclusion. I recall a brilliant AA finance manager. He was a veteran and a Harvard Grad. He served the needs of the business for nearly 20 years. I don’t believe he ever made it beyond Director. Branch offices are full of turnover so you will likely inherent the portfolio of other reps without earning the associated commissions. This means it is common to invest 30-50% of your week resolving issues prohibitive to your ability to earn commission (sales) or create bonus generating efficiencies (operations). The environment is prohibitive of creativity. Your behavior will be guided by processes , that leadership generally doesn’t want you to modify. Those given the opportunity to work outside of process are generally tenured professionals. Oddly, the environment encourages intrapreneurship. This is likely because you are given very little resources in support of branch objectives. You’ll need to manage your portfolio as if a startup business owner on the brink of failure….or success whichever motivates you more
