Thoughtful feedback from working in sales as an AE in the Chicago office 2+ years ago
Pros
Really interesting and powerful technology. Learned a lot about SEO of which I knew nothing prior. Learned a lot about how Google / search work. Good place to learn if you want to be in that space. Good base salary for sales. Jim ( founder and CEO ) is obviously a genius. I'm still not sure to this day if it's his ideas on how to manage sales at the top that are causing the problems, or the sales leadership that he's hired. Lem ( co-founder and CTO ) is an incredible person. There are other great people at the company as well.
Cons
I had to give 1 star because it was the worst sales environment I have ever been a part of in 10+ years of professional software sales. It's the only job I ever had where I was not successful and stayed for less than 1 year. The level of micromanagement of seasoned professional AE's was absolutely incredible. Looking back even after years I still feel disgruntled from an overall very poor experience. I randomly decided to see what Brightedge was up to and some of the newer responses on Glassdoor made me laugh. For one, we were asked multiple times when I was there years ago to write positive reviews for the company. It's funny that there's such an extreme difference from horrible review, to amazing review, and this might be an explanation why. That's part of the reason I'm choosing to take time out of my day to write this and hopefully be as truthful as possible with a lens that is always clearer over time. Another thing caught my eye while reading recent reviews. When recruiting me, sales management spun the story of how they're a growing "startup" with unicorn potential and your stock will be worth tons etc. I'm guessing it's getting close to 10 years, no one's stock is worth anything, and it looks like it's still a revolving door environment in sales. To be fair, this feedback is coming from 2+ years back and only has a sales focus, so I'm not certain if this is still accurate. Unfortunately I have a feeling it may be based on recent comments on Glassdoor. If you're considering taking a position in sales, be very careful. Really make sure you understand the sales culture and process because a lot of people were sold a very shiny possibility and found reality to be completely different.
