A Great Place to Start Your Career - An AM Review
Pros
The training program is one of the best in the industry. Even with no background in IT hardware/software/services sales, CDW does an excellent job of preparing you to be successful and giving you the tools & resources to do so. The culture is also top notch. Almost everyone is extremely willing to help you be successful, and your engineering talent & Solution Architects will give you the blueprint to qualify opportunities as an Account Manager. If you land in the right patch, there is a genuine opportunity to make money. I was an Account Manager for 6 years and made six figures for the last 4 of the 6. That said, you do have to exercise patience and know that those first two years will be extremely challenging. Likely 45-55K total pay. But, if you can stick it out and prove yourself, you will get opportunities to be successful. There are constantly vendors in the office giving free lunches, swag, happy hours after work, and promoting vacations & prizes for being top sellers of a specific product. The vacations are amazing, and always extremely well put together. Speaking of, the vacation time and benefits are adequate. Nothing will wow you, but nothing will make you feel like you are being taken advantage of, either. Sales Managers tend to be extremely flexible, friendly, and willing to help you succeed if you demonstrate a desire to. I had 5 managers in 6 years, and only one borderline negative experience that did not last long. Overall, this is a fantastic place to begin your career if you have little to no sales experience. The first 2 years may make it challenging for anyone with experience or major life expenses (car, mortgage, kids, etc.), but if you are just graduating and looking for somewhere to work while living with parents or sharing an apartment with people, CDW should absolutely be near the top of your list.
Cons
As odd as this may sound, it is possible to be TOO successful at CDW. The best Account Managers are extremely well compensated, but because of that, it makes a move to any other position internally a pay cut. Some choose to do it for more stability in terms of a higher base salary, but it can be challenging psychologically to accept a total comp cut to move “up” in to leadership. You do move on to a different comp structure after your first 4 years as a sales rep, one that effectively makes you 100% commission. You’re still guaranteed a base salary, but you have to sell to cover it. For me, this wasn’t an issue given the business I had developed but for some, it pushes them out of the AM role. The competition is fierce. There are many VARs out there, and all of your large accounts will be doing business with many of them. This can lead to eroding profit margins that make it difficult for you to make money until you develop a relationship with the customer, which can take years. The Cloud services practice needs more of an investment in personnel, etc. Other VARs are lapping CDW in terms of Advanced Technology services offerings, especially in the Cloud space. Many of your major accounts will still look at CDW as a “box pusher”, even as it has evolved to a complete solutions provider. Battling that stigma can be challenging. Depending on the territory you are assigned to, the first 2 years can be very mentally draining. You will likely start working with smaller accounts, ones that have been called on for years that don’t do business with CDW. You will fail, ALOT. You will lose, ALOT. Knowing and accepting that going in will help you to look long term at the role.
