Clark Associates reviews

I would echo everything that was said in other negative reviews pertaining to purchasing, buyers, and procurement analysts. For the interview, I applied to pricing analyst but the interviewer thought he was interviewing me for the procurement analyst. The very first day I started here, I started getting assignments with almost no training. The expectations were never really clear to me so I never knew how I was doing. Throughout my time, I received training and was expected to remember everything I was told even though I never got the chance to practice what I was trained. In about the 4th week, I finally got feedback and the manager tore me to shreds by calling me "unintelligent" and that I should have included more detail in my work. That was not apparent to me and as I said before, expectations were not clear at all. I told my manager that I was getting all this training and not having the opportunity to practice what I was trained on. He basically said "tough luck." The most positive thing I was told was that I had a good attitude. This place shattered my confidence. The following week, I got more assignments but the manager created a toxic environment for me and I was hesitant to share anything to him. I was also hesitant to ask questions because he either made me feel like I was not listening or he did not have time. I have noticed that for every negative review, Clark responds by saying they take the 30 to 60 day reviews very seriously (and they will probably respond to me to with that same phrase). That's great that you take that seriously, but I was not set up to succeed here with expectations not given to me. From the looks of most of the reviews and from my experience, this company does not care about its people.

Corporate structure in purchasing. This is important to know for anyone who considers working for Clark given their high turnover rate. As a previous star employee at another company and coming here not "being a good fit" was frankly ridiculous. Not sure how they want to retain employees of they aren't transparent-- so I will aid all job seekers. Purchasing begins with college interns who are around all times of the year. Interns are paid anywhere from $10-$15/hr based on their perception of your potential and your negotiation skills. If you are a good high potential intern you will be recruited for either an assistant track position (low and capped) or buyer track (mid-pay but growth potential). At the bottom is the assistant track starting with purchasing assistants. Their salary range is about $30k to being permanently capped at $45k. The next higher assistant level is the procurement analyst which is around $40-45k capped. If you are hired in an assistant track position you cannot earn more than $45k ever and cannot move into any higher roles. You must leave the company to earn more-- which is terrible. The next track to be hired into is the buyer track which has the most potential. Based on DiSC profiling, only individuals who test as high D (Dominance) will be given a chance. I understand the profiling and believe it makes sense for negotiation and contract purposes. Buyer trainees can be hired anywhere from $40-50k depending on your negotiation during the interview and past experience. Probationary period for all employees is 60 days with a performance review at the end of 30 and 60. If you make it past buyer trainee then you will get a small salary bump ($3k) as per your contract. Based on other salary reviews, most buyer trainees are brought in around $43-44k for probationary period and $46-47k if they last more than 60 days. The next move for a buyer trainee is to become an assistant or associate buyer in about a year's time from hire. The salary for an associate buyer is supposed to begin at $50k. If you hustle, are passionate, work long hours, and your boss (senior buyer) gets promoted to director level, then you can take their old position after at least 2-3 years more. Salary for senior buyer begins at $60k and requires you to manage all personnel within your category on top of a large workload. Considering the responsibility you are given and that you are running all aspects of the business yourself, these salaries are low. It would be very rare for anyone to expect to stay at Clark long enough to have a senior buyer position open. Senior buyers are purchasing managers and the national median salary for purchasing managers is $100k, just as a reminder. For those in higher positions or just curious, there is only one director that has over six years of experience with the company and one VP. Director level salary starts at $80k and VP salary starts at $100k, capped altogether in purchasing at $130k. VP purchasing median salaries nationally are easily $200k+ and bonuses of up to half that amount. Director of purchasing salaries are nationally median level $150k with bonuses of usually $20k or more depending on job industry (retail, manufacturing and pharmaceuticals usually are the highest paying industries). So for 99% of the employees that will never make it to senior buyer level, just know that you will be stuck making low to mid 50s for years, and when you become a manager you might be stuck with low to mid 60s until you're 28-30 years old. Compensation and work culture are better elsewhere