Excellent Place for Sales People, Questionable Employer for Management - Sales Manager CarMax Employee Review

There is not much room for promotion at this time. We have many people waiting to move up from middle management into senior management with no place to go because the company has slowed expansion. I have seen many Sales Managers who have been promised a promotion, relocated to get said promotion and are still waiting a year or two later because there is no place for them to promote to. General Managers are almost always hired from outside which means they don't have a clue what sales managers and sales employees really experience. Their lack of understanding often leads to a lack of ability to truly lead the store in the right direction. I have been in management for sales for a number of years and would highly recommend thinking twice before moving into a sales manager position with CarMax. We are normally scheduled a minimum of 50 hour weeks which truly become 60+ hours when you count the days you stay late and the numerous phone calls when I'm not in the store. I can't think of how many times I have worked 10 days straight without a day off. We receive very small increases in our base compensation and our bonuses are so well planned by corporate that it is guaranteed to average out to the same dollar amount every year. Bonuses are tied to store productivity, so as a Sales Manager your compensation is in the hands of many people. If the team isn't working well, you are really out of luck. Senior Management puts a great deal of pressure on Sales Managers to make their sales employees perform at high levels, but when these things are achieved Senior Management and the Sales employees are the only ones compensated for the performance. To put it plainly, Sales Managers are overworked, under appreciated and all too often are strung along with promises of promotions that will truthfully never happen.