Pros
Working for Fastenal can give you the opportunity to make a lot of money if you are really motivated, have a good area, have good people under you and have a little luck. I've seen complete morons make at least 50K/year. When I started with the company back in 2006 I started as assistant manager, which is now an OSP. I made 2300 per month salary and about 500 bucks commissions. That was great for me, I has no real experience and no college degree. Within 10 months I was promoted to GM. The next year I landed some big accounts was able to make about 60K. The next year I was on track to make about 75K and then the economy took a dump. I think I made 48K. If you have a good area with lots of potential you can make really good money. I know a manager that makes about 10,000 per month in commissions. If you can pull out about 60,000/month in sales you can make about 2,000 a month in commissions if you have good growth. If you really want a long lasting career you better suck up to everyone above you. Get in good, ride someones coat tails, be political, throw others under the bus etc.. YOU MUST WORK HARD. If you want to make money you better bust your @ss.
Cons
Fastenal will hire just about anyone. They will throw you immediately into the fire and if you dont survive they will just replace with some other knuckle head. They do have training, but chances are you will not receive any formal training until about a year in. You usually will get the chance to be manager only because you manager quit or was fired, which happens all the time. I have met very few people who have been with fastenal for more than 5 years. As long as you suck up to your DM you should be ok. Personally I think being an OSP (outside sales person) is the way to go. You dont make as much money but you have almost no responsibility on your shoulders and you can just blame your GM or lack of training on sucky numbers. The best is when your DM could sell a hamburger to a staving person and yet they want to tell you how to do things. The DM's in the company have found it easier to manage by intimidation than by inspiration. Apparently it takes too much work to inspire people and invest in their growth. It's much easier and lazier to just fire off angry emails and threaten jobs. The poison spreads company wide. It comes from never having any great leaders to model yourself after. You just do what the last guy did and hope for the best. All the great leaders find their way to other better companies. If any of you wonder why your pay is so crappy, just ask Will who makes like 4 million a year off of you, or Ken who makes 750K. Guess what? If every DM, RVP, VP and the CEO all died today Fastenal would still make money. What would happen if every GM and OSP left? You'd be up SH!TS creek!