Worst decision of my life coming to Qualtrics. - Account Executive Qualtrics Employee Review

1.0
Jul 13, 2016
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

-Technology: The technology is pretty cutting edge and at the forefront of feedback collection and marketing research. Research Suite is great, but the other tools (especially SI) needs to be built out and updated. -Co workers (some): Had some really interesting and good colleagues during my time at Qualtrics. -Company parties: Pretty amazing and well organized parties.

Cons

Since day 3 on the job, I hated if for the 20 or so months that I was there. In Opportunity Development, all you do is cold call. Bonuses depend on how many set meetings get accepted by your Account Executive, so some OpDev reps will have AE's who cheat and accept meeting that aren't good or even happened. Those OpDev reps are praised and quotas for everyone are in turn raised. When you become an AE yourself, you will have zip code territories with mostly very small businesses who 1) can’t afford Qualtrics, 2) have no or little need for it, and 3) have no idea how to do research (e.g., it’s an onion farm). It’s extremely hard to sell as a new AE and most fail. There is a huge retention problem regarding AE’s, but the leadership insists that’s it’s not a problem. -Pay: You are grossly underpaid at Qualtrics. Unless you have been in sales for forever and have large accounts, you will not be living large. My family even qualified for food stamps and Medicaid because the pay was so bad. -Leadership: If you are LDS, imagine the worst, most number hungry zone leaders; those are the sales leaders at Qualtrics. Leadership mostly hangs out by themselves and don't do a good job of coaching or assisting people on their teams. Pep talks consist of sports analogies (Michael Jordan missed this many shots and kept going...flu game...etc.) At one point they even motivated us to be "All In" and tried to motive us with the story of how Cortez burned his own ships while committing genocide against the Native Americans. -Bro mentality: Too many bro's and Provo All Stars; showing up to work in flat brim hats and basketball shorts. The CEO also does his best to be a bro. -Transparency: In the interview and recruiting process, they proudly say that all employees are owners and have restricted stock units. In reality, those units aren't worth anything. Only the founders and some top executives have shares that are actually worth anything. If you are looking at Qualtrics, don't even think about the potential stock options, because it's of no value, and definitely not worth taking a 20% pay cut for. The CMO and VP of Engineering all left suddenly while I was there, and we were told bogus reasons explaining why they left. If they really want to be as transparent as they say they are, talk about why the VP of Engineering left in the middle of the biggest product launch in the company’s history. -No internal mobility: Something that was promised during recruiting was the opportunity to join other teams within Qualtrics. This isn’t true. Maybe five years ago, but if you are in sales, you are stuck in sales. No internal mobility at all.

Explore other reviews about Qualtrics

5.0
May 15, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Enjoy the changes silver lake has made. We are getting more efficient and back to what Qualtrics is really good at.

Cons

A lot of change can be frustrating at times, but necessary

3.0
Jun 27, 2026
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Great benefits and resources available for their employees. In-office perks include catered lunches 3 days a week, 2 days with grub-hub credits, and free snacks and coffee daily; alongside office events and parties. There is a generally positive culture amongst the overall company.

Cons

Their actual company leadership does not always make the best decisions and rather than prioritizing root cause issues that impact both the customers and employees' daily work, they would rather prioritize shinier items that give the illusion of innovation. This will trickle down to the employees in the form of stressed deadlines, longer hours, and frustrated clients and/or frustrated teams you may work cross functionally with that are client facing. Your actual experience at qualtrics is largely based on what team/job function you are in and who your manager is. Additionally, there is a glaring diversity issue that remains unaddressed with no real effort to hire more underrepresented people of color, leading to the high turnover rate of underrepresented minorities who are not lucky enough to have great managers.

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