Demanding Job with No Growth and High Turnover - Solutions Consultant Smartsheet Employee Review

3.0
Mar 5, 2021
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

There are a few perks to this job like you get to make your own schedule and get to work with Fortune 500 customers - but be prepared to always be working in your nights and weekends.

Cons

This role is extremely demanding and you will be overworked and undervalued. Every consultant puts in 50-70 hour weeks in order to meet ridiculously hard revenue targets. Leadership only cares about how much money each individual brings in and you will need to sacrifice personal time to make it happen. This is the expectation for all consultants and the ‘bare minimum’ is exhausting. There is a strong disconnect between the interview process and the actual department / role. HR will claim that there are many opportunities in SMAR but actually those are not available for internal transfers. I have heard of four people getting rejected from internal roles in the last month. Another benefit HR will sell you on is unlimited sick time which does not really apply for consulting since when you are out you will need to make up the billable time elsewhere (aka working weekends). The salary for this job is 80-90k as a base - don’t let HR tell you otherwise as some outlier consultants are making in the 60-70s. Another HR claim is that there are consulting career paths, but those are not clear with no tangible path forward. Promotions are rewarded to favorites only and the department is a boys club (hence why most managers and all of sr leadership + are males). Consulting’s internal processes are disconnected because no one actually has time to do anything strategic since that is non-billable - unless you want to use your own personal time for it. This Consultant role has a VERY high attrition rate because of being overworked, undervalued, and the stress. The projects you will run are extremely difficult because of the paradox between what sales sold, customer expectations, hours the customer purchased, and manager/business expectations. This takes up a great deal of energy, time, and emotional capacity. As a project manager, you will need to have a strong aggressive character otherwise, you will not succeed in this role. You will be constantly communicating with customers about scope boundaries which results in consistently stressful escalations because of sales over-promising. It gets very draining.

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Smartsheet Response
5y
We’re extremely proud of our consulting team for their consistently stellar performance, but we need to ensure that performance expectation doesn’t come at the expense of employee well-being. Particularly during a time when the line between work and home have become so blurred, it’s critical for employees at all levels and in all roles and departments to be able to take time off to rest, recharge, and take care of their physical and mental wellness. We take employee feedback seriously and have worked (and continue to work) toward gender parity in leadership roles, not just in consulting but across the entire business. Similarly, we’re looking forward to introducing new internal mobility programs this year, offering clearer paths and opportunities for growth and development. We’re committed to making sure team members are well supported in their current roles and equipped with resources to remain engaged and successful as they grow in their careers at Smartsheet. I’m available if you’d like to share any other feedback. —Michael Hubbard, SVP of Customer Success, Services, & Support

Explore other reviews about Smartsheet

5.0
Jun 11, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Great collaborative environment and competitive

Cons

Easily overwhelmed with phone calls, chats, and emails.

1.0
May 26, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Supportive of AI tooling. I had a great manager. I heard the severance packages are great, but I left of my own volition, so I don’t have personal experience.

Cons

Complete lack of direction or management at the mid to high levels of the company in product and engineering (most everyone left or was pushed out by cronyism from the private equity acquisition). No more equity offered to employees. No opportunities for promotion. They’ve shipped or are shipping most of the core products (including the core “sheet” aka Grid app) to India and have laid off tons of employees (somewhere between 12% and 15% of the company). Upper management did the thing where they had the US developers interview tons of people out of India, and then about half a year later laid off tons US developers, including several of the people that did the interviews. Upper management said that the India teams would be working on other projects, but clearly that was a lie. They laid off people without consulting their managers, or their manager’s managers, and without knowing what team they actually worked on or what they did. So entire teams were laid off unbeknownst to them. Very quick and poor handoffs to India, if any. You will likely be working on multiple teams at once, or moved to multiple teams during your time there in short periods of time. On-call can be a nightmare. There is no culture of any kind. Basically do not work here, whether you’re out of the US, India, or Bulgaria (the main countries for developers).

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Smartsheet Response
1w
Thank you for your honesty. While we’re glad that you had a great team and the tools you needed, it’s incredibly tough to hear that other aspects of your experience were less than great. To your point about equity, we’d like to clarify that we do offer a limited equity pool with specific eligibility. That said, navigating transition is already tough, and adding in other aspects like global shifts and new leadership can make it feel even harder. We know the dust hasn’t completely settled, and we understand that we have a lot of work to do to repair employee trust and morale. We’ve set off on that journey, and we appreciate all of this feedback along the way. Thank you, and we wish you all the best in your next chapter.
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