Pros
I have been with the company for 4.5 years now and love it as much as I did at the start! The job is challenging but that is why I am in sales. Sales is about self-reward – the harder you work, the more successful you are. And this is true with TransPerfect. It holds itself to high standards when it comes to client service and offering, and expects the same from its employees. You have to prove yourself in the beginning but that is the same with every great opportunity. You are required to put in the activity to generate business. You start with a basic salary and you gain commission as you develop. I started on what I would say is an average salary in London – I had friends who were on less and some who were on more. I couldn’t live a champagne lifestyle off it, that was for sure, but I could pay my bills and go out at the weekends. But I wanted more and I wanted it quickly. This is one of the things I love most about TransPerfect – they set you goals and you are rewarded as soon as you hit them, regardless of how quickly. It is not a time game and you do not have to wait for people to leave to secure a more senior role. I was given my goals and I wanted to achieve them as quickly as possible to be promoted – 10 months on, I was. I worked long hours to hit the goals but that wasn’t because I was told to – in fact, my boss would sometimes come back to the office after the gym and turn off my computer to encourage me to go home! So I then stated earning commission and was given a new set goals…it was a similar story in that I continued to work hard to get to the next level quickly. And I did. But what makes it even more great is that with all the hard work comes a lot of fun – the overall company culture is amazing; we travel for external and internal events, we have regular team outings, we have a buzzy office atmosphere, and we all get on as colleagues and hang out at the weekends. TransPerfect absolutely hires with culture in mind and it is all about the fit.
Cons
Although I do not see this as a true con, it is to many – competitiveness. TransPerfect is not a company for uncompetitive people. You have to thrive off winning to really succeed and be in it for the long-run. You also have to be a certain character to fit in with the culture – outgoing, sociable, ambitious. As I noted in the “Pros” section, it is all about the fit. We work with people we like and want to hang out with. So naturally people are quite similar in nature. Not all companies are like this and some people like to keep work and life very separate. But TransPerfect is not for those people.