Great job to get into the industry - Don't stay longer than 2 years (Basically, quit while you're ahead!)
Pros
Health benefits are probably good enough that Obamacare will tax them as a "Cadillac Plan"! Fast promotion from Outside Sales to General Manager. Not much other than that.
Cons
10+ Hour Days (no OT) plus weekends sound fine when you start, because you are idealistic and see huge potential for advancement. They get tiresome after a couple of years of banging your head on the same walls over and over. Don't think you have autonomy over your branch - you don't. You have several bosses who micromanage your time and activities each day - not just your district manager, but your regional auditor, regional finance manager, and regional VP as well. Imagine trying to do your most important job (selling), while having to deal with probably 5 emails requiring urgent action each day from all of these bosses. Imagine filling out the same forms over and over again. You eventually stop believing all of the hype about Integrity and Core Values when they require you to raise most of your customers' pricing for the 4th time. Imagine making a handshake agreement with a customer of 10+ years (i.e. one of your branch's first customers) that, as long as your costs don't skyrocket, this will be their pricing for the next 6 months on a commonly-used product "concept" (say fasteners, one where you're making TONS of margin) - then the next week being FORCED to lower their discount because they're spending a 3-month average of $2000 instead of $2500. What do you say to that loyal customer? The people I see that have risen fastest here are those that specifically try to juice their numbers for 18 months so they can make District Manager. My advice? Quit while you're ahead - when you've hit goal for 3-6 months in a row, make the change - start interviewing elsewhere!
