Pros
I could easily write 20,000 words on what it's like to work for Fastenal, but I'll summarize it like this: When all the stars align and everything is running at 100%, it's a great place to work, full of opportunities, and you'll never be bored. Unfortunately there are a lot of variables that affect you on a daily basis, but I'll leave those for the Cons section. I want to go into some detail on each of these points because I often see the same things listed as "cons" in other reviews, but these bear explaining. Also, this review is intended for anyone looking at an outside sales position, which I was for several years. -- Decentralized business model. The main benefit is you'll very rarely have district / regional supervisors micro-managing you. You're free to run your business as you see fit (as long as you're hitting your sales goals). No two Fastenal stores are the same. -- Tends to promote from within; fairly transparent career paths. I've seen other reviews criticize the career model, but promotion in Fastenal is extremely dependent on the district you're hired into. Unfortunately some district managers don't know how to motivate their employees and only quote sales statistics at them rather than mentoring and developing them. Having realistic expectations is key. Don't expect to jump ranks quickly. You'll be in an outside sales position for two or three years before you're considered for general manager and then another three to five before you move on to district manager, national accounts, or another executive level position. -- Decent if not amazing benefits especially for those just entering the workforce. They have a matching 401K program and the health plan isn't great, but it's better than nothing. (The company recently introduced a cheaper, high-deductible health plan which is just ridiculous.) GM and higher level positions get access to stock options and some other perks. The biggest benefit is the MASSIVE employee discount. If you're a gear head you can make out like a bandit on power tools. -- Varied responsibilities. You'll wear many different hats. An outside sales person is involved in: sales, inventory management, product sourcing, cost savings analysis, order picking & delivery, and much more. I've seen it criticized as having TOO much responsibility and that can be true (again, depends mostly on WHERE you're hired), but it is manageable if you're willing to put in the effort and have a good team. -- Potential for huge individual sales growth (depending mostly on location). If you're in an area with lots of manufacturing, logistics, and industrial infrastructure you're golden. If you're in a small town branch with three employees and only one major industrial customer, you're never going to make much money there. It will basically be like working at a mom & pop hardware store. -- Flexible schedule for part-time employees (assuming the branch is adequately staffed). I've seen reviews say that this is not the case, but again it's down to the branch and the district you work in. Most stores I've been to have no problem working around school schedules. Also, Fastenal is a Monday-Friday gig so weekends are always free. However, it is true that there are times because of staffing issues & other variables where folks have had no choice but to come in on weekends to catch up on their work. -- Occasional trips to the corporate office in Winona, MN for training (depending on many factors including your position and whether your district wants to pay travel expenses) and Florida for the yearly employee expo. (Basically a trade show, again depending on if your district wants to pay your way). -- Lastly, this is kind of subjective, but you do have to stick with the company for the long-haul to get the most out of it. In my time here I've come to the conclusion that there are people who can work for Fastenal, and people who can't. That's it. Either it clicks with you what this company and it's mission and culture are about, or it doesn't. For all its faults, Fastenal DOES listen to its employees. Unfortunately it can take years for some of the complaints to get addressed because, like most of the rest of the world, change doesn't happen overnight.
Cons
Again, I could probably write a book for this section, but here's the bottom line: The same decentralized business model that has had a hand in Fastenal's success is also it's single biggest weakness. It trickles down through all aspects of the business and makes what should be simple tasks into massive headaches. I have a lot of cons, but I'll try to keep this focused on more generalized issues rather than the specific internal gripes I have: -- STAFFING. The single biggest complaint for the last five years in this company is staffing. New hire recruitment is driven by district managers who can either do it, or they can't. Many farm out the job of recruitment to branch managers who already have too much on their plate to begin with. Some stores are understaffed to the point that GM's and their teams are forced to work 50+ hour weeks to keep up. Additionally turnover is high due to many factors (see below) and burnout is common. Part-time hours tend to get cut near the end of every fiscal quarter to cut costs and near the end of every year there is an all-out spending freeze including new hires. Many full-time employees don't take their lawfully-mandated lunch breaks because there isn't time, and Fastenal has faced lawsuits in the past for unpaid overtime wages. -- Training & development ranges from halfway decent to non-existent, again, depending on the culture in your district. There are many great DM's and GM's who take the time to mentor their employees and get them on a fast track to success, but there are FAR more who sit new hires down in front of a computer, alone, for two or three days' worth of automated computerized tests and then expect them to start posting huge sales figures. There IS an extensive online "school of business" but there is rarely enough time in a work day to complete those online courses. The lack of clear direction and often overwhelming expectations leads to many promising employees quitting before they reach their potential. -- Fastenal is frugal which is a politically correct term for "cheap." The absolute worst way this shows is in the buildings the company leases. There are many branch locations that are just awful places to work. Water damage, mold and mildew, no heat in the winter, no A/C in the summer, crap lighting, cramped (sometimes no) offices, terrible landlords. It is the absolute definition of trying to fit a square peg in a round hole. It doesn't matter what condition the building is in as long as the price per square foot is right. Also, because the technology is expensive you may occasionally find yourself without the tools you need to do your job as effectively as possible. This is the difference between having a handheld scanner that you can use to take orders in the field, versus writing down orders by hand and typing them into a computer later. -- Along with being frugal, the pay and commission structure is downright confusing, mostly because it changes so often and because your sales opportunity is directly related to the market you're located in. Base salary increases are extremely rare and there's no such thing as a cost of living adjustment. Also, your commission is affected by a number of different factors including some that you just don't have any control over, and your priorities can shift on a dime depending on what goal the company is pushing at a given time. Lastly, overtime is an extremely rare occurrence. District managers will sometimes approve OT, but only in very limited quantities and not for any great length of time. The reviews talking about working nights & weekends for free are unfortunately true in many cases. -- There is effectively no "operations" position at the branch level and the company as a whole places very little value on support roles. This is my biggest single con. What this means is that branches tend to be staffed with nothing but sales people and the infrastructure suffers because of it. Someone needs to be responsible for the day-to-day operation of the store including processing orders, sourcing product, answering phones & emails, managing inventory, etc. In most stores those responsibilities are shared which cuts into EVERYONE'S time. -- Lastly, and this is more of a personal gripe, but there is NO reason that Fastenal stores should be open to the public. The company doesn't advertise, it doesn't have "sales" in the conventional retail term, and walk-in business accounts for something like less than 1% of total sales. However, walk-in customers are far and away the biggest drain on branch employees in terms of stress and time investment. We're talking about the guy who needs five or six really specific odd-sized fasteners to fix his imported antique Hungarian bicycle totaling about a $10 sale for 20 minutes of work. In that time you could have made three or four phone calls and brought in $2000 worth of orders from contract customers. It's silly. That's why we have Lowe's and Home Depot.
