Pros
So here is the thing: I have a very long career in Hospitality Management. A common thing in that world is the hotel being sold, and the new owners just cleaning house and hiring new people (the ultimate ego trip!). This happened at least half a dozen times to me, and every time I thought "I want to try and get a car sales job!", but before I could make that happen, I'd be forced financially to take another hospitality job. A time came when I could wait it out, and I interviewed with several of the other dealer groups in the metro, and wound up with 394 Hyundai as a salesperson. I had two of the kindest managers you could ask for, the training was absolutely top notch (and more recently, they've made a new training facility and given more resources to the trainer, who is easily my favorite person in the company). So I became a salesperson and failed. HARD. I'm certain that if I'd been hired at one of the competing dealer groups, they'd have shown me the door. I KNOW in the hotel world, I'd be out the door. Well, what happened to me is they offered me a position in the appointment center, on the phones. This was because they'd given me a personality test, which actually showed a higher likelihood of success in that role than in sales, but because they'd needed someone in sales, and because I so wanted it to work, they let me do it. I will ALWAYS be grateful for the opportunity to learn that I'm not a good salesperson, and also for being allowed to flourish where I have been very successful. In my current role, I'm very pleased with the combined appointment center, my current managers are both people who are very interested in us as people, not just as cogs in their machine. They are both receptive to our input (we recently started a 4 ten hour week, which has been absolutely heavenly!). I cannot say enough great things about these particular managers! More generally: I have never worked with a more honest and morally upright group of people. The culture here is AMAZING! I have never felt such support and dignity from an employer, and I certainly wouldn't feel a need to help recruit for anyone else I've ever worked for! In spite of the three things I've described in the "cons", this is hands down the best place I've worked and I don't plan on leaving anytime in the foreseeable future!
Cons
My position pays like a sales position, when it's not one. The idea is you get an hourly wage plus a dollar amount for each appointment that shows up (in Service BDC) or each one that shows and sells (in Sales BDC). The thing is, we take many many non-appointment calls and I really think we're worth more on the hourly or a LOT more on the commission because we aren't salespeople, we can't just call people and demand they service their vehicles (we DO that to the extent we're able). There aren't networking groups to scare up service appointments, and unlike sales, it's possible to oversell a service department (at the end of the day there's only so many appointments to set, often it's hard to cater to a customer with a difficult or tight schedule), and it's hard to get people excited about servicing their vehicle, the way it's easy to get people excited for buying a new one. The other con for me is sick time and a lack of payroll deduction for service work. My car has about its value in work it could stand, but I can't come up with the cash for it, but I would be spending a lot more here at work if I could have it deducted over time. Also for sick time, no matter how long you're here (I'm coming into my 3rd year this month), you get 24 hours a year. That's it. And honestly for a commisioned position, "paid time off" is kind of a misnomer, because you're just getting the lower hourly paid, not your commissions. It's kind of like taking a sick day or a vacation when you're a tipped employee like a server. I don't see any reason why there should be less than 40 hours of sick time.
