You will make peanuts for salary during your first 1-3 years.
Account Manager ~ $38K/year
Account Executive ~$40K/year + ~$5-10K commissions
Director ~$40K/year + $50K commissions if you hit your quota (note: some reps land strategic accounts and make between $100K and $200K per year. It is extremely difficult but it can be done).
Very poor work/life balance.You are NEVER off the clock and you constantly burn the midnight oil. This is fine if you are fresh out of college - but as you get older and establish yourself in the company, the long hours will wear on you. Especially when your priorities switch from establishing your career to establishing a family.
It is highly competitive industry that is very price-driven. This makes it difficult to sell because competitors are always undercutting you.
There is ZERO sense of teamwork at TransPerfect; it is every man for his or her self. Everyone is a shark. Employees in other offices will often go behind your back and take work from your clients because they are so desperate for commissions. This costs people tens of thousands of dollars.
The training program and continued education is pretty much nonexistent; you will be forced to learn on the go with little guidance. When you make mistakes, management will call you out in front of your peers. This will often make you feel like crap. There will be many nights when you wake up terrified at 2 AM because you had a dream about forgetting to send a client email.
If you work in one of the smaller satellite offices, then you will not have adequate exposure to senior management. This will make you feel like you are an outsider and not part of the big picture. Additionally, this will limit your ability to learn from those in the company who are successful.
If you work in one of the larger offices (NYC, Chicago, DC) then you might feel like you are in High School. There are cliques and senior managers tend to play favorites. At annual sales conferences, senior managers will often ignore the impressionable employees so that they can brush shoulders with the executives and be part of the Club Of Cool Kids (aka C.O.C.K).
Because there is no formal training program, and because your managers will be too busy focused on cashing their own commission checks, any success that you attain will be gained on your own. That is very empowering for you as an individual - knowing that you get to reap what you sow. Unfortunately, managers will mistake your success for their own. On the contrary, managers refuse to shoulder any of the blame when employees don't pan out.
If you want to grind out a 3-5 year sales career and gain immeasurable experience, give TransPerfect a try. You'll eventually make really good money. And eventually, you'll tell yourself that the money isn't worth the hassle. You'll then look for a new job and quickly learn that you are far more experienced than anyone your age. Finally, you will be shocked when you start receiving multiple offers from companies that are willing to line your pockets.
