CDW Reviews in Chicago, IL Area

Pros

Solid company in the industry with great name recognition. Great stepping stone to land better paying IT sales job in other markets.

Cons

They really need to create a sales business model that bonds Procurement volume items with a short sell cycle with longer sell cycle Services offers that have higher margins. Acquisition of Berbee was not smooth. They need to hire more IT sales reps with experience and not just recent college grads that don't understand technology. They still have a lot of season sales reps that will not make it with other IT sales organizations that use a different model. Too many people involved for low margin transactions.

Advice to Senior Management

Get better at promoting Managers and invest more money on training staff at that level.

Pros

Important to note:
--I have devoted 110% to this career to make as much money as quickly as possible at ANY cost.
You MUST work harder than anyone you know, friends, family, never leave early for cubs tickets/bars/social life/family/ and forget leaving early for kids if you have them (or your other half can take off work).

Six Figure income potential for college grads in 3rd year.
Learn the industry well being the largest.
Young coworker culture to make friends outside of work, great coworkers.
Work from home 1 day/wk if in the top 40% sales/profit of the company.
Could not make this money this fast anywhere else!!
Manufacturer's we sell take great care of the sales people from cash, to awesome trips!
SALES is(can be) the highest paid in the company, and Yes, even more than your manager!

Cons

**Little hope to make good money for new hires.**
*Comp Instability $25k draw no matter how good your rev, profit, goal history, or how many yrs.
      *New hires get now get 25k base plus for 3 yrs?
*You must choose if you want kids, or money with the long hours required to be successful.
*If you can hit redial on your phone to get high call numbers you are viewed as a model sales employee.
*Over the years it has become hard to make really good money because they seem to be taking away vs adding.
*Other departments becoming profitable while decreasing for the account manager.
*No 401k match, hopefully will come back when economy turns.
*No longer a best place to work my fortune.
*Do not expect good benefits Health insurance is $78 bimonthly for HMO, VSP + Dental -
**Hopefully the great money blinds you to the above, when the economy tanks money fades, these surface.
            ********Worst job you can do for $30k, BEST job for $100k+****************

Advice to Senior Management

-Recognize your TALENTED SALES PEOPLE, and RETAIN THEM AT ALL COST this was what made CDW so unique!!! Many are walking out to competition without any effort to retain.

Pros

â?¢ I felt I was trained well, but now the new training program is not getting "newbies" ready.
â?¢ I worked with some really good people at my account manager level.
â?¢ The Riverside location cannot be beat for convenience.

Cons

â?¢ Endure a $5,000 pay cut while your commission and SPIFFS are harder.
â?¢ Entertain clients using your own money when they come in town to visit.
â?¢ Have $400 in Spiffs that are printed in black and white taken away due to a "technicality".
â?¢ Watch kiss asses, cheese balls, brown nosers get ahead while your hard work goes unnoticed.

Advice to Senior Management

Fire several of your Small Business managers

Pros

Free bagels. You will meet a lot of people.

Cons

Extreme micro-management and the training is not based on your previous experience. It felt like a cattle call.

Advice to Senior Management

More individual attention to new hires instead of herding us together.

Pros

Easy to work for, but not enough billable work for consultants that need that bonus.

Cons

Not enough focus on services. Not using talent they acquired from Berbee.

Advice to Senior Management

A little more focus on selling services and talent. It not all about selling Microsoft licenses.

Pros

Historically pay was excellent, recent changes could negate this in the near future for the Inside team.

Cons

Poor mentoring and career advancement is not promoted.

Advice to Senior Management

Ripping out the business model that made our company successful for 20+yr and alienating top performers is not a good long-term strategy.

Pros

CDW is a very honest employer. As a slaesperson, you know exactly what you need to do to succeed. People that are really working hard are coached and assisted, people that are just taking up space are not.

Cons

What I felt was a pro, others may see as a con.

Advice to Senior Management

Management is running a streamlined organization, keep it up.

Pros

good leadership. they are the leader in the industry and know it, so don't pay as much as what you would make elsewhere for non-sales positions. it's a great place to get started and to learn from some smart people.

Cons

if you start in sales, it's always rough. but it's worth it. a great place to learn, and get skills to go elsewhere. if you start in a different department, there are good people to learn from. however, things are a bit beaurocratic, and the old-school management still rules the roost, with the exception of a people brought in externally who don't really get the culture

Advice to Senior Management

if you came from within, listen to outsiders, you don't know everything. if you're from outside of the company, learn the company first before trying to pull off ideas that won't work.

Pros

Inside sales is always good. Free food - bagels, coffee, etc. Decent co-workers.

Cons

Management is always watching and listening to your conversations, some co-workers take sales from you. Management doesn't help you.

Advice to Senior Management

Learn how to manage people - help them don't scold them.

Pros

CDW is a growing company that likes to promote within. Relationships with vendors afford opportunities for Account Managers to also move to pre-sales, brand managers, and other careers related to CDW but with partner companies. They encourage sales and technical certifications and outline a path for achieving those certifications. Benefits are good and management genuinely wants Account Managers to be successful, they recognize that we contribute to the growth of the company.

Cons

It can be tough to build a book of business when starting out. There are a ton of vendor trainings which are good in moderation but we seem to get the same ones every few months and some don't necessarily pertain to the segment we're in (SMB, Med/Lar, etc...)

Advice to Senior Management

Choose more targeted vendor trainings that won't waste Account Manager's time. Also, many new hires would benefit from strict call blocks and more sits with Supervisors, Managers, and/or senior members from the team.