CDW Reviews in Chicago, IL Area

Pros

Training was good when I started, I have been here about four years now and worked in sales previously, so had an idea of what to expect. Started in salles as most people do, worked hard and moved up. They don't promote people simply because they can't hack it where they are, but the pay is certainly fantastic if you work at it.

Cons

Commute to downtown is rough, a revolving door with the newer sales staff, feel they could do better recruiting and it would be a better environment, as with many of the negative reviews, seem to hear a lot of complaints about pay and at the root, you will find someone that either doesn't want to work for it or can't wrap their head around what base plus commission really means.

Advice to Senior Management

Keep up the good work, and put more effort in to recruitment, end the revolving door.

Pros

Vendor perks, commissios, constant training

Cons

Stressful, unrealistic, sales goals, favoritism, no growth without BA

Advice to Senior Management

Clear a path of growth for everyone

Pros

Working downtown and in a nice area
Clean facilities
Some what comfy chairs

Cons

Low pay, bad management, calling a lot, poor communication between employees, snobby bosses and low pay. This is a stressful job and not worth 25k a year in my opinion but for others it might be.

Advice to Senior Management

Pay your employees what you would want to be paid for the tasks that are required.

Pros

- the vast amounts of continued training and informational materials
- numerous resources to assist account managers
- extensive initial training
- vendor perks

Cons

- CDW epitomizes the faulty american culture - all work, no play
- CDW does not promote a healthy work life balance, in fact they discourage it
- feels like working in a frat/sorority house
- though the resources are plentiful, an account manager has to jump through way too many hoops to make any progress
- not nearly as laid back as they promote themselves to be
- extreme micromanagers in a subtle, backhanded kind of way
- very rarely congratulate you but very quick to tell you what you're accomplishing isn't good enough
- every time I go to someone with a problem they tell me to go to someone else, who tells me to go to someone else, etc. until i'm back where I started
- we are falsely encouraged to be "ourselves" as long as "ourselves" is exactly what the company wants us to be
- nearly impossible commission structure on top of laughable starting salary
- very little paid time off offered
- extreme favoritism
- success depends heavily on who you know rather than how good you actually are

Advice to Senior Management

- focus on truly promoting a healthy, enjoyable work/life balance
- increase the starting salary to stay competitive in the sales industry (i promise you what it's at as of 9/12/11 is not at all competitive)

- UPDATE: as of this month there is a new commission structure and you did not successfully pull the wool over anyone's eyes - the amount of money you claim to have fought for to put into the new structure is great on the surface but what you don't mention is that you initiated a pay cut to a large majority of account managers in order to throw more money at the absolute top tier and to newer account managers who will quickly grow their business beyond the lowest commission tier but will most likely never reach that absolute top tier - they will be stuck in the middle majority making less on the new & "improved" structure vs what they would've on the old structure...please revisit your compensation plans and make it more appealing for us to stay with CDW

Pros

Many opportunities for advancement, personal fulfillment. Great coworkers. Enough work that there is no time for petty office politics and boring water cooler chatter.

Cons

So much work to be done that it can be difficult to unplug. However, management is supportive of the times that I have asked for help.

Advice to Senior Management

Continue to try and improve benefits, including professional development and learning opportunities. Change the bonus structure for the FSA role.

Pros

Great inside sales experience, growth potential.

Good brand name in IT industry

Cons

Management is strict with work hours
Base salary is a joke

Advice to Senior Management

Increase base salary to 35,000
Change the profit pay out structure.

Pros

CDW offers many great perks such as tickets, lunches, ipads, vacations and several prizes daily.

Cons

Communication and turnaround time is poor right now as they have yet to add additional support to their sales support following 2009's downsizing.

Advice to Senior Management

Listen to employees concerns in regards to career advancement. The day to day understanding of employees needs are ok, but their career ambitions are somewhat neglected

Pros

CDW is not all sales. A large part of the company is focused on backend support - sales operations, shipping/receiving, marketing, product, hr, etc. I can't speak to Sales roles. But on the corporate side, there is much to enjoy about working for CDW.

Work/Life Balance - Never had an issue if it was needed that I leave early due to emergency. I generally work about 40-45 hours per week. I come in between 7:30 and 9 and then leave 9 hours later (with an hour-ish lunch).

Salary - Salary is competitive with industry. I will say that it seems outside hires will generally be compensated greater for a role than an internal transfer/promotion would receive.

Benefits - Benefits won't blow you away, but nothing where you feel the need to purchase supplemental insurance or anything like that.

Perks - Perks are all right. Company outing once a year, team outings a couple times a year, vendor lunches, etc. These are nice, but they're as I've described - perks. You don't select a job over a perk.

Cons

The biggest drawback for me is the lack of training/career growth assistance. I believe in making my own way, but at the same time it would be nice to have some direction with regard to trainings/classes/etc. I'll never understand why a company would not be interested in improving it's own employees' skill sets.

Pros

I enjoyed almost all of the people that I worked with on my sales team during my time at CDW.

Cons

Senior Management, Director and higher, is stuck in the "when I used to have this job" mentality. They don't have any suggestions to improve except for preaching their own successes in significantly different times.

Advice to Senior Management

Bring in sales coaching instead of "lunch & learns". Hire competent people from outside the company to use sales experiences outside of CDW to perform better in a difficult economy.

Pros

I like the people I work with, and also like that we are not micromanaged and can choose when we can take breaks and lunch .
Lots of resouces on sight
Strong management team-The best teach the best
But it is not a job for everyone.

Cons

Wish that the pay was better! $25K is NO way to make a living in Chicago where cost of living is very expensive.
The cons are alot of cold calling and none of these leads are provided.
The book they give you in the beginning, are mostly terrible accounts.
Management thinks there are all of these new buisness wanting to buy technology
Hearing that it will take 2 years to see ROI

Advice to Senior Management

Don't tell us that in order to be successful we need to be there prospecting 12 hours a day. People have limits and a life outside of CDW