CDW Reviews

Pros

Good benefits. Company is holding up strong, especially for a tough economy... but that is mainly because the employees who are not liked and have talent but have to work so much harder to pull the weight of those who are liked and do not pull their weight.

Cons

Moral is very low and that is company-wide. Leaders follow a "do as I say, not as I do" philosophy and there is ALWAYS a big catch whenever this company is trying to give you something. Work/life balance almost does not exist, but they trying to sell it like it does. Promotions are generally based on who is most liked rather than who is most qualified. Business ethnics needs to improve and it starts from the top down.

When the economy recovers, the talented will definitely leave!!

I am generally not one who complains.... I am just simply stating all the facts!

Advice to Senior Management

Just please stop being greedy and change. The executives preach accountability but yet they hold everyone else accountable for their actions, but blame other for makes they make, never taking accountability. Please take accountability for your actions and start doing what is right.

Simply put, there are many good people working here, both front-line managers and especially at the coworker level and it if weren't for their ideas, hard work, dedication and contribution, you wouldn't be where you are today.

Thank you.

Pros

The vendors/Manufacturers always bring in lunch or take employees to happy hour.

Cons

Management thinks that there are hundreds of undiscovered companies that the other 300 employees haven't found yet. They want you to prospect to find your own accounts within a defined territory. There's no way to make money here if you can't find qualified accounts.

Advice to Senior Management

Pick a new account manager and try working their accounts for a day.

Pros

Free food from vendors, hours are casual depending on the manager you have, management is generally pretty fair to it's employees

Cons

message management from up the chain of command was lacking, there was a serious lack of mentorship in advancing a career within the company. Frequent 'changes' of commission structure are frustrating, and always mean less money in the Account Manager's pockets.

Advice to Senior Management

Stop slicing away benefits, your employees notice these changes. Management is tongue-forked in it's simultaneous lauding of corporate profits while taking away benefits that are no longer affordable. The company and MDP are plenty profitable, and many employees feel they are being taken advantage of.

Pros

The benefits were ok there. I can't really recommend it to anybody with a pulse. It's an ok place to work at if you want to bust your behind placating people and getting no credit for it

Cons

You're left with scraps for accounts. I've seen many people build their accounts up from nothing only to have it taken away to another department.

Advice to Senior Management

The management structure really needs to change. I came in during a transition period and never got to see what others raved about.

Pros

You are extremely well trained in product knowledge and how to utilize company resources. You are provided with solid benefits.

Cons

The leadership theme is "micromanagement" from the top down. There are high goals set with high expectations. If monthly goals, set by managers, are not hit then commission is not payed. Every task is closely measured and subject to scrutny.

Advice to Senior Management

The accepted management style when i left in 2008, was extreme micromanagement. I constantly felt that i was being asked to maximize my output to achieve goals set unrealisticly high. I was not profitting or gaining satisfaction from my efforts.

Pros

Excellent resources for additional training from vendors. Less micromanaging than you would expect for an inside sales jobs.

Cons

accounts are very picked over so be prepared to find your own and cold call,

Advice to Senior Management

quite the politics and give the best accounts to the talent not your friends.

Pros

The company has a young workforce.

Cons

The downtown Chicago location has a Frat house atmosphere.

Advice to Senior Management

None

Pros

you learn alot about technology generally

Cons

training has changed from 3 months to 6 weeks
corporate america is terrible
leadership of the company is weak and communication is meager
turnover is apparently

Pros

This rating system needs a bit of a work, I'm a bit more then satisfied but dont think its perfect, so I'm giving CDW the benefit of the doubt...
Tons of resources. I have friends at other technology companies and they dont have 5% of what we are able to offer customers.
Self powered. My managers have never micro managed me to death, allow and encourage me to take time off, visit customers, ect.
location, have to throw this in, its right across from Union Station. I dont even come from the burbs but for those that do its awesome.
Coworkers, work with a lot of great people that are great at what they do

Cons

Some of this will sound contradictory, so bare with me...
Coworkers, since CDW is such a large company I think we get desperate to hire at times. That being said I have seen some morons
Starting off in Sales, it can suck. Base pay isnt much and you need to grow your account base
Work from home still isnt readily available for everyone, in sales you need to be at a top % of your group to get this perk. I feel like we are a bit behind the curve here. IMO proven people that know what they are doing should get to work from home once in a while

Advice to Senior Management

Keep up with perks that other companies are offering in the same field. Do whatever you need to do to keep your senior staff or they will go elsewhere and take market share. Its also better to not hire someone that hire a moron

Pros

Good location
Learn technology - if you are into it
Well known Name in the industry

Cons

Over saturated - to many reps
High Prices tough to compete and make money
Management constantly on your back
Used to be about building relationships now just about how many phone calls you can make, so naturally you have people calling airports/theaters to boost their phone numbers to keep mgt off back.
While some older reps easily clear six figures a year in their sleep. for a new person impossible, you will have to wait 10-15yrs for some of older folks to leave to get their accts. otherwise you will be lucky to make 50-60/yr.
There is a reason why they hire so many reps, high turnover rate.
Used to 100 best places to work for years, not anymore since it was bought out.

Advice to Senior Management

Go back to old ways and let your reps build relationship and grow business. not just make pointless calls. A happy employee = happy customer. While I like the industry and saw potential to make it long term, management drove me out of there after 4yrs.