CarMax Reviews

Pros

Lots of exposure to the used car business. The opportunity to learn all aspects of the business.

Cons

Limited long term growth unless willing to relocate. Must be very flexible with work schedule.

Advice to Senior Management

Be more honest about future opportunities.

Pros

Compensation and bonuses
Hourly associates whom are "bought in" are treated respectfully by management.
Great training!
Good focus on customer service.

Cons

*You need to fully drink the kool-aid and be "bought in" to be considered for any promotions.
*If you bring years of management experience to your position, you won't use it as you must become almost robotic in their beliefs and management outlook.
*If you challenge your superiors you will be remembered as someone who isn't "bought in" and will be used against you when you want to progress within the organization.
*As a manager you must also be a good politician!

Advice to Senior Management

Promotions should be based on merit and accomplishments and not by on how well you can act at being "bought in".
If you want to bring in quality experienced managers to the organization, don't discourage their ability to think out of the box.

Pros

good benefits, no advancement opportunities.

Cons

low pay, and no raise

Advice to Senior Management

too much chit chat and no performance

Pros

Guilt-free sales: The Carmax sales process is exactly as advertised; completely honest and straight-forward. You'll never have to play games or deal underhandedly with customers.

Stability: CarMax has a great concept. They're steadily growing and not likely to disappear anytime soon.

Good co-workers: I cannot speak for other departments but at least on the sales side, they hire great people. I'm very satisfied with the quality of the Sales Managers at my store.

Training: Overall, the quality of the training given to sales associates is great. If you are considering a career in sales, but have little experience, CarMax is a good place to start.

Cons

Hours: You must work retail hours. The schedule is highly variable; your hours scheduled as well as days worked are different every week. This makes it extremely difficult to have a regular, healthy social life or pursue personal hobbies.

Stress: Sales jobs are stressful. CarMax is by no means the most stressful gig out there, but it can still be frustrating. For example, customers can return the car they purchased within 5 days for any reason. If they do so, you lose your commission and it becomes harder to meet your monthly quota. I've seen coworkers lose sales because of factors beyond their control such as: mechanical problems with the vehicle, Service Department not resolving issues to the customer's satisfaction, and customer receiving a better deal elsewhere on a new car.

Work-life balance: If you attend an open house meeting for new hires, you'll likely be told by the management that Carmax promotes a "good work-life balance." In theory this is true. In reality it simply isn't, at least not for sales. It's true that you are only scheduled for a 40 hour work week. However, I constantly receive calls from both customers and sales managers on my days off, which means I never truly get a break from work. Suppose your shift ends at 6:00 and a customer comes in at 5:30 wanting to buy a car? Or suppose it's your day off and you receive a phone call from a customer telling you they saw a car on the site and want to come in that same day to buy it. What do you do? It's VERY common to see sales consultants working on their days off or staying beyond their scheduled hours for this reason. Additionally, the company constantly urges sales consultants to achieve "President's Club" level, which means selling at least 15 cars per month. While this is certainly doable, I do not know of anyone personally who is able to sell this volume of cars while sticking to a 40 hour work week. The reality is, if you work only your scheduled hours, your sales numbers are probably going to be sub-par. To be successful at CarMax, you must sacrifice your personal life.

Cultish atmosphere: There's a lot of corporate kool-aid being served up. Conformity is highly prized at CarMax. Questioning the decisions of superiors or saying anything that differs from the "company line" will only get you on management's bad side. Everything is process-driven, and there is no room for creative thought. Much information is kept secret from Sales Consultants. During training you are told to "Have confidence in the Carmax offer." Which really means, have blind faith in whatever we tell you.

Advice to Senior Management

Don't try to make everyone fit into the same mold. Sales is an art and every person's approach is different. Tell the buyers (purchasing dept) to not be so elitist. And for God's sake, cut me some slack on my day off!

Pros

Great training, good group of people in every department

Cons

Promotions based on politics, not on best candidate

Advice to Senior Management

Partnering is a good practice when done minimally. Managers need to be able to manage

Pros

Great people with good opportunity for advancement and lateral moves. Good place to work if you want to further your career.

Cons

Working a retail schedule. No three day weekends for national holidays. In fact you will probally bw working the big ones.

Advice to Senior Management

Hold people accountable for their actions.

Pros

Plenty of opportunities to grow your professional skills as well as climb the ladder if that's what you want. New technologies and older technologies are merged together.

Cons

It can be frustrating communicating with senior leadership at times because they have a tendency to talk around issues. They also try to bs about changes to compensation. For example, when they dropped the pension plan they claimed it was for our benefit, but it was really to save money. They also unfairly are contributing more to certain employees 401k accounts.

Advice to Senior Management

Management could do a better job explaining the career path and be more open with their communication and feedback with the employees. Too many times managers will say a lot of words without saying anything.

Pros

A place to work, good hard working associates

Cons

Management does not have a clue about running a company, They have some of the highest turnover in the industry, they do not listen to their employees, Sales people are the bread and butter but management does nothing to show them respect for the many hours and great customer service that they provide.
Management manly focuses on the negative feed back.
Micromanagement. Un-realistic computer training so called PSP's

Advice to Senior Management

Too top heavy, need to be shaken up, Time for change operating on the "good old boy" network and do not have managers with past experience or proven track record for the Job that they are in.
Look at the current Regional VP credentials, they speaks volumes with regards to they way they promote.
Major change is needed ASAP CarMax has reached max growth and need to change all management in order to break through this wall that they have reached and rebuild on solid foundation.
Listen to the SALES People they are your best resource when it comes to customer feed back.

Pros

Customers love the concept and you will meet a lot of Great Customers and Fellow Team Members. You as a team member will love the concept until you meet the LGM management.

Cons

The location LGM is the person that is supposed to lead with the company values but when they come in at 10AM or later and blow out the door at 4pm it's kind of hard to run your location. Also when the LGM is there they just raise havoc for the location team that is trying to deliver the best possible experience to the customers.
The Company touts the fact that they have been voted the Best Place to Work by Fortune 500. I am not sure what they are looking at because they must not have talked to the team members in the locations, so this must be a nice to have sell job by corporate to make the company look better.
When team members are made to feel bad or pressured because they need time off for illness or family needs this is not comfortable for the team member and those that have to work around them. When a person becomes ill at work and the LGM says “you can’t leave until you do this, this, and this before you go home or to the doctor it makes a statement that can be missed which is “we don’t care about you until we have gotten the work we need out of you for the day!”
Add to all of the above that you are outside in all kinds of weather also you better have a note to from your doctor to let you off the snow removal team or you will find yourself disciplined for not being a team player.

Advice to Senior Management

Stick to the concept that you started what you have now is a diluted concept that is not what the company started out with. It’s like in the Steve Jobs auto biography when the money men and (corporate)sales people get involved the product loses focus and that’s what happened to the once Great CarMax!

Pros

I like everyone I work with and it seems that everone trys to do a good job the building is nice and the shop is air conditioned

Cons

You are micro managed to the point of insanity It's hard to make any money if you are in unpayed meetings all day

Advice to Senior Management

Start by employing managers the have some clue to the area they are incharge of and give them the power to make there own decisions not in a group but on ther own and live with there mistakes it should not take 5 managers to make one decision