Cogent Communications Reviews

Current Employee – been working at Cogent Communications full-time

Pros – Sign on bonus. Free sodas.

Cons – Management, Management, Management. All they do is babysit reps all day and micromanage them to the point you feel like you're handcuffed to the chair and just make dials liek you're a call center. You're hired as an "account manager" but it might as well be a preschool. You can sell a lot of units helping the manager's hit their numbers and they still treat you like crap. Turn over rate is probably 90%. Never seen so many people get fired, quitting, hired at any job. Management makes everyone miserable which makes people not want to sell anything for them. They don't tell you about the minimum number you have to hit in your first year. If you don't hit it you get canned. They have a strike system after your first year which they don't tell you either for a long long time.

Advice to Senior Management – HIRE REALY MANAGERS. NOT REPS WHO SOLD YOU A LOT OF STUFF. JUST BECAUSE THEY CAN TALK AND SELL DOESN'T MEAN THEY'RE FIT TO MANAGE ANYONE. STOP TREATING YOUR REPS LIKE DISPOSABLE CRAP. STOP FIRING GOOD REPS AND HIRING UNDER QUALIFIED PEOPLE.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Former Employee – worked at Cogent Communications full-time for more than a year

Pros – Product was fun to sell

Cons – Sweat shop model. No employer loyalty to employees.

Advice to Senior Management – Needs a leadership change

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend – I'm optimistic about the outlook for this company

Former Employee – worked at Cogent Communications full-time for less than a year

Pros – * Good job for someone right out of college
* Okay base with 4 month ramp up commission (not a draw)
* Everyone is friendly for the most part
* if you get a good manager you can make some good money. If you don't you better start looking for another job.
* Good spot to hold you over until you find something better.

Cons – * A lot of cold calling
* Manager was more of a school teacher disciplining the team, than helping them closer deals.
* Not a job for a true sales person (closer)
* Direct manager did not have strong sales skills to help close business
* If you do not sell something in your first 6 months you're fired
* High turnover rate - I was there for less than a year and saw nothing but non-stop change
* stuck at a desk 40 hours a week
* They trace your calls to the second and review it every day - I would have rather been judged by the quality of opportunities I created and not how many calls I was making. You end up making calls just to meet your daily numbers.
* No matter how long you may stay there, you are just a name on a list. They will get rid of you in a second.

Advice to Senior Management – Treat your staff like people not machines.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at Cogent Communications full-time for more than a year

Pros – If you're under 25 and you live in a city in which 45k/year goes a long way, this could be a great opportunity to break into B2B C Level sales. They'll hire people no one else will hire. This is the easiest job to get. 1 interview and you're in without having to say anything impressive at all. You're guaranteed $24 and 2 trips to DC for your 1st 6 months. If January is in one of your 1st 6 months, you're also guaranteed a trip to a nice city with nice hotel accomodations for kickoff.

Cons – 6 months is all you're guaranteed. You have 6 months to make a deal or you're out and as easy as this sounds, I'd say 45% fail to do this. Another 20% don't make that 1st deal until that 6th month. You also have a year to make $5250 in revenue or you're out at the 1 year mark. By the time they complete a year, I'd say 75% either miss one of these requirements or quit.

Now if you're currently interviewing for this position, you might be thinking this doesn't add up with what you've been getting told which brings me to my next point. Don't trust the recruiters. They're on commission to hire as many people as possible. Managers also tell you what you want to hear because their quotas are not prorated based on the number of employees on their team so it's better to have 10 people who aren't a fit and may accidentally sell something than have 2 rock stars so they'll tell you what you need to hear to take the job.

They'll tell you quota means earning $3250/month in commission. The problem is "quota" doesn't mean what people are expected to earn, quota is the number to make Eagle's club. Making quota is a big deal. They announce the name of everyone who actually makes it on a recap call every month. Now think about that. A company with 300 sales employees has time to announce EVERYONE who makes quota. Last month 8 RAMs made quota out of I'd say 240. After a year of employment, you're expected to maintain a rolling average of $1225/month and most get fired for missing that. So if 55k/year is enough for you, take this job.

Oh and it's the worst health insurance I have ever had.

Advice to Senior Management – Tell people the truth. There are people who will be happy as hell to make 50-60k. Tell the truth and tell them that's what people are earning and you'll have candidates who are really a fit for the job rather than either people who aren't motivated and are looking to make the bare minimums or driven people who immediately start looking for jobs that actually offer the opportunities you promised when they find out the truth.

In the spirit of finding the right candidates, take your time. 1 interview and you're in is not a screening proccess. They should at least meet a VP. Manager's and director's quotas should be impacted be affected by the total quota of their team members, that way they're incentivised to actually find people who will perform rather than putting bodies in chairs.

Stop incentivising recruiters to aggressively chase bodies. They're not screening people, they're selling the job. I remember my interview with the recruiter being more about my willingness to take the job than my ability to perform. Should have been a warning sign to me.

We don't need 300 people! Cut the staff in 1/4. Yes. 1/4 and you'll find that people will actually make quota. Well be able to have dedicated territories and compete with the competition instead of competing with each other. Spend more time calling customers than prospecting around each other.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend – I'm optimistic about the outlook for this company

Current Employee – been working at Cogent Communications

Pros – You get what you put in. Work hard. Get rewarded hard. Luckily for me that's my attitude. It's a hunter position so as long as you're willing to put in the effort the rewards are well worth it. Longevity in the company really pays off.

Cons – Just like any sales organization, you have your off days/weeks/months but that's standard for the industry. Sometimes it can be grueling staring at a computer screen for 8+ hours a day.

Advice to Senior Management – It would be helpful to have flex time for going to the gym or having an extended lunch- maybe taking off early one day a month. We work hard- stay late and come in early. It would be nice to have some R&R aside from our standard 2 week vacation. If I work 45 hours in a week would it really be a big deal to take a 2 hour lunch once in a while?

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

Former Employee – worked at Cogent Communications

Pros – Th competitive pay and benefits; comes with a signing bonus while you get your feet wet, company match kicks in right away on 401k, medical and dental very good. co-worker support and cohesion,

Cons – They bring you in to use you up then kick you out. There was only one employee on the sales team that was there longer than a year and she had bounced around in the company. It seems set up to be dead end within a year, give you quota targets that in such a competitive industry your bound to fizzle out, managerial support is non existent.

Advice to Senior Management – None, they know what theyre doing for their purposes.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Former Employee – worked at Cogent Communications

Pros – It's a nice way to get into telecom, as there aren't many products
Managers were nice, and triied to help me a lot
Free beverages was a nice perk

Cons – Too many people selling into too few buildings
Off-net pricing isn't as competitive as it could be, so it was at a disadvantage
Gave my 2-weeks notice, was walked the same day, and FYI, they don't pay you for the two weeks, as other telecom companies do...
Only a select few can actually make quota each month - don't expect to do it much, if at all your first year.
Office was sub-par at best, not a healthy work environment to be working in.

Advice to Senior Management – Adjust the 2Mbps rates in lit buildings - you've lit way too many buildings with small tenants that don't want or need 100Mbps. They'll never buy otherwise.
Morale is low in the smaller offices - look into that.
Get with industry standards and pay the two weeks when an employee gives two weeks written notice. Everyone else is doing it in the industry. You should too.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at Cogent Communications

Pros – Nice Staff, good atmosphere, family friendly. Manager in the office is motivating and wants you to succeed.

Cons – pricing is too high, 0 leads, build your pipeline from scratch. Upper managers talk negatively about the sales team nation wide. They thrive on throwing you under the buss to make themselves look good.

Advice to Senior Management – Manager of the office is great. Lower pricing on 10M and 20M. Change the ROE's. They are the worst I've ever seen.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Former Employee – worked at Cogent Communications

Pros – Free soda and hot coffee.

Cons – No clear vision for team members. Very HIGH turnover!!!!

Advice to Senior Management – Stop the good ole boy network.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at Cogent Communications

Pros – unlimited caps on commissions. if selling in a lit building, its the best bang for your buck in the market.

Cons – ineffective managers make it hard to preform job effectively. also, quote is ridiculously unachievable since almost everyone in the sales team is trying to target and sell to lit buildings.

Advice to Senior Management – There needs to be better communication between director of sales(in dc at least) to mangers and account executives. goals need to be made clearer.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend