Gartner Reviews

Pros

Well respected wihin the user community. Excellent analyst community. Client Parnters provide great support. Compensation is very fair. Good resource sharing.

Cons

First level managment is very weak. VVery little leadership, but lots of micro management. Numbers are first and foremost, clients come second. First level managment uses intimidation rather than inspiration and leadership to drive results. Great place to work for younger sales people who are willing to work hard and aren't too bothered by the management intimidation tactics.

Advice to Senior Management

There is a huge difference between leadership and managment and this understanding is very lacking at the first levels of fleld management. If you want to attract and retain senior sales people, you have to learn sales leadership techniques and get away from the attempts at getting results through inimidation.

Pros

Autonomy, research, smart people, benefits

Cons

unclear promotion guidelines, salary levels by position are vague

Pros

-The people: Operating committee on down.
-The opportunity: The freedom to run your business your way with the right results.
-The impact: What Gartner actually does for clients when associates and clients "get it" is remarkable.
-The rewards: Compensation in a culture like that is unique.

Cons

-Its a lot of work. A 6AM to 8PM day under the best of time management practices is not uncommon.
-Zero marketing externally.
-Resource constrained under rapid growth.

Advice to Senior Management

First off: NICE WORK! Secondly, Emulate internally what Gartner espouses externally.

Pros

Great respect from the industry

Cons

Salary is generally lower than the average in the industry

Pros

- good number of Paid time off provided
- Can work from home IF Needed, but not on a regular basis
- Compensation is ok

Cons

- Promotion is not based on how you perform
- too much politics
- No Career path

Advice to Senior Management

Please consider work as a metric for promotion rather than who you like!

Pros

Gartner is all about the sales organization. The company offers a good salary with good rewards for overachievement. Gene Hall, CEO, wants to double the size of the sales organization so there is definitely opportunity for growth.

Cons

As the organization is growing rapidly, the strategy is all about how to make sales people more effective. There isn't an equal focus on adding analysts, consultants, program leaders or back office support. Sales executives are not expected to gain domain knowledge over time, just become better sales people who sell more services.

Advice to Senior Management

There are many sales managers that take a different approach to sales management. Make it more interesting for account executives to move into management. Provide training to sales professionals that goes beyond just better sales techniques.

Pros

- Information
- The customers are wonderful
- The sales staff is great
- Executive management gets it
- Customers love us for the guidance they receive

Cons

- Forced rankings = unnecessary turnover
- Information sharing needs improvement

Advice to Senior Management

Kick the forced rankings out as it is unfair to line management and the employees

Pros

- good environment if you want to learn about various technologies and markets as well as
  research methodologies
- good social network you can build (analysts, sales, consulting, events. clients)
- good to have them on your CV
- decent benefits package
- company performing well and stable even during the recession which gives employees
  confidence
- you get a company credit card right from the start to pay for travel expenses

Cons

- no clear career path unless you do it yourself
- no compensation plan even though it is already almost end of February so you do not know what
  targets you will be working towards
- micromanagement
- lots of internal politics
- resistant to change
- favouring "yes" people over those ones who are innovative and want to change something
- not truly customer-focused
- analysts sometimes fail to dial into calls with clients; sometimes they deliver poor quality calls
   which does not help as Gartner's reputation depends on their analysts
- small chances of promotion unless you are with the company for a number of years
- poor information sharing between client partners and the sales community
- poor CRM choices and an enormously long intergration process with various lines of business -
  sales are not using the CRM fully to share information
- big staff churn
- it is easy to burn out because there is so much work and pressue
- tight metrics seem to be "god" which means that managers can overlook other, "softer"
  employee's attributes and achievements
- senior managers avoid answering simple questions about compensation and use decoy
  techniques to turn employee's attention to some unimportant matters
- too many cumbersome processes and procedures which are hard to follow for a new starter and
  slow everything down
- unfair stack rankings because they are not based on equal territories - how can you compare
  people's performance if their territories across the group are so different from one another?
- client services are not always client oriented and user friendly (they'd rather follow their process t
  than be client focused which is very sad)
- poor visibility across various business units such as sales, client relationship organisation,
  consulting, events - the list just goes on and on
- they are not practising what they preach
- unnecessarily long and complicated interview process which can out you off...

Advice to Senior Management

Stop being so metrics focused and micromanaging your teams. Start recognising people's strengths and ask what they would like to do for Gartner in the future. Talk to them about real career development and how they can invest in themselves to grow. Less internal politics and more client focus - that would do the company good. Teach your teams that client experience is crucial and will ultimately bring that revenue.

Pros

Great people all over the world
Learning opportunity’s are endless
Good day to day support from management
Good work life balence
Great client contacts

Cons

A lot of the analyst have over inflated opinions of them selves and need to be brought down to earth.
If you are considering working for Gartner you HAVE to get a good starting package as promotions come with very minimal payrises.
Cut throat management (they will not stick there neck out for you)
Compensation package is poor and complicated, this is not software or hardware sales and you can often end up oweing the company money through bizarre situations.
To many pen pushers justifying the existence with pointless roles and projects

Advice to Senior Management

Analyst work loads are to heavy and need to become more sales friendly
Promotions should come with fair pay increases
Practice what you preach with internal IT systems
Order admin needs a big revamp

Pros

1. Great place to work for those who have a strong background in technology and want to build a career in technology strategy
2. New York city engagements have excellent work-life balance and is headed by an excellent managing partner

Cons

1. Training and mentoring for graduates are pretty much non-existent.. There is a formal program but it serves no purpose...
2. A new recruit could be in 2 to 4 engagements at the same time.
3. Within go-to-market practice, face time with the team or the client could be non-existent or minimal. For ex: Sr consultants on many occasions work on engagements without ever going to the client site nor meeting in person either the client personnel or members of Gartner team on that particular engagement

Advice to Senior Management

1. Establish a formal feedback program for consultant/senior consultants...
2. Placement of consultants within engagements has to be streamlined