Thomson West Reviews

Pros

People are great to work with at peer level

Cons

Expect more work from less employees & lots of unfinished work before implimented

Advice to Senior Management

HIRE more people in Eagan MN

Pros

Market leader.
Mature selling environment
Good pay.
Good coworkers

Cons

Product support
Unrealistic about position in market place
Too many reorgs

Advice to Senior Management

Stop reorging and give a plan more than 1 year

Pros

Excellent benefits package, talented developers, professional environment, attempting to go agile on many of the technology projects (aka more natural work approach)

Cons

Stressful experience working with incompetent testing manager who did not have any respect whatsoever from the development manager or project champion....none of the above had a grasp on the true scope of a data migration project, and therefore were not able to effectively communicate to their direct reports manageable expectations.

Advice to Senior Management

Time management of direct reports got out of hand....tracking people's time down to the 2 hr level of granularity backfired on project progress.

Pros

- Great comp when you're hitting your numbers
- Top notch products and product recognition
- Lots of outside respect for the company

Cons

- Quotas, miss one year and you're done
- Long work days, weeks, months...etc
- Job security is completely dependent on your territory makeup

Advice to Senior Management

Look at each territory individually before you place quota levels. I was told that this would be a 3 year gig when I took the job. After the first two years I couldn't believe that I wouldn't be there forever. However in year 3, I lost territory that was contributing over 30% of my overall sales but was still expected to grow 10%. What sense does that make?

Pros

Intern in the mfg plant. Learned a lot, great company to work for. Leadership team is very helpful and will give you the tools required.

Cons

Interns were not given full time opportunities, intern program was fairly unstructured. Salaries were lower then average for engr students.

Pros

-The benefits and working from home is awesome. Traveling a few times a year for sales meeting is nice and the money can be good if you have a good territory. Always investing in new technology.

Cons

There are many cons with workiing at Thomson West right now, primarily job security. On the sales side of things there tend to be corporate restructuring and down sizing at least once a year. The comp plans are constantly changed, and not in a positive direction. The general way to motivate employees right now tends to be through fear with very little positive feedback.

Advice to Senior Management

Ask for input from the field in the territory management process and be transparent with the companies plans. if the ship is moving in the wrong direction be able to change directions.

Pros

Fast-paced, good facility, good people, flexible schedule, ability to spend some time working remotely, many internal opportunities to change and/or advance career.

Cons

fast-paced, not a lot of upward feedback to management happens, personnel decisions happen slowly, it's cold in minnesota, lots of collaboration with colleagues in Asia which causes some odd hours and strains communication.

Advice to Senior Management

provide a means for employees to weigh in and give meaningful feedback before decisions are made, to help them feel engaged in the processes which affect their daily work life and career paths.

Pros

The company has been profitable thru the recession the last few years. The company has decent health benefits and a good work/life balance.

Cons

Growth opportunities past the manager level is difficult. Salaries can be better.

Pros

The opportunity of being in a large company and having some areas within still acting like nimble small businesses that are autonomous.

Cons

The shear size. Finance drives the business more than it should. Seems we get a number to hit rather than having discussions around what we are able to hit - based on market conditions

Advice to Senior Management

Get to understand the market and how important front-line employees are to the organization

Pros

Barest minimum of hours required, can set own start/stop time, friendly folks,

Cons

Mind-numbing banal work (inserting thousands of footnotes a week into books), attorneys treated with contempt, have to report to supervisors who are not lawyers - some with no college degree. Senior management on site possibly insane.

Advice to Senior Management

Fire the directors.