What is the hiring process like at Gong?

Amazing product, world-class engineering team, surrounded by top sellers and extremely high caliber of talent

Gong is pricing itself out of the MM/ENT space. New messaging and new processes are constantly being rolled out and then changed again every few months. Very few people will exceed quota this year and company culture seems to have taken a nosedive with feelings of uncertainty over what next year will look like and if we’ll be set up for success

Best in class product. Amazing enablement and onboarding

Gong sells the dream to candidates in the interview process. You are promised an abundance of inbound leads and told most of the reps are "printing money". Maybe at one point that was true, but it is no longer the case. If you work here be prepared for an intense amount of micromanaging, with a suffocating Coaching Plan /PIP culture. Another review on here states that the coaching plans and pips made it seem like "the sky was falling at all times". Which is the most accurate thing I have ever read. In early 2023 there was a reorg that restructured the segments. Commercial seems to mostly be doing well, while Mid Market is left to starve and produce 90% of their own pipeline. Its not realistic and leads to severe burn out. The SDR engine is broken. All of this resulting in the worst sales culture and team morale. Everyone is stressed and miserable. Due to the pressure from leadership, we are made to feel like WE are the problem we aren't successful, we are lazy, and to work harder.

The product is truly one of the best in the industry. I’m yet to meet anyone who says they’d rather chose a competitor over Gong.

The biggest issues stem from the marketing org. Priorities shift constantly based on MLT without a clear direction. In just the past two years, there have been four CMOs and three VPs of PMM, each bringing in their own approach and expecting the team to reset. As a result, the PMM function has no stability or clear vision. The leadership is kind enough to acknowledge that the marketing team has been through “trauma” with the changing leadership but don’t do anything to make up for it. The current VP operates more like an order taker than a leader establishing a framework for success. Turnover has been high, with strong talent leaving and new hires left scrambling without guidance. The Agents launch was a prime example—feedback during the retro (shared company-wide) explicitly called out employee mental health, given the unrealistic deadlines and expectations from leadership. Long hours, weekend work, and late nights are treated as the norm. That might be easier to swallow if compensation made up for it, but salaries are noticeably below market.

Pros: Gong has a clear mission and a strong sense of purpose. The product really does deliver value, and it's motivating to work on something customers love. Leadership is sharp, especially in GTM. They’re thoughtful, decisive, and open to feedback. The people are smart, kind, and driven. You’re surrounded by high performers who also care about doing right by customers and teammates. Great emphasis on operational rigor - forecasting, execution, and accountability are taken seriously, which creates clarity across the org. Company has made meaningful progress in AI, and it’s exciting to see how fast we’re innovating.

Fast growth means change is constant. Priorities can shift quickly, and some orgs feel the pressure more than others. There’s a high bar for performance - great for ambitious folks, but not ideal if you're looking to coast. Some cross-functional processes (especially in more complex segments) are still being ironed out as the company scales.

The product is great and has relatively superior functionality compared to competitors. Co-Founders and original upper leadership are genuinely nice people.

Competitors are quickly catching up to features that separated Gong from the market a few years ago. When prospects try to balance cost and value, it is becoming increasingly harder to sell with confidence without feeling like a used car salesman having to constantly justify to prospects why are we often cost 2-3x more than competitors who can offer 90% of what Gong does. If you are reading this review and going through the interview process I strongly encourage you to really research and vet out who you will be reporting to. I have worked at startups and large publicly traded companies: Gong, without a doubt, is the most hostile environment I have been part of. Once you make it to Mid-Market there are very few career opportunities available to you. No one wants to advance to the Enterprise segment as the team has never come close to hitting quota and churns through reps faster than customers churning on Gong. Top performers and culture leaders just disappear in the middle of the night with every quarter end. Sales Leadership acts as if we are all blind and ignorant to when people leave the team, instead, they continue to sell everyone on this concept that "things will be ok, because we're the best." Last thing I'll mention as a sales rep at Gong, our leaders don't even use our own technology. The amount of manual busy work thrown on reps, often last second requests, is endless. Which is ironic because we're supposed to be "revolutionizing" the way sales operates yet our own leaders do not practice what we preach.