Edmunds.com Reviews

Pros

Nice office in Santa Monica, but it doesn't produce any revenue unfortunately. It's a money pit that sacrifices many other things that lead to failure.

Cons

Too many to list unfortunately. If you want to have a long, prosperous career with advancement and an opportunity to be set up for success, then this is not the right company for you. Upper management and Execs will act like they listen to new ideas, but in reality, they will never listen or act upon anything new because it might threaten their cushy existence. There is zero alternative business experience at the top. Literally zero. All of the top people have been at Edmunds forever and they have nothing new or innovative to bring to the table. They operate in a tiny box, and if you don't agree with their narrative, you will be pushed out of the company. It's that simple. There are leaders in the company (again, who have been there forever) that treat their direct reports like absolute garbage. One in particular who controls a large part of the western U.S. has countless HR complaints for harassing direct reports. Nothing has ever happened to this individual and he has a job for life, because he echoes the narrative within the small circle at the top. So, he has a job for life. This is a glaring example and a microcosm of how the entire organization operates across all of their departments. Secondly, the company knowingly rips off their customers. They allocate a tiny portion of the overall budget of a client's spend to actual media. They take 60%-80% of the money and pocket it. Their reputation on the street is awful. Their cancel rate is astronomical and there is no bottom in sight. It's very sad, because with the right leadership and ownership the company could innovate great things and be a leader in the industry. But, this will never happen. Ever.

Pros

The people below the C-suite are genuinely great, talented, and smart. Some of the best people to work with and for are in that office. The employee perks are wonderful. The insurance is pretty decent considering they're a mid-sized company and there's fresh fruit brought in every day. Results-only Working Environment (ROWE) is a big plus of the corporate culture. In addition to that the coffee/beverage bar is well-stocked and diverse. The office staff does a great job of hosting events and taking care that the space is well maintained. The office itself is beautiful. It truly is a stunning and effective layout. There are always quiet spots to find, and the conference room electronics work! The location is convenient to the commuter rail line and you get paid parking in the lot or a reimbursement should you not choose to drive.

Cons

The auto space is strange. Edmunds' entire fortune is based on two things 1. How the overall auto market is doing 2. What Google thinks of the site. For far too long, anyone bringing up the fact that #2 wasn't working or that #1 was a core issue was roundly ignored. Executive bonuses were being made so everything was fine! The auto market has slowed spending and Edmunds has not been responsive enough to its customers. I can't think of a product that Edmunds has that is a category-beater across the auto space, not the inventory, the dealer products, nor the ad platform. They're just ok and kept afloat by a very dedicated sales staff. Let's talk about ROWE. The Results in ROWE were at best ill-defined unless you could put a dollar amount to a sales goal. I don't the product nor the tech side of the business could point at a 'result' they were supposed to achieve. The results were to show up/dial into meetings, produce something that resembled work and collect your paycheck. Opportunities for advancement are hampered by a lack of growth in the company/sector. The company is having the problems of efficiency, not the problems of scale. Finally, the vision thing. Looking at their competitors, you can see organizations that have clear goals and visions. What's Edmunds' vision for remaking/reworking the auto shopping space? I worked there for a while and I couldn't tell you. Without a vision, the [company] perishes.

Pros

The people at Edmunds are great. Every person I’ve worked with is smart, really cares and tries to improve what they can about the products. The office is insane ROWE and unlimited PTO are awesome

Cons

Edmunds is a sinking ship. They just laid off a large portion of the company which they notified us all during the holiday break and made us all wait over week to find out our fate, I assume so they could report the severance payments in the 2020 fiscal year to improve the bottom line for the banks and investors. There is no great way to lay off employees but I think making the entire company wait a week to find out if they had a job was a mistake. I have already heard many of the people retained whispering about taking interviews with other companies so there with be even more attrition and it will be extremely difficult to attract talented people to replace them. Credit where credit is due, they did give a generous severance from what I heard so they do care about the employees to some degree. I personally don’t think Edmunds will exist within the next 1-2 years. Best case it’s acquired and worst case it just closes up shop and sells off its assets to try to retain some wealth for the owners.

Pros

Good benefits, including an HSA account

Cons

As a family owned business, it feels like you are an outsider unless you're connected to the fam somehow.

Pros

The employees are good people

Cons

Definitely reminds me of the Titanic but this ship is just sinking a little bit slower. Can’t speak for employees at corporate and how they are treated. For prospective Sales Executives, Relationship Managers, and Account Executives in the field here is what you should expect if you take the job: 1. The main product being sold is mostly smoke and mirrors 2. Be ready to be micro managed all day long(spreadsheets, constant check ins, way to many pointless conference calls) This takes a lot of time away from actually accomplishing the job in the field of servicing dealers 3. No transparency: That went away when the company started struggling. They used to send out weekly leaderboards to everyone for each position so you could see how well everyone was doing around the country. Now they just send you the leaderboard for your position because they don’t want you to be discouraged by seeing the people leaving off the leaderboards and the numbers being way down. Did they not think that subtle move would resonate with employees? 4. Lots of middle management and not enough workers which leads to field reps having way to many accounts to physically be able to manage and see on a consistent basis. Double the accounts to manage as some of the competitors in the market. They wonder why they hear from their clients they aren’t seeing their rep. It’s not because the rep doesn’t want to do the job. It’s because the rep is doing 3 people’s jobs. This leads to reps being demoralized because they are trying to do everything they can to physically be at their clients locations but realize there is no possible way to accomplish that task 5. Hiring freeze for months as great ex employees leave for other companies is the biggest warning sign that needs to be seen. 6. 2020 and beyond for this company ? Don’t look for a grand vision. They are trying to hold it together week by week and month by month. Short term solutions instead of long term strategies. Provide new clients with 3x more value for 3 x less the money then existing loyal clients and wonder why they get cancels. They say they want to take care of existing clients but then when it comes time to do the conversion the managers just complain about the loss they will have to take to make it right. 7. I could go on but I think you get the picture by now. Your best suited to go work at one of the other 150 automotive companies and sell their products instead