Pros
The energy of the people in this company directly affects the working environment. For me, this energy is inspirational and motivating. The fact that people have such passion here is not common of many jobs. I've lived in Chico my whole life and I've worked many different jobs, many of which had no life or soul to the company, and it's undeniable that we have that here at Build. Management may not always make choices we agree with as employees and there are certainly frustrations that I'll touch on in this review, but overall, in the time I've been with this company, it's very clear that there is an overall cultural mentality of "what you think about, you bring about." I mean no disrespect to folks who have either been terminated or have quit and are unhappy about their time here at Build.com. I've read some of the reviews here and I can say that, yes, many of their concerns are valid and many of their frustrations are justified. And again, meaning no disrespect to their views, for some people, the work environment at Build may not be the best fit. It's fast paced, it's intense, it's competitive, and Build.com is a for-profit business. So *yes*, there will be an emphasis on numbers and performance if you're in sales. For me, that's an environment that I never thought I'd enjoy. But my teammates and my supervisor, as well as other big personalities and inspiring employees in the company, have made a huge difference. For a while, I ran into some dire straights. My numbers were looking bad, I was asking for help and not getting it, and I was very discouraged. Eventually, it got to the point that it was negatively affecting my home life and I told my supervisor. We sat down and realized that there were some things that had been overlooked and we made a game plan for my success. It's working. Half of coming into work and having a successful day is coming in and having the right mindset. The other half is having goals, meeting or exceeding them, and getting honest feedback and criticism to help you learn and grow. Build.com can be "just a job." You can come in right on time, leave right on time, and put in the bare minimum. And if that's the case, it'd probably be a pretty mediocre job. Commission would be low, your hourly will be down around the base, and getting ahead might be tough. Do you have to work your butt off to get somewhere in any company? Sure thing, buddy. Do some people work their tails off, never get recognition, and end up unhappy and mistreated? That has been known to happen once in a while, and it's possible it's happened here at Build. Maybe I'm naive, but I truly believe that the people running this company want to hear from us here on the ground. In the trenches. Because as some people have pointed out in their reviews, they don't see the every day operation of the sales floor. Maybe it's true they are a little out of touch. It's gotten to be a pretty big company. That's why the need feedback. And that's why I'm here to give it, positive and negative, which brings me to discuss the cons, candidly and constructively.
Cons
There are problems or issues, big and small, at every level of Build.com, which is to be expected in a company growing as large as we are. I'm going to try to be organized and list not only what I see as the problems, but what I see as the solutions. One thing that never helps anything is complaining for the sake of complaining. There are definitely legitimate gripes out there about Build.com. And there are definitely solutions. Here's my take. 1. Time management This one may begin to be a moot point, but before the hiring surge, managing one's time was a bit of a nightmare. With tons of calls waiting and a never-ending barrage of "take another call, take another call," there's been no time to think about how to manage your day-to-day business effectively. it's been tough to stay organized, to follow up, to do the kind of things that make for a successful salesman in this setting. On top of that, there hasn't been the time to reach out to people who are particularly effective at these things to find out what one should be doing differently or better. My hope is this is about to change. My solution would be to use the incoming wave of reinforcements to give people the time to shadow other representatives or other positions. Any given position in this company can be more successful by knowing more about how the rest of the company operates. Time away from the phones to do trainings on what resources we have and how best to use them would be most helpful, balancing obviously the needs of the company in terms of staffing. 2. Training I do not always feel that I am properly trained on all the systems we use on a day to day basis and I don't always feel like I'm kept up to date on procedural changes in other departments. This leaves me frustrated because there can be a lack of communication between departments on how we as sales reps are supposed to handle certain situations. This needs to be made clearer. I often run across other departments fixing other people's mistakes without telling the person they're making a mistake, so this perpetuates the problem. Clearer lines of communication could improve this, as well as coaching opportunities and regular publication of updates on procedures. 3. Communication This is probably the biggest one, but it seems like it's getting better; more improvement is definitely needed. I think as a whole there's a general negligence (not a malicious intent) when it comes to communication at Build. People get caught up in their projects and developments and forget to let us know what's going on. This prompts The Rumor Mill. It's a small building, though, so I think the management team needs to be much more adept at appropriately handling rumors and debunking them. Obviously, everybody can't know everything, and really shouldn't. But when it comes to some things, it's detrimental to the company to have 210 people guessing and making assumptions. As a company, there could be huge improvements in keeping us informed. In terms of suggesting a solution for this one, I'm not sure what the best course would be. I feel like having regular quarterly meetings as both a whole company and as a sales team have lubricated the dialogue between departments. I think it could go farther and there could be quarterly (or at least annual) summaries of what each department has accomplished and what goals lie ahead. Sort of a "State of the [Blank]" address. There are a lot of small issues out there, some of which I think people just need to be prepared to let go and chalk it up to the fact that no job is amazing all of the time. I don't think the company bribes us with food (although we do get some damn awesome food!) or free beer (although there's also plenty of that). I do believe that those things are rewards for the fact that, especially lately, it has been very high stress. There are going to be high-stress times when you work for a growing company in a competitive market. I have been encouraged, not by any individual, but by the culture of the company as a whole to leave this review, which has a mix of both my praises for the company and my recognition of its faults.
