Very misleading interview and unsatisfactory employment experience
Pros
Freedom in your schedule - you don't to use a personal day if you have an appointment. You can rearrange your schedule to accommodate things that may come up.
Cons
So Many! Lets start from the beginning. - I was told I would make 70-80,000/year. That was a huge lie based on where I am located. I am in a rural area and that income is not achievable where I am. - I work every Sunday... which they somehow forgot to tell me would happen when I was hired. - I was hired on a weekly base which DROPPED after so long and I was not informed that would happen. - Formal training is 6 weeks in a classroom environment. They pump you so full of information in that period there is no way you could remember it all. It would be much more effective to learn most of the info in the field and do periodic training in a classroom. - You pay for home computer paper and ink with no reimbursement despite the fact that you are require to print pages upon pages of information for your customers. - Up until recently I had a computer that was borderline working against me most days. After almost 2 years with it, I was finally issued a new one which is a lot better! - The requirement of attending a general sales meeting each month that is almost 4 hours from where I live/work. Mileage is not reimbursed. - The requirement of attending a monthly district sales meeting which is over 1 hour from me and mileage is not reimbursed. - The expectation of bringing customers to the main Sysco building almost 3 hours away. The expectation is to do this once a month/12 times a year. Mileage not reimbursed. - On the above mentioned trips, you are expected to front money to take said customer out for dinner and drinks. This you are reimbursed for but you often have to wait a month or more for the expense report to get approved and the money to be deposited into your account. - Zero work life balance. I get calls from customers all days of the week, all hours of the day. This company knows no boundaries. - No matter what day or time it is, you'd better have your computer with you in case a customer calls and needs a question answered. - Poor support from merchandising. Emails with questions about products either go unanswered or get answered in an unacceptable amount of time (i.e. after cut-off for placing orders causing you to lose a sale). - So many superiors! There are so many people in position above me that I have no idea what they do or who they oversee. - Red tape on everything. If you make the 3 hour drive to bring you customer to the office, front money for dinner out with them, plan a nice visit and the customer decides they would like to tour the facility, you are out of luck. That would have needed to be scheduled a week in advance. - Quality control is poor. Rotting or moldy produce makes it to the customer often leading to more work for you having to write credits and scramble to find replacements so the customer has product. - The company has different expectations from their competition leading us uncompetitive in the field. Sysco tells us they can't stop the truck at an account for less than $500; the competition will stop for $250. Sysco tells us we have rock bottom prices on items; the competition is selling the same item (same name, size, box) for less than our "cost". I was very much misled when I took this job, and if I had known how it would be I would have passed. I am an educated person with experience and I didn't even see it coming...