What is the hiring process like at Instawork?

Hiring process was extremely efficient (great communication throughout) Good work/life balance and employee engagement through management team with all of our Account Managers.

Lots of travel - but that comes with the job! :)

Not many pros to provide... - Easy interview process, looking for warm bodies - When I onboarded, the training was OK. Not the best, but, sufficient to do the job. - As other reviews mentioned, you will quickly get to know your coworkers-- the stress of the job will create close friendships.

When I initially came across this company, I noticed a trend of negative reviews. When I addressed this during my interviews, I was told these were nothing more than harsh words from disgruntled underperformers. Now that I have moved on to a new company, I can provide my two cents (spoiler alert, the negative reviews were accurate). - To begin, this position doesn't exist anymore! The ENTIRE SDR org has just been let go (via email) per my old colleagues. This is not the first time there have been mass layoffs either... Quite reflective of the deficiencies in management-- bad prognosis for the company itself. - Though the SDR role no longer exists, many issues we faced will undoubtedly trickle over to other roles... none more glaring than compensation. In a stressful and chaotic role, your comp structure should be stable and rewarding. Here it is neither. Comp structure changed twice during my tenure and the cap placed on qualified deals often resulted in low commissions relative to the value of the business that was earned. There is no incentive to work hard for large accounts other than 'job security' (ironic)..... You will often have to fight to be paid appropriately. - Rules of engagement, or which/when accounts can be worked, changes CONSTANTLY. Assigned accounts, portfolio accounts and leads seem to change on a monthly basis. It's difficult to forecast and maintain a pipeline when you are unsure your accounts will be taken from you at any given moment. - Every company has individuals who participate in 'slimy' business practices... boy are there quite a few here. Many AEs have found themselves in their current positions riding on the backs of individuals that have been at the company since its early days. Additionally, many steal accounts outside of ROE, often landing a deal and management does nothing (slap on the wrist?). - Difficult to promote, despite leadership claiming they love to promote internally. - Mediocre benefits

I think what I love most about Instawork is the team and culture. From day one, starting with the interview process, the hiring managers and HR were incredibly friendly, professional, and respectful. I've been loving coming to the office and meeting everyone every day, honestly. Even though it is a startup, everything is super organized. You will have the opportunity to learn in a structured way, but you also have the flexibility to create and adopt your own approaches. Even as an intern, I was given super important tasks and reported to very senior people. They treat my opinions very seriously, despite my 'intern' title. I don't think I would have the same opportunity to learn and grow the way I do now at Instawork. I felt super involved in the team from day one, and I need to give a huge shout-out to my manager. He showed me what it's like to have a real mentor. He had 1:1 meetings with me every single day for weeks, just to ensure that I onboarded smoothly and always provided me with responsive feedback. I truly love working at Instawork and would recommend anyone to work here!

would love more events or activities that help people network with different departments

in addition of offering Line and Prep cook gig work, They allow and provide training and opportunities for other disciplines such as Bartending,, Serving, Cashiers, Custodials, etx

Due to the large amount of competitors, they don't have consistent work all the time, For the gig workers, we have to use three or even more Job Apps to be able to work every day. Also just like every other employment contractor. When a problem arises, more likely than not, They will side with the business who is paying their bill. Any problem and the worker gets suspended with a very slow response process. by the time a resolution is reached, the suspension process is already passed.

I met some really wonderful people who work here! There's no lack of things to work on. Pay is fair.

Very unorganized on every level of management. No clear departmental goals or plans for success. Efforts to improve old processes and increase efficiency are blocked for no real reason. People get hired and let go a lot for no real reason other than poor hiring practices.

-decent pay if you somehow manage to hit quota -free lunch Monday/Thursday -In office 3 days a week

-Since midway through 2023, Instawork has fallen off the rails. What used to be a rapidly expanding company is dwindling farther and farther down the road of irrelevant IPO and lacking market needs. -Since over hiring for an unusual hiring market in 2020-2022, IW has reduced about half of the sales team marking poor performance. -New VP of Sales has agenda to push that has caused any of the successful AE's/SAE's to quit. -Not a tech company, simply selling staff to companies. Half of your quota will be taken away after "Closing it" because customer will have bad experience and cancel. -Office culture has turned from a fun place to work to somewhere no one wants to come in or enjoy. Happy hours are painful

If this is your first or second sales job, it’s a decent place to start out - it may be worth 6 months of exposure to some mainstream sales tools (Salesloft, Salesforce, MadKudu, ZoomInfo, Sales Navigator, IronClad, Thnks, Slack, Assembly, there’s so many) - You’ll get a decent intro to SPIN selling, getting in the reps on the phone, and seeing what the bottom of the barrel looks like in tech-adjacent startups. If you can have any success here for 6 months to a year, you should honestly do very well when you move somewhere with a legitimate product and where earning equity will be worth something (these shares, sadly, will be worthless). Your next employer will be able to coach you out of bad habits like “Cold texting prospects is a best sales practice”. But have a job lined up because this place provides no severance. I have never seen that anywhere else but here.

Sales people here are as temporary as the laborers they’re being asked to place in open roles. It doesn’t take long for most people to realize something isn’t quite right, and by 2-3 months they’re begging for any opportunity anywhere else. Why? Ultimately, the product, but also everything leading up to that. CURRENT STATE: Instawork is a shorter, less attractive WeWork, and will likely meet the same end. But instead of being a new age party cult, the vibe here is the closest thing I’ve seen in the real world to Narkina 5 Imperial Prison Complex in the series Andor. IW is doing for temp work what WW did for commercial real estate leasing - making it seem like a technology software play while accomplishing almost nothing in the way of game changing innovation or practice. And like WeWork, Instawork touts all the flimsy overvaluation that would never stand up to a 3rd party audit paired with a sort of low energy sense of panic in the C Suite. Maybe, then, it’s a plus that they have far less charismatic or even interesting founders and top brass. Sales people here are as temporary as the laborers they’re being asked to place in open roles. It doesn’t take long for most people to realize something isn’t quite right, and by 2-3 months they’re begging for any opportunity anywhere else. Why? Ultimately, the product, but also everything leading up to that. FUNDING: The company got $60 million in new funding in May of 2023 - back when everyone else was avoiding taking money because the terms were so bad - which means it was almost certainly a desperate fundraise as evidenced by the 10% layoff and management shakeup that followed in August, and now a new round of sudden cuts more recently to end the year. TRAINING: The amount of “training” for the first two weeks - and then every day at 8 am (non-negotiable) are comical given the nature of what they actually do. And none of the training pertains to how the industries you sell to operate - it’s all about making the perfect cold call. You will not become an expert in anything for your troubles, except maybe bird species (not worth explaining). You will inexplicably be placed on two parallel sales teams with 2 different managers and sets of goals for the first 2-3 months. Not normal. Not productive. OFFICE: 3 mandatory days in the office, lunch provided for only 2. The coffee is the worst, bring your own. The only real perk to coming in is the opportunity to compare notes with coworkers on where else is hiring and how much longer you think you can tolerate being at Instawork. PRODUCT: You are not selling software! This is not a SaaS company - it is a large scale temp staffing agency with an app. Your quota is based on “partners” renting users of the app to be temp workers and you get paid on shifts worked (by other people) in the first 30-60 days. You do not get a chance to create a book of business in any way. This model may have worked during the strange market conditions of Covid, but demand is way down and the model has not adapted. Need is way down, expectations (and promises to investors) are the same. It’s a brutal position to be in as a sales person. You’ll quickly notice that the vetting standards for workers are suspect, which is maybe how some temps show up to work drunk, high, and shirtless and others end up living on a bed of towels at the country club they signed up to work at (until they get discovered and ruin your quota when the club cancels all future shifts). One of the happier customers acknowledged that they have to send home about 60% of the workers that IW sends because they’re underqualified. Impressed? Another customer contact went as far as filling out his own worker profile with nonsense, BS’ing his way through the 30 minute vetting phone call, and getting himself approved to become a worker he could hire. It’s unsurprising then that referrals and inbound leads are fewer in number than employees who stay more than a year. COMP: You don’t have a revenue target, which is unusual. You get paid on those shifts that you get staffed and which get worked. The problem is that if you have temps on day 1 or 2 that show up drunk, or don’t show up, or OD on the job, or try to threaten a workman’s comp lawsuit against the “partner”, the partner will cancel those shifts you thought you booked to hit quota. I have never seen a sale with less security or stickiness. In the unlikely event that they continue using Instawork after 2 months, you won’t get paid anything for it. In fact, you’ll probably be moved to a different territory by then, so you can focus on harassing the next poor SOB whose cell phone number was just assigned to you. FALSE POSITIVES: Note the lack of enthusiasm in the 10 word positive reviews or the ones that reference a “mission driven high performance culture” that normal people would totally refer to in their attempt to provide a helpful description of a workplace, right above “no real cons come to mind”.

Lots of investment in the tech around the sales process. They have all the bells and whistles. Commission structure is enticing. Hybrid work model. Good people to work with as colleagues and in management. The culture of the team is one of growth and having a bit of fun.

They are STILL learning to build their own sales processes up sustainably. It doesn’t feel like it’s going great. Though my talk track was used for trainings even my success rate was extremely minimal. Though the commission structure is enticing it’s constantly being changed. In eight months it was restructured 3 times. And each was, for myself, woefully unattainable. When my recruiter was unable to provide me with a copy of the commission structure that should have been my first warning sign. The recruiting team has since been completely laid off. As of one month after I started with the company. Even a good team gets burned out and MOST of the people I worked with were exhausted by the sales and lead generation process. You are responsible for sourcing your own leads and the process is time consuming, cumbersome and garners minimal results. Which is due in part to over saturated markets. The burnout means high turnover, be prepared for consistent team restructuring. I’m not a market analyst so I hesitate to talk about the ebbs and flows of the sales markets. However the corporate culture everywhere is one of penny pinching and trimming fat. Instawork is something of a “luxury” for staffing and expensive. Constant firing and layoffs due to performance causes anxiety for employees. The culture for SDRs seems to be turn and burn.

-There is nothing stronger than the bonds of coworkers who absolutely loathe the company they work for

-they fire people who are on maternity/paternity leave - there's nothing more to say about these heartless suits -also the product is too expensive when compared to traditional hiring and the vetting process is terrible

in addition of offering Line and Prep cook gig work, They allow and provide training and opportunities for other disciplines such as Bartending,, Serving, Cashiers, Custodials, etx

Due to the large amount of competitors, they don't have consistent work all the time, For the gig workers, we have to use three or even more Job Apps to be able to work every day. Also just like every other employment contractor. When a problem arises, more likely than not, They will side with the business who is paying their bill. Any problem and the worker gets suspended with a very slow response process. by the time a resolution is reached, the suspension process is already passed.