Pros
The people you meet at the branch manager level and below are real and super cool. Most of them understand the struggles we go through every day because we are in the trenches together and a sense of brotherhood is created. I've heard stories of a few horrible branch/location managers, but I've been blessed to work with awesome ones. The various amount of customers you meet allow a great chance for you to network with other professions. Through this, I was able to learn a lot about how to reach my long term goals. You get a car when you have EARNED a position as a location/branch manager. This is somewhat of a blessing if you last long enough. Vacation days are pretty easy to get approved. The CEO (Mark) is going to drive this business better every day. The company, from a macro perspective, is any investors dream. Training program (when enforced and done correctly), is one of the best in the industry. Good place to develop your skills, get promoted, have a nice title, then find the door out and move on. Training program is recognized by many Fortune 500 companies.
Cons
Starting pay is EXTREMELY low considering the preferred candidate is suppose to have a bachelors degree. Now, I'm not one of those arrogant people who graduated and expected to make 50K plus coming out of college. I believe in earning everything you do in life and starting from the bottom up, but the starting pay is not competitive. There is a huge amount of talent loss due to the uncompetitive pay. Area managers try real hard to sell you on the GREAT BONUSES and getting a car when you become a branch manager during the interview. Location bonus structures are rigged. It only favors upper management (Area manager and above), unless you are a branch manager who happens to be running multiple locations, which is pretty rare. College graduates, be prepared to vacuum and clean cars in your dress shirts and dress pants even if your location has a car wash servicing its vehicles. I can't recall how many expensive shoes, shirts, pants, and ties were destroyed due to doing multiple car washes. After 3 months, I finally wised up and just started wearing cheap dress clothes and shoes. Even if it is 110 degrees outside, you will still have to wear ties and clean cars. Extremely understaffed. Staff from other locations have to be pulled because 98% of locations are all understaffed and have to be shared. There is a high and quick turnover rate of new hires so it makes it harder for the people who manage to stay remain positive. Long work hours and non existent lunches. I've worked as much as 55-60hours a week and have taken a lunch as late as 5pm even though I clocked in at 730am. I am thankful I have a job, but when you work that much, it is pretty hard to be happy, excited, effective and customer service oriented at the job. The whole having lunch by your fifth hour does not work for this company. Breaks do no exist either. You are suppose to get paid for not having lunches or breaks but you don't. A lot of scare tactics are used at this company. They will tell you that they only want top performers and that if you don't do this or that than you will get written up or be terminated. Positive reinforcement is pretty much non-existent here. Don't worry too much about being fired though and even if you were, it'd probably be a blessing.