Potential, but think it through - Sales Engineer Sweetwater Employee Review

Whenever we hire a person, we want it to be a “Win-Win” scenario, where it's a positive experience for both parties. It's unfortunate that wasn't the case here, despite some of the kind remarks this former employee makes. We value all input we receive, so let me attempt to address some of the issues this former employee presents: We realize that the Sales Engineer job is not for everyone so we're careful to not only point out the great things about our company, but the challenges of working in an environment that's very fast paced and all about excellence. We very emphatically explain during three different interviews that the job is demanding, requires a lot of patience and perseverance as you build your business, and is ultimately commission based. This means income will fluctuate from paycheck to paycheck and also that some people will do much better than others. The notion that pay is minimum wage is, sorry, totally incorrect. Most Sales Engineers will make between $29K to $32K during their first year because the job doesn't become more commissioned based until the seventh month of their first year. During their second year, the average Sales Engineer makes somewhere between 35-45% more than they did that first year. Some do even better than that. That's a very long way from minimum wage. We clearly communicate that the work week for Sales Engineers is a mandatory 44 hours per week (not 50 hours as this reviewer suggests), four hours of which are training meetings, which helps new Sales Engineers become experts quicker and increase their earnings faster. Yes, Fort Wayne is one of the most affordable cities in the country to buy a house and, according to a recent AARP survey, the most affordable city in America to rent an apartment. So your money goes a long way here, and we aren't afraid to “sell” that....it's a great benefit. In fact, the majority of second to third year Sales Engineers are already home owners. It's baffling that this reviewer felt there was no culture or entertainment here. There are three major 2000+ seat entertainment venues in the city, a number of other 400-600 seat venues, the fourth largest night club in the United States, and over thirty venues that offer entertainment every weekend here in town. For a city of about 300,000, we think that's pretty extraordinary, and so do literally hundreds of our employees who play out in a band on a regular basis. There are three minor league sports teams, a Philharmonic orchestra, multiple dance and ballet companies, four theater organizations, over 60 movie screens, a world class zoo, four museums, over 65 miles of connected hiking/biking trails, countless parks, 60+ golf courses in a five county area, 60 lakes within an hour's drive, two major shopping malls and tons of other small business retail options, a plethora of restaurants: not exactly nothing to do. Yes, we do have some people with nice cars, but the vast majority of those nice cars are parked in the main employee parking lot, not just the manager's lot (which actually is for employees who park near that entrance and is not just for managers.) This reviewer eluded to expensive cars but no profit sharing, which is also incorrect: we have both a 401K retirement plan after the first 90 days, and then profit sharing after the first full year of service. The notion that we don't do anything for our employees is curious. Take the virtual tour of our facility at our website, which is constantly compared to Google's, Apple's or other forward thinking companies. Most of the over the top amenities you see are geared for the convenience and pleasure of our employees. We also have a Concierge team whose function is to make life easier for our employees. This year we have taken as many employees as cared to go, with their families, free, to a minor league hockey game; Cedar Point Amusement park (including chartered coaches and a nice meal), and a picnic at a baseball game in a park recently voted “Best Minor League Ball park in America.” Where many in “Corporate America” have eliminated annual holiday parties, we have two, and at one of those employees' children aged ten and under receive a personally selected gift from Santa Claus. We also give every employee a turkey at Thanksgiving and regularly have lottery drawings to give out free tickets to entertainment here in town. The owner and his wife hand select a gift for every baby born to an employee's family. How this can be construed as doing nothing for our employees is a mystery to us. This is a unabashedly a "career" opportunity and not just a job where you show up and get a paycheck. For those who work smart and take the long view, the rewards are incredible. --Jeff McDonald, Senior VP of Human Resources