Pros
If you're in college, this is an great gig. If you're a new grad, this is a good gig. If you're stuck in hospitality/trade/retail and are looking to pick up some admin or Zendesk experience, this is your ticket. I was working retail, and wanted to transition to some sort of desk job, so I think this was great experience for me. I got the CS/Zendesk experience I needed and got out as soon as I was able to; I recommend this for others in my position. I would even recommend someone who might make more hourly (bartender, waiter, etc) to work here so they can have the experience and move up. I appreciate the healthy offerings here: There are fitness classes offered everyday (you must clock out to take them) and there is a gym and showers on premises. The gym could use some major cleanup and overhaul, but I appreciated having a cable machine and some free dumbbells. The kitchen was always stocked with spinach, cereal, milk, hard boiled eggs, oats, and salad items which was great. Lunch was offered twice a week and I actually liked it a lot; I never experienced raw meat and thought there were many great offerings (Costco). The people in my department were very nice; outgoing, welcoming, and helpful. There is a lot of independence in my role which I appreciated, and you get to make your own calls on a lot of things which is great. My immediate supervisor and the CS management team were really helpful.
Cons
I'll go ahead and address what everyone else has already brought up: 1) Opportunity for advancement: There is no opportunity for advancement here. People have had the exact same job titles (albeit with increasing responsibility and same pay...) for SEVERAL years. Promotions are absolutely unheard of, and senior level management belongs to the CEOs' friends and family. Raises only seem to happen several years into it with employee prodding, and are apparently only a few cents. 2) Poor compensation and benefits: Compensation is below average, considering that the majority of customer service has bachelor degrees, and these are 9-5 office jobs. There are a lot of people who have the same qualifications and skill sets that work retail jobs for less with unreliable hours and schedule though, so that's something to consider. It's just odd to have a desk job with this much responsibility and independence with such low pay. Benefits are meager, although there have been some small improvements. 3) Nepotism: Again, all senior level management were college buds with CEO. Because no one gets promoted, you have a people who have been working here for many years swimming amongst a bunch of revolving door folks. There's an unspoken understanding that lifers can take more breaks, longer breaks, work offline, and socialize without consequence while newbies have their every move monitored. Honestly, it's the least that can be done as these people have invested so much of their time here. 4) Office Equipment: The only thing worse than the chairs and desks are the actual computers. They're old and unreliable, and the headsets are constantly breaking. The software that's used has been hacked so badly that simple order placing takes easily 12 more keystrokes and steps than it should. The sales have outgrown the program, yet there's no movement in investing in another package. Servers routinely get overwhelmed, which is a horrible experience for the customer. The instant messaging software used also crashes constantly, and makes communicating with others extremely difficult. 5) Other things to mention: Cutting corners is the name of the game here, and it's pretty exhausting. The warehouse is in Ohio, the software engineers are more than half a day ahead in Vietnam, and then there's another Canadian customer service team that steps in at night. You wouldn't think this would bother you, but it's hard to help the customer when there's all these other people in different time zones that are involved. Training is unnecessarily long and expensive, and that could easily be fixed by purchasing new software and retaining employees that have accumulated swim gear knowledge over time. Location: Lunch is offered twice a week, which is a great perk that I enjoyed.. However, the facility is sort of in the middle of nowhere, with no restaurants in close proximity. You can barely get to Starbucks (closest thing) and back in 30 minutes, and in CS, you don't dare be late or you'll be written up. I list this as a con, but it taught me to be diligent about packing my lunch. Others who work two jobs or are balancing children in their life will be really affected by this, though.