Ok so i'm a college senior and somehow I landed a job interview with Dell. The position is consumer and small business sales agent. Don't know much only that its entry level. Just curious to know for those who work or those that know someone that works at Dell what the hiring process is like. Do you like working there? How about the pay?
You will be going through their onsite employment agency and taking the worlds most r****ded sales tests. If you've ever sold anything to anyone, you can ace this test. Then, you'll meet with the recruiter and they will hire you. You can work anywhere between 8 am and 11 pm. You'll get 2 days off in a week, but never consecutively. You will also be required to pass a drug test (just thought I'd throw that in there since you're jsut finishing up college). IMO, Dell is the ultimate last resort for employment in the Austin area for people with a functioning brain. Look harder. There are better jobs out there. Unless you need something the day you graduate, keep looking.
Is this for the inbound phone sales queue? If that's the case, be ready to wear a headset all day long and field calls from customers. The job is largely commission based, and each quarter the bottom sales people get axed. I have friends that have worked their way up from the queue to Technical Sales Rep, but that takes a few years. For what it's worth, Dell isn't what it used to be. Most of the talent has left the company, leaving behind a large contingent of older people with families who are content just to stay employed. As a result, there is little opportunity for career development at Dell. I left my job as Reliability Engineer last July, and 3 more engineers in my group quickly followed suit in the next 2 months. Go ahead and do the interview, but keep other options open. Round Rock 1 and 2 buildings have seen thousands of people walk in and out of the doors since the turnover's so high over there. Good news is that there is some decent tail that works the phone queue in RR1 and RR2. So if you want to try to hook up at work, it's not a bad place.
My one sentence guide to tech jobs in Austin: Apple > IBM > Dell There are many other employers (Moto, TI, AMD, etc.), but unless you have a CS or EE degree you'll probably looking at one of those three.
Freescale, Samsung, Applied Materials, National Instruments... And of course, state agencies like TXDOT, TNRCC, and LCRA.
They are looking for energy and professionalism. If its commissioned based, you could make anywhere from 40k-100k a year. I remember a few years agos when dell was doing well, I knew some guys over there that made 120k a year. Those years are gone but you could get a decent amount if you work hard a get real lucky.
Yeah, those too. Though, minor players in the Austin tech market, all things considered, given the size of the others. I'm sure I'm forgetting software companies like Trilogy and others. As far as Whole Foods, how's that a tech job? Evil. Pure evil.
Ahhhhh where do I start? I graduated in '99 and worked as a Sales Rep 1 at RR1 for about a year and a half. It was the most gawd-awful miserable experience of my life. Prepare to work 60 hours+, prepared to be micro-managed to the gills. Prepare to make no $$$. Alot has changed since I left and its gotten way worse. All the bonuses, spiffs, etc. etc. are long gone...... Most of their sales force is from Temp agencies because they have so much turnover. Hell all you really need to do is Google: Dell sucks, I hate Dell, Dell Hell, etc. There are literally hundreds of places to find out all the reasons why Dell is the devil. For just a little tidbit of what life would be like at Dell, check this forum out that is dedicated for Dell Sales employees: Link When I started there the good-ole-days of the "Dellionaire" were quickly coming to a close. The company had experienced so much growth and was the darling of Wall Street. Then the dot-com's crashed and burned, and people started to realize that you didnt need to spend $2,500 on a box to surf the web and use MS Word. Consequently, Dell's HUGE margins on thier boxes began to drop BIG TIME. Take a look at their stock over the past 7 years..... Its natural for a company to take a dive after years of unprecedented growth, but it was the employees who paid the price. I sold my stock finally and of course lost money. Take my advice: Look elsewhere.
the years of making 100K at DHS and BSD are loooooong gone. Lucky to make 40K these days. Thats why they use temp agencies.
If you don't hit your quotas they adjust your salary down to (I guess at this point) as low as minimum wage. The hours and people you will work with are an utter nightmare -- mainly the supervisors. -Had a good friend who worked there -- he quit after three or so months. --Have a bunch of other friends there that started 5-10 years ago and are making outrageous amounts of money.
Ohhh the joys of sifting through the garbage known as "entry level jobs". I just graduated college this past December and i'm currently going through this process very slowly, very slowly.
