STAY OUT OF it if need a job that pays, only probably good for ascetic self-train for a short time - Energy Consultant Empyrean Solar Employee Review

2.0
21 Oct 2014
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Detailed step-by-step hand-on start-up training for sales and marketing in the solar industry; Learnt a great deal if you spend time and follow their sale methods and track of records; Great personal growth and development of entrepreneurship mindsets and communication skills;

Cons

Purely commission-based pay system, which means your pay is so unstable and uncertain - performance is rarely driven by abilities but highly dependent on many uncontrollable factors (don't trust their so-called "law of average" number). For example, customer may like you, want to go solar, bills are high, everything seems good, you get the actual sit. But suddenly the customer cannot pass the credit process, you finally get nothing. All your efforts just gone; Just because they pay you based on commission but not hourly salary, their management and working hours are very inefficient: you go to office at 11 (9-10 for senior consultants), then wasting more than 3 hours doing sales team spirit things, going out door-to-door selling from 3-8 M-F and 9-4 Saturday. A lot of labor commitment without a penny paid to you; They obviously doesn't care and called that "giving you time to learn from each other"; You may speak to yourself with the saying "no pain no gain", but if you want to stay, you must (and you will) envision yourself in a "much pain no gain" situation, until a certain point either you luckily survive making some money or suffer enough and quit; Lack of benefit system, no medical cover at all even for a full-time Monday to SATURDAY job; Very intrusive to your personal life. They have Tuesday sport night, Thursday team night and Friday morning Company Breakfast at Farmer Boy and Friday night "Good Taste in the Neighborhood" dinner event. EVERY WEEK! You can just not go, but they will treat you as an outsider if you miss these. Let me get the number for you: You already spend 10 hours each weekday and 7 hours on weekend, which means 10 x 5 + 7 = 57 hours per week! They still expect you to spend 5 more hours with them. Do any of these make any sense to you? You do your own math and decision.

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Empyrean Solar Response
11y
I'm very sorry to hear that you had a negative experience with us. We definitely value your feedback and definitely we will address all those issues. However, I'd like to clarify a few things: - Team nights are definitely voluntary, if you felt any pressure I apologize for that. We will definitely discuss this with the core team and make sure we will set the right expectations with everybody. - Everybody starting in the company starts with a bonus structure. For example, if somebody doesn't get a sale in their first 2 weeks, they still get paid depending on what bonus they qualify for and everybody qualifies for a certain amount of bonus. - Unfortunately, in any type of sales, not everybody qualifies. We appreciate all of your efforts and if you are considering sales positions in the future, my advice is understand that it is a numbers game and focus on the positives. It will help you get more sales. But it's true, we do not pay for the credit fails. Neither any entrepreneur who owns their own business does. Real world is tough, but rewarding if you work hard. - If you look into solar industry, nobody is working to make $9 - $15 an hour. As you mentioned on your comment too, we are doing a good job keeping people that like their jobs. Those people consistently make between $10K-$20K a month and most of them are in this business for less than 6 months - 1 year. I am confident that you know who those people are since we are very transparent with their numbers. - Also I am happy to announce that we will start offering medical benefits in 2015! Once again, I appreciate your feedback. I am assuming this was your first professional experience. Please do not give up and work harder and you will reach success. I want to finish with a quote from Thomas Edison: "The first 40 hours of work per week are for survival. Everything after that is for success." Thomas Edison

Explore other reviews about Empyrean Solar

5.0
9 Jun 2016
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Loved my experience from day 1. People we work with are extremely friendly and everybody is very helpful. They have a good curriculum and it's a hybrid between real experience and school as everyday there is a list of items everybody has to learn in the training. Very useful, practical information which is transferrable to any other experience.

Cons

This is not a directly management position, it's a management training program. Personally I like starting from bottom and moving up; so I like it. But if somebody expects to have their own room as a manager and/or don't want to start from entry level, it's not the right business.

2
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Empyrean Solar Response
10y
Thank you for your review! We're proud that all of our managers have gone through our management training and started from the ground up. We wouldn't ask any of our team to do something we haven't done already. We're glad that you believe in our philosophy as well! If there is something that we can do to help you grow at Empyrean please let us know directly hr@empyreanco.com.
4.0
14 Jul 2015
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

The people are the reasons why I come to work everyday. Everyone in the office is inviting and motivating. When you feel like you don't understand something, there is always someone that will help you out. There is a lot of growth in the business as long as you put in the hard work. Your efforts does show how much you get compensated for. Learning all of the skills in the business can be applied to everyday situations in and out of the workplace. I have gained a ton of experience and I'm still looking forward to new challenges. Everyday is always different and you will not become stagnant at this job, unless you decide to do so.

Cons

The hours are really long, but the more effort you put in the job, the more compensation you will get. Just like other jobs, everyone starts off as an entry level to work there way from bottom to the top to see how the company works as a whole. And like I said before, the amount of effort you put in can determine how easily you can move up in the business. It's like a work hard play later type of model because in order to get where you want to be, you have to put in all of that hard work and make a lot of sacrifices by putting in all of your time and effort to get to your true potential.

7
avatar
Empyrean Solar Response
10y
Thank you for your positive review. We're proud of our work hard, play hard company culture!
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