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SolarCity

Acquired by Tesla

Is this your company?

Great company for corp positions & B2C sales - Field Energy Consultant SolarCity Employee Review

3.0
18 Mar 2014
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Great company overall. Good benefits, 401k, stock, etc. Terrific growth outlook for the next five to ten years on the residential side. Incredible internal EE referral program. Well thought out approach to the market. Great tools for the field reps to use.

Cons

Training is "fire-hose" style. Then you are thrown into the mix. Lots of conflicting information about what is and is not current/acceptable policy. It's a fast moving company, unfortunately that tends to lead to more than a little "Ready, Fire, Aim" in execution. High burn-out rate. High expectations of accountability (8PM teleconference six nights per week for some managers). Need to be available to manager~12/7. The immediacy of the job often has reps going months without an actual day off. VERY numbers based sales organization. Heavy on SFDC reports and Excel spreadsheets. No traditional "Sales Management" used; no coaching. More telling than listening. More lecturing than teaching. More reactive than proactive. (This MAY not be the case company-wide, but was seen prevalently in the Bay Area) Even with a field team (FEAs) generating "qualified" leads at The Home Depot, Best Buy, mall kiosks, fairs, etc, the distribution of those leads is entirely subjective. Leads are almost always sent to the FECs who have been there the longest, leaving newer rep to scramble. The only alternative is for FECs to spend 20 - 30 hours each week at retail location to insure that the leads coming in go to them. Virtually no marketing presence. There are a lot of mis-conceptions about how SolarCity approaches renewable energy, but no concerted effort to get the information to the marketplace. For the FEAs and FECs this puts them in a constant uphill battle. Although sales contests and incentives abound, they are often complex, convoluted and hard to understand the metrics to achieve success. * Recommended to friends under the right circumstances ** Six month Business outlook: Good. Outlook on Improvements to above: Poor *** Avoid the residential side if your expertise is Business-To-Business

Explore other reviews about SolarCity

5.0
21 Oct 2024
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Good pay and no supervision working at the different Home Depots

Cons

Having to make numbers and sales

4.0
22 Mar 2016
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Just to quantify my review a bit, I am within the top 10% of inside sales reps within our 12,000 person company. It is a great place to work and people doing well ARE able to make good money here. The executive team ALWAYS has a platform for reps to help make SolarCity a better place every quarter. They involve the top 20 reps each quarter in various ways to help their peers through an interactive group called Team Elite. Executives, VP's, Directors, and Managers are always willing to help and go to bat when there are issues with things that need to be fixed. The direction of the company is consistent and although the company is large, decision makers work as hard as possible to steer the big ship quickly when necessary.

Cons

Knee jerk reactions with decision making at a director level create issues from time to time. Culture has had its ups and downs due to HUGE growth last year and subsequent high attrition rates.

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