Avantages
Do your job and you will be okay. If being in a political environment does not work for you then this is not the place for you. If you have no work ethic or are complacent this is not the place for you. You will have supervisors, trainers, and quality reps who were unsuccessful at sales and promoted - so yes you can have a sales supervisor, trainer or quality assurance rep who could not perform the sales function consistently - get over it. If you are new to the Industry you can learn a lot - caution though, the knowledge is more likely to come from more senior reps than through defined training programs, trainers, or supervisors. The training programs are not very good and you will not be encouraged to add your two cents, but a new person to the industry can at least get the basics - there is virtually no advanced training unless you are fortunate to find a more seasoned rep who will take an interest in you. Some supervisors have more loyalty among reps than others, some supervisors are "better" than others and some supervisors actually seem to care about the reps assigned to them. The supervisors that appear to care about the reps assigned to them will go the extra yard for their reps - but it is and should be a two-way street. Schedules are relatively stable. Monthly quotas are usually attainable - several reps consistently hit their numbers month in and month out and can do so for a year and a half to threes years without fail - and those reps got exactly the same training as the reps who only produces 2-5 sales a week. Those reps are also the ones who hit their monthly and annual numbers - just do your job and do not let a political environment bother you. It is generally an inbound call center environment, depending on the project you are assigned to, so you have people calling you about 75% of the time on average - in slower months you will get a lower volume of inbound calls and in busier months a higher volume, so you do need to develop a base of people to call back - but it is a sales job so that should not present a problem to any salesperson.
Inconvénients
Base hourly pay is middle of the road and everyone gets exactly the same base rate increase - whether you are producing above or below quota as it is simply based on the amount of time you have been there, so someone who produces 10-20 sales a month will have the same base rate as the person who produces 35-50 sales a month if they are on the same project, at the same location (yes some locations get a higher base pay rate than others) for the same amount of time. If you put in more than an 8 hour day you will have to work less than 8 hours later in the week as you are required to stay under 40 hours for most of the year - hence extremely limited overtime. Benefits are relatively poor. It is a political environment and some people get preferential treatment, so do your job, hit your numbers and do what you can to help support the supervisors and you will be fine but they can hold a grudge of sorts toward those who wear blinders and do not help out when asked. Your opinion rarely counts for anything so you may as well keep it to yourself. Some supervisors can be very defensive, some can retaliate and those are the ones who really do not care. Some supervisors cannot perform the sales function at the same level you can so you need to know that up front - and yes some supervisors have egos that get in the way with the way they should do their job. Some supervisors will have less industry knowledge than you and may feel threatened - all they need to do is increase their knowledge but that requires a level of pride that they may or may not have.