Pros
Gartner's reputation is rock solid. The sales organization is a great place to learn technical sales for college grads (AE) OR those with 5+ years experience (Bus Dev). If you are between 1-4 years, the AE role may be to micro-managed and the Bus Dev role may be overly complex. I worked in IT sales for a few years before here and I knew of Gartner's brand, but I didn't realize that within CIO circles the Gartner name is pure gold. I've sold at household name companies before, but none that had the immediate interest level that mentioning Gartner elicits. The AE role does seem like a bit of a grind, managed at a granular process level, and more luck is involved. If you have 5+ IT or research sales experience, consider shooting for the business development role. There is a lot more autonomy, sophisticated sales tactics, and support from Gartner in the form of coaching on strategic sales processes, a seperate CRM, privlaged access to 3rd party prospecting tools, and significantly higher base & commission. You will be required to have at least 3+ years of strategic sales experience to even be considered. Other Pros: +Gym +Cafe is stellar... and subsidized +Youthful sales floor +Flexible work from home option +Will fly you to your territory (This is perfect if you want a taste of field sales before taking the dive) +9-5 +very few etched in stone KPI metrics (They realize Bus Dev isn't a numbers game the way renewals can be)
Cons
Some of the gripes mentioned in great detail on other reviews have some truthiness, however, when weighted against the pros above I feel they are outweighed. Here's a list. -frathouse vibe (lots of 'beach bodies' roamong the halls.. good/bad.. your call) -successful salespeople get a shot at managing (some good, some not) -AEs have their process mostly dictated to them (not my role, but there are lots more AE openings) -Office politics do exist -Managers will pick favorites (*that doesn't mean they give freebies, technically they can't, the territories are 100% strictly defined) -Training can be remedial for an experienced rep (Bus Dev use to have the same training as AEs, recently changed **this is a multi-billion dollar publically traded corporation, so it is to be expected that some fun, convenient, and loose polocies common to SMB and start-ups will not apply here. Good, bad, indifferent... this is just the way the world works. That said, the atmosphere is pretty cool compared to peer IT organizations.