CDW isn't what it used to be. Worse culture, worse pay, with constant cuts on top of it. So why do you stay? For me, it's health insurance. That's the only reason.
21 replies (most recent on top)
Health insurance as well.
I have had it alot worse at other companies. That is why I stay.
I miss the old days, the commercials about sales people reading tech manuals to stay up to date.
It worked. Then people changed things for the sake of changing. It didn't work. We changed back. Then changed again. It didn't work. Changed back. Just be a good company doing what needs to be done. Stop trying to force your company to be something else. Do what works. Keep making money. You don't need to make more each year. It's not a race.
@j9
All about time and picking the right investments. Buy the large dips as the market always rebounds in time.
After working for awhile, you'll naturally have cash pile up yearly and there's only so much you can buy/spend unless you're splurging on things to show off (suits, watches, shoes, expensive home, vacations, etc).
I always had part of my paycheck go into CDW 401k but my own investments grew way quicker as you can see patterns with tech even internally with CDW (Crowdstike IPO, Dell, Nvidia, Palo Alto, Proofpoint, AMD, Intel etc).
There might be a decent dip eventually but solid companies don't go to zero and most always recover. Plus there's so many ETF options that you don't even need to pick individual stocks if you don't want.
Key is compounding and having the time to let things grow.
@jm
Things were way different (in a better way) before Leahy (w/Richard's and Edwardson).
More accountability and comp was more tied to the amount of Revenue and GP produced since that's why the company exists and grew.
Current leadership is all talk and show. They ask for things that can be fixed but it's performative since the same issues that could be easily fixed are left to fester.
My loyalty was for my customers not for my management or director. They shifted so many people around there was no relationship between my manager or director and myself...they just wasted my time and got in the way (when I did need help...they'd try and fail so I just handled everything myself). Not the way things were designed to be.
Yep, health insurance is certainly at the top of the list. I'm in the late innings of my career. I came to CDW a few years ago to "career downshift" from one of our cutthroat OEM business partners, and it was a great decision. Slightly less pay, less risk, and significantly better work/life balance at CDW. I can do my job well with my eyes closed and both hands tied behind my back.
I could comfortably retire today, however I made a personal promise to my hiring manager that I would stay until I'm 65 years old (I have one year left) or when senior mgt thinks they've completed their transformation. It looks like I'm going to age out. I don't have a lot of confidence in exec leadership to actually do the things they need to do in the business. They'd rather talk about it and assume middle mgt knows how to execute. Parts of the business are resource constrained, and I don't see that being fixed any time soon.
Oh well, tic-toc.
@fv Great advice. I doubled down on investing a few years back and am increasingly in a position where I don’t need to worry about keeping this job. I’ll have bad days and think to myself “I need to double down and get out of here,” but then I ask myself: “Why go through that when you’re already secure?” I’ve only got a handful of years left to retirement anyway so unless something comes along which I am passionate about, I’ll just keep saving and investing and biding my time.
@fs
I was where you're at. I have a few "real" friends left there and they went from positive for a decade + to being negative with the new GTM and comp changes.
Of the 100's of people I still am "friends" with...they're just office friends I've found out. Only communication was in the office.
Don't be held back by relationships...life is short...leadership doesn't even care if they lose someone producing double digit GP % an 100% rev/GP attainment for 10+ years. If they don't want to keep solid top producers...seems like they rather have unproven interns and LOS under 48. Those newbies will learn one they are in 4+ yrs and most of them already hear everything from tenured AM's.
If you're a good worker...anywhere would be happy to have you but unfortunately many companies have the same type of leadership as CDW. My advice...make your money and save and grow it outside of work. Become financial free and you won't have to worry or beholden to anyone else for your livelihood.
My friends used to be the only reasons why I enjoyed coming to work. Over the years, most of them got laid off or left for better opportunities. Their lives are flourishing. Meanwhile, I’ve been here for 20+ years and the friends I have left are the security team and cleaning crew. FML.
Great post and I agree. I stay because of the work from home, good pay, and generally good work life balance, though that is getting tougher. I have a core group of coworkers I really like and respect but like you, have seen a few underqualified bad ones who are constantly praised and no one can figure out why.
I like a few of my customers but many of the newer ones - whew! I'll leave it at that. It's amazing when you see people with big titles who are incompetent but I suppose as CDW employees, we're used to it. :D
@az
It's ok...if it makes you feel better...the sales rep most likely didn't get paid much either. That's why tenured AM's are leaving.
Seems like management want these people gone because they know how good things used to be under actual real leadership.
Surprised you're still around as you're technical skills would be rewarded with some sales commission if at another company.
My comp was reduced almost $100k while I'm selling more than I ever have.
Guess that's where all the money is coming from for stock buybacks. Most of my tenured technical resources have left over the past handful of years and I'm left with fresh resources that are 50/50 in advising my customers.
@bb
You're spot on.
It's funny how most of the top execs are female now.
Company is all about checking boxes. I'm sure they were upset with having to fire a bunch of coworkers from the DEI team (having HR and DEI groups is an example of $ foing down the drain).
This is a SALES company and they literally do not care for what SALES has to say.
I hit 100% on Rev and GP goals for years and even quit hitting 100% combined yearly before having enough of the BS. The same work and goals I hit was compensating me 25-50% less and I had to wait for anything I needed to be touched by another CDW coworker internally. It's like leadership wanted me to just leave for 2 hours in the middle of the day because my pile of items needed 2-3 hours or sometimes 12-24 hours to check off and send back to me.
No urgency anymore about getting customers needs taking care of. No emphasis on paying SALES what they're worth.
Changing commission tiers and adding BS to pay even less on the GP produced.
I'm worth over 7 figures because I'm smarter than they think I am...they let me walk and that's when I knew I made the right decision as my boss literally could care less if I stayed or left.
They say these people in power earned it...but we can see by what's foing on that they Didn't Earn It!
I want to see how many anniversary cubes I can put up my b*tt
My pay is good compared to industry, insurance, work from home. The work from home works well for my family and I, no one really bothers me anymore at work. That is it. I get my job done in 40 hours. It just works. I no longer bring work home to my family and we are all happy. That is why I stay.
I used to love CDW for far more many reasons, yet all that has disappeared over the years. I honestly have nothing to say positive anymore about it, except my bubble of myself and work I keep myself in.
Coworkers and customers mean nothing, and that is honestly a very sad thing. Coworkers and customers are the engine to it all. Few of my coworkers have no business being in the roles they are in and highly under qualified, yet leadership loves them. Another sad thing, our experiences and knowledge means nothing anymore. Well, that is not good for the engine to throw sugar in the gas tank.
What i do know, is leadership eats up anyone who can bullsh-t well, and put fancy words together. I got where i am today through success, now my success is a threat to many. I guess what garbage that spills out of my coworkers mouth is what feeds leadership ego, and that is how anyone will succeed at this place. We now know ego is what is also breaking this company. We all know our leadership cannot handle problems. That is why we still have the same problems for years and more continue to add to the list, but yet someone always has a new great idea that never works well and it gets rolled out. Yet somehow CPQ is supposed to fix all. It will not, SPS issues were ignored for years. Ourbsystem was never the problem, in fact, talk to many ex CDW coworkers and they miss SPS.
I would have to agree the DEI is what ruined some of the culture at the company, not all though. My coworkers, are also the reason that make CDW not great for myself, my boss is a talker just like them. When no one bothers me, and I do my work. Best days ever!!! If anyone underqualified opens their mouth to shotty ideas that make zero sense with no implementation and just talk, it is like a bad day because i have to hear the rubbish. Hey, sounds like they are exemplifying our wonderful leadership, all talk no action. This company is a mess. Best to just leave me alone and work, because I am contributing to the CDW bottom line with Rev and sales, not them. Last I checked talking jibberish was worth $0. At CDW it can land you a good fat salary, as that is all the company cares for. Feed the ego and you get promoted!
If you don’t like CDW just find something else, I left and got double pay. CDW is known for all the DEI hires it’s sad cause they’re trash
Far too many people think the only thing we do is sales. There’s hundreds if not thousands of employees doing far more interesting work than just that. We actually make things but nobody would know it because the teams that do rarely get the recognition they deserve. I’m not in a sales roll , but I managed to land a several 1M+ sales - guess how much I got for that? Zero
I never understand these posts. Perhaps I'm older and jaded, but it's a job. There are many like it, but this one is mine. Who cares? You do your part, get your pay, and keep it moving. Corporate America doesn't care about you - so don't fret so much about them and search for deeper meaning. It's a paycheck.
What keeps me here is the free pizza and coffee.
@ac
I invested most of my paychecks outside paying for my mortgage.
It's possible to be free of these id--ts. Invest in the stock of partners you see that are in demand and popular. Even the legacy box makers (Dell, HP, and Lenovo) are all up compared to CDW. Guess box pushers aren't extinct like our leadership says.
I made 6 figures + consistently just providing quick, dependable, and honest service to those trusting me.
Now the id--ts in charge want to reinvent the wheel. Destroyed the culture and pushing our good people all to try and sell services.
If CDW was an ER and Services is the medicine or fix for patients.... the morgue would be full before getting a SOW in someone's hands to sign.
Leadership is aware of all the problems but is too cheap and d-mb to fix the common sense issues.
Get out when you can because things will not go back to how they were. Cutting pay for everyone while enriching themselves is a failure on the part of C level and the board. The fact they answer to shareholders and haven't been tarred and feathered is beyond me.
Nothing keeps me here. Literally nothing. I want to leave more than anything.
I liked working with my customers.
I had built relationships over years and those relationships were streamlined.
The thing that always held me back... CDW. From unintelligent power hungry managers playing favorites to directors and VP's that always asked to know about internal issues but never fixed or improved anything besides tweaking pay over not in favor of those always pushing and hitting goal. Also fellow coworkers who thought st-bbing people in the back for some commission was normal business (those same people only saw customers as $ signs and not people).
They took the hunger and urgency out of Sales so earnings kept being missed while C level misspent the GP brought in on DEI and buying and wrecking other companies.
I quit and still have anger at the useless people there still collecting 6-figures + while doing nothing to improve things.
20% stock drop in a single day shows investors and outsiders think similarly even if everyone looks all happy on LinkedIn. Our partners arw quiet because CDW is still a huge machine but before I quit...I heard a lot of partner side reps mention thier AM's pushing deals to competitors because our processes slow down business (they ain't wrong).
I'm just here with my popcorn waiting for the people at the top to be chopped. Doesn't really matter with the $ they have but they deserve egg on thier face and the hit to their professional reputation....that's all they have besides $ so they should all be tarnished.
@a1 Spite and that paycheck every 2 weeks...and the severance package my attorney will negotiate (a lot of emails and Teams messages saved that dont look favorable to the org)
I'm here because I am IT special needs. People buy from me because they like me and no other reason. I take them to lunch and they tell me what they are buying from me.
Spite. I'm here solely out of spite.