Pros
I started my career at Exact Data and could not be more grateful for the opportunities given to me. I was hired with no sales experience but with aspirations of seeing if sales could be a good career path. The executive team gave me all the tools I could possibly need to be successful, and after three years of working there I have nothing but positive things to say. The hard truth about working at Exact Data is that it is an easy job. A lot of people will talk about how difficult sales can be, but the job requirements at Exact Data are minimal compared to other sales jobs. Exact Data is the perfect incubator for good sales people. If you have a modicum of potential to be good at sales, you have an incredible opportunity to grow at this company. The highlights of this job include the following… - Leads. Phone numbers of people who really submitted a request to buy the product are given to you daily. Building a sales pipeline with the consistent flow of daily leads is next to impossible. - Location. It is downtown, in the middle of everything, literally at the top of the stairs from the CTA Blue Line. - Healthcare. One of the best Healthcare programs a small company can offer. - Training Program. I went through one of the first iterations of the training program at Exact Data, and you could not have better people currently working in that department. - Advancement Opportunities. They are very real and available to anyone who works hard and cares about their job. There is no company where you have a better opportunity to become a Manager level employee as quickly as Exact Data. They value and cultivate talent. - Office. Music plays all day, there are ping pong tables, the CEO randomly buys donuts and gives away cool stuff, and the view out the 20’ windows is pretty awesome too. - People. The best thing about Exact Data are the people that work there. I could probably go on for far too long about this point, but the support staff and fellow account executives are among the best people I have ever had the privilege to work with. Talk to your fellow employees, they will become your best friends quicker than you can imagine. To summarize, if you want a short commute into work everyday to do an easy job, work with cool people, play ping pong once a day, and have full healthcare, all while building your skills as a salesperson and advancing in a company that is on the verge of becoming way bigger than even they realize, you should apply to work at Exact Data. I did, and I don’t regret a minute of my experience there.
Cons
Most of the employees at Exact Data serve in sales roles, and sales is not for everyone. If you work there for a few months and still think the job is difficult, I would encourage looking for another position. This job is meant to be easy, and the stress and low pay of not having the skillset to perform well at Exact Data is not worth it. Alternatively, if you think the job is easy after a few months of working there, you can make an absurd amount of money working for this company. It takes time, because they want to protect themselves from over-paying someone who got lucky a few months in a row, but there is real money to be made. Honestly, the worst part about working at Exact Data is the office gossip. If you can ignore it, power to you. You will be better off by ignoring people who complain or gossip endlessly. This will likely be a problem anywhere you work, but I definitely felt it more at Exact Data than previous jobs.