The learning curve at the start is very steep, which is great. However, once you have a firm grasp of the task at hand, you start getting bored very quickly. When your manager notices this, he/she will encourage you to take on additional projects, especially as that will boost your chances of getting a promotion. Promotions are as rare as a punctual train at Staines train station, so don’t get your hopes up.
Every year they make the metrics harder and more unattainable, as this ensures that no one achieves an “E” (excellent/exceeded) rating and management don’t have to spend more of their precious budget on giving you a raise. Promotions are a moving target, however management constantly drone on and on about how many opportunities being successful in your current role can get you. The pinnacle of client services is a role called “Team Client Manager”, which is essentially the same as all other services roles with a better salary. Don’t be fooled – the turnover in those teams is just as bad as the other teams.
If you are given a good territory and you start sucking up to the right people early enough, you can absolutely progress at Gartner. However management/HR often block you moving into a new role unless it’s during the first half of the year…they of course claim this is to ensure that the client doesn’t have to deal with getting new service partner as this can impact if the account will renew or not.
If you don’t like the idea of your performance being measured by KPIs, this is not the place for you. You will be measured, tracked and questioned on your daily activity during your weekly 1:1 with your manager. The goal is to call the right client at the right time and if you call a “non-priority” client, you will have to justify your actions. God forbid you speak to a client that actually wants to speak to you and needs some support. If they are not “on program” they are not a priority. If you manage to get through to a tough-to-reach client who has been dodging your calls and emails and you get them to click on a document, you are praised and encouraged to share your best practices with the wider team.
Every once in a while there is a blitz day, which pushes associates to focus on a particular set of clients. The communication around this from management is typically condescending, childish and extremely cringe-worthy. Our counterparts in the US seem to love these initiatives. If you like cheesy gamification and feed off these types of “wins”, you’ll be a great fit here. People that don’t engage in these initiatives with extreme enthusiasm don’t get the awesome label of having a “no-limits mindset”. Said individuals usually doesn’t become very tenured.
There is a huge disconnect between sales and services, which is perpetuated by sales partners often not knowing what the services roles entail, which is extremely frustrating. Management should consider introducing common metrics besides renewal. This would encourage better collaboration and be much more customer-centric.
Despite all of the above, the actual location of the office will always be Gartner EMEA’s biggest downfall. The office is located in Egham/Staines, which is convenient if like to travel via Heathrow but not much else. If you don’t enjoy long commutes and crave the excitement of the big smoke, absolutely avoid Gartner at all costs. The poor choice in location makes it hard to attract talent and even harder to keep the talent that does choose to work in the middle of nowhere. It goes without saying that if you are commuting to the office via public transport you will be looking at spending a small fortune on train fare.
