Gartner reviews

Gartner bribes employees with gift cards to leave 4+ star reviews which is why they were able to make “great place to work” on Glassdoor. These reviews are done by the HR team and do not reflect actual employee perspectives. Don’t be fooled by the high ratings. Management is full of individuals who do not know how to lead. Managers have little to zero experience prior to being hired and are not there to serve their team/employees. Goals/KPIs are constantly changed throughout the year and management fails to inform teams of this. Instead of informing teams, they blindside “underperforming” employees and place them on probation. Even if the employee has a proven track record, or if they complete a successful probation, they are targeted and will be the scapegoat for when management drops the ball Unrealistic expectations- all KPIs are not within the control of the employee and is completely reliant on customer engagement. Expect to work after hours or you will not make your goals Tracking tools break so often that you don’t even know of your current metrics until reviews come. Management is aware of this and will still hold you accountable and expect you to leverage these tools, knowing they are inaccurate. Expect to be underpaid and overworked. It’s impossible to advance within the company unless you are a manager or you’re a manager’s favorite. Management has the right to hold you within your current position even if another department offers you a job.

For a new college grad, this is a great gig- but there is a reason for the extremely high turnover rate after 1-2 years in role, which I will go into. First off, the job title “Account Manager” does not truly capture the multiple hats that the responsibility of this role entails. As an AM/AE, you are responsible for #1 account retention, #2 business development, bringing on net new contract value, and #3 service delivery (client meetings, analyst inquiry scheduling, research alignment, etc). Within those 3+ jobs you are micro managed, have unrealistic weekly metrics, and a calendar full of nonsense internal meetings. While you will become skilled in a variety of sales positions, the low base salary does not nearly equate to the work load of basically three jobs. Every AE has a growth quota they are expected to achieve, which you would think is very reasonable except they have taken away prospects in MSE. All growth must come from upselling or adding team members to your CURRENT accounts. No net new logos. The number of accounts you are responsible for also varies, typically 4-6 accounts is the common sweet spot for MSE. Until team members quit or move business units, then you are required to take on their old accounts because they won’t backfill the position, and you suddenly have 10-12 accounts you are expected to manage, retain, and grow, all without changes to your comp plan. Culture- this brings me to my next point. Prior to covid, culture was a top priority and the office environment truly was enjoyable and collaborative. Amazing cafeteria, coffee bars on site, pool tables, ping pong, state of the art gym with Pelotons, food trucks, catered lunches, team off site days, happy hours, Winners Circle Trips, I could go on and on. This amazing culture that was created in Gartner’s office was entirely lost within the first 3 months of pandemic. Business units have become incredibly siloed, individual contributors do not feel appreciated or valued, a $10k once in a lifetime Winners Circle vacation was replaced with a cringey zoom call and $250 bonus. Nothing was done to ensure employees were set up for success in a remote work from home environment, not a home office stipend, WiFi reimbursement, etc. You could say the culture was “canceled” because it’s truly gone. Training- Gartner was known for its prestigious training program, until they tried to cheap out and moved from a 12+ week classroom training that included sales floor shadowing time, individualized 1:1 time with trainers to review role plays, deeper dive into the strict sales process, etc. to a 2 week online video modules “just in time” training method. They basically throw new hires to the wolves now and most dont even understand the products when they go live on the sales floor. This has resulted in a huge learning curve for new hires, lower quality account managers, and leaves a huge burden on the other AEs who now basically have to become trainers as well. Salary and career progression- raises and title promotions are hard to come by and are not clearly defined. There is not a straight answer for the criteria that warrants a raise or title promotion, which leads to confusion and unrealistic expectations. You also may have two AEs on the same team doing the exact same job and getting compensated on two totally different sides of the range. Simply put, they comp plan is no where close to being competitive in today’s marketplace. The account management role is often a stepping stone to a new business unit at Gartner. After AEs have completed their shelf life in MSE of 12-24 months, they typically go to the field, management, business development, or leave the company. Too bad if other business units sound interesting, there is zero visibility or support into other roles other than the traditional way paths. I chalk up the terrible attrition and turnover to this exactly, if you do not continue to promote and pay your high achievers, they will leave. I will finish this by saying the experience you receive working with C-Levels can be great experience, but have a plan and know your worth when it comes to what is next for you after success in this role.