The Home Depot reviews

Here's the deal: This is like a lottery ticket. Can you make good money as an Home Depot Interiors Sales Consultant (otherwise known as a Design Consultant)? Yes, however the odds are WAY against you. The "national average" wage for this position is roughly $75,000/year. This is because each office has a couple really great salespeople that are making $100,000+/year and they are used to sucker new employees into thinking that it's possible to do the same thing. It's not. BELIEVE ME IT'S NOT. In my instance, I spoke with a hiring manager who told me that the "lowest earner in our office made $50,000/year". This was a complete fabrication since I came to quickly discover that the lowest earner was actually making about $16,000/year. The second lowest earner was making about $25,000/year and the "$50k" earner actually made about $45,000. Total bait and switch. Here's the bottom line: These are SALESPEOPLE. Even the supervisors and hiring managers - they all worked their way up from sales. Salespeople are dishonest. There's no way around it. You CANNOT do this job if you're not willing to lie at least a little bit. They will sell you on the virtues of the job, tell you all kinds of lovely stories and give a lot of hope but, the reality is, only about 8% of of HDI salespeople make the really big, six-figure income. Another 10% make good money and then the rest of them are genuinely struggling. The services you offer are mediocre at best for a premium level price. A customer who spends $25,000 with HDI can, almost certainly, get the exact same kitchen (or an even better one) for $10,000 less somewhere else. Do yourself a favor and ask yourself if you're a seasoned salesman who doesn't mind lying a little bit and who can afford to barely make any money at all for a few months while you're learning the ropes. If you've said "yes", then by all means, go ahead. If you're not sure though, stop right there and find a different job. Trust me, it's not worth it. They will tell you anything you want to hear in the interview and then have "no idea what's going on" when you're not making any real money. Oh, lets not forget, if you under sell a job - meaning, you sold cabinets and countertops to a customer and you measured incorrectly or any number of mistakes you can make (which happens to EVERY SINGLE SALESPERSON, don't kid yourself that you're going to be perfect) you will have to pay the difference from your commission. Sometimes that means that you might think your going to receive an $800 check for a job you sold and, whoops! you wrote a 3 instead of an 8, or you measured a little off or forgot to check a box on the list of 600 different complex "menu" items you're required to know and your $800 check is now a $100 check. Sorry, you're out of luck. There are other places to work. You're thinking to yourself right now "but I'll be different! I'll sell a lot of things because I've sold things before!" and you'd be wrong about 85% of the time. Work somewhere else.

This is specifically for the Outside Sales Consultant position and not the company overall. This division of Home Depot is called Home Depot Interiors and was purchased from an outside firm about 2 years ago. The culture of this devision is not of Home Depot and it reflects the industry's disregard for the client. The position has a commission only pay structure and its hires and attracts people that do not care much for the client. They teach you a 9-step process to take the customer to a purchase but the overall goal is closing the client regardless of their desire (or need) to purchase or not. It is a high pressure sales and most customers are not ready for this level of experience. They expect a service like what they are used to at the store but get something much worse, full of fear tactics and sales people that are starving. The division has a 60% turnover rate and only like 3 people actually make money. The product is orders of magnitude more expensive than the store and about 300% more expensive than local competitors. They key here is that they fill the customer with fear and take advantage of the fact that most people have never remodel a kitchen before. it is a one close sale for a reason: as soon as people do a little research they will understand that they can save thousands of dollars by going somewhere else. If you have a high level of integrity and believe in ethical selling this position is not for you. The overall work-life balance is non-existent. You will get 3 appointments every day: 11:00, 3:00, 7:00pm. They want you to spend 3-4 hours in each appointment. Do the math. You are going to work 60, 70, 80 hours per week without base pay, overtime, and you get to use your car and put about 30,000 miles per year without getting paid for the wear and tear of your car. In addition, you get 5 cases of sample bags that will completely take up your car and add about 250 lbs to your car.