Pros
The #1 pro about Cogent are the people, this place builds camaraderie quickly because you're "in the trenches" together and share all the same challenges. If you're fresh out of college the pay is actually pretty good (especially the $4k ramp bonus), but to rise in income you'll need to move within the industry in most cases. Since the telecom industry is incestuous, if you've been at Cogent longer than a year people will have a certain amount of respect for you. The training program in DC is good despite what other reviews might say; the product is so simple that if it takes you longer than 2 weeks to grasp it (DIA not COLO) then the problem might be with you, in my opinion. There is also ongoing learning which can sometimes be pretty useful, especially if you're new to telecom. Also, this isn't the case in some telecom companies apparently but if you have a question here about products or network you will very easily find the answer by asking around in the office. The other thing is that you can make money here if you learn how to survive and get the right accounts, even though commissions were lowered from last year and rumor is that they'll be going down again next year. ONNET opportunities are easy to win and have the best & quickest payout. EVERYTHING here gets installed, literally I have never seen a service cancelled because we couldn't install it (although it happens). Which leads me to the next point - the network. The Cogent network is rock solid and if you go on downdetector.com and compare Cogent to other networks you'll get an idea. And if there is a problem, the customer service here is probably the best in the industry. The response times are super fast and the customer will talk to a network engineer directly, no being passed around departments.
Cons
Now onto the cons.... First of all, you will be working in a call center. There are no 2 ways about it unless you're hired as a remote employee. You'll be selling a product that's almost a commodity at this point for a higher price (offnet). ONNET opportunities are absurdly saturated and there's always a chance they'll be taken from you by another rep who claims to have the relationship with the landlord or by the indirect channel. Offnet has a higher quota relief but it's become increasingly hard to sell because of pricing issues that arise. To combat this - Cogent has been raising offnet prices - yes you read that correctly. Be prepared to answer "why should I pay more for a company I've never heard of?" Additionally, since we don't offer voice, managed services, shared internet lines, or any security there is a limited "niche" market we can really serve well. Everyone who's been here over a year figured it out so if you plan on being successful prepare to fight over that market with those reps. Some reps will cross lines to steal a deal you thought was yours, so document everything in Salesforce VERY well. You also aren't given a lot of tools. You're given a computer and a phone. There are no lists and leads are practically nonexistent. Pure hunter role. This of course leads to quite a bit of turnover; when I got here it was between 7-8% per month. So after a year the sales team of 300 reps had 250 - 290 new people (most lasted only a few months). That should give you an idea. Recently though, even operations have become a hindrance. Just be prepared to have contracts resigned for the most minor reasons. "everything looks good... except you have the name of their company as 'ABC Company' and in our internal systems it's 'ABC Inc' so go ahead and get the paperwork resigned... thanks" "Their actual company name is 'ABC Company'? yeah doesn't matter" "Oh you have previous paperwork showing 'ABC Company' and a signed affidavit from their CEO confirming it? Ok we'll make a minor name change in our systems to reflect that" Once you overcome all of that, you are paid several months after installation so an onnet deal can take up to 2.5 months, while an offnet deal can go into the 7 month territory. Imagine selling something in March and getting paid in October. Bonus***** The data center situation here is pretty bad. I once had a current customer never speak to me again after going on a data center tour. Ask some seasoned reps about their best Cogent data center stories and you won't be disappointed.