tw telecom Employee Reviews for Network Application Engineer

"Great company, limited scope of products - lack depth; growing pains in support"

What do you like about working at tw telecom?

"As a telecom firm, tw telecom has an excellent reputation and operates with tremendous stability -- from their financial track record, to their low employee and customer churn. Compared with other carriers with which I have worked, the model of segregating profit centers, each with local customer care, operations and engineering resources, provide a tremendous advantage against those who are supported remotely and lack consistency in the names and faces of those who deal directly with the customer."

Do you have any tips for others interviewing with this company?

"In short, anyone interviewing for a sales-focused role with this company should be prepared to (1) propose their own business plan, (2) emphasize their interest and successes in hunting for new logo opportunities, and (3) concentrate as much as possible on building networking relationships through partners and agents."

What don't you like about working at tw telecom?

"Lately I find myself tossed into more and more customer satisfaction issues. Not only is this clearly outside the scope of my role as a pre-sales resource, but more disconcerting is the apparent lack of focus this growing problem is receiving from the company's leadership. It makes for a very difficult add-on or upgrade sales prospect when the customer's experience with the NOC has been overly frustrating, requiring numerous escalations at every turn. What's more, as previously described, I support a team of 8 senior account executives, but it would seem that they are content to earn commissions on renewals and retention only, while the majority of my compensation is tied to new revenue. Lastly, I have asked repeatedly for objective criteria to satisfy the requirements of promoting to the title of senior NAE (as opposed to NAE II, the role I hold at present). The answers flow from two levels above my manager down, and they change with every inquiry. I am thoroughly convinced that the reality has more to do with politics and budget than experience, results, and above-and-beyond contributions."

What suggestions do you have for management?

"I would prefer to reserve my comments to or directly about the management team of my organization for the opportunity to deliver them personally. It's not that my opinions would be slanderous or unprofessional, but I would consider it an issue of integrity to not deliver this sort of information directly."