account executive

senior software engineer

software engineer

customer success manager

account manager

Cars-Commerce

Having spent a decade, I feel compelled to share my experiences candidly for the benefit of others considering employment here. While every workplace has its challenges, cars.com has consistently exhibited poor leadership, inadequate compensation, toxic culture, limited opportunities for advancement, and a lack of care for its employees. Here are some key points to consider:

Leadership:
Throughout my tenure, I've observed a distinct lack of effective leadership. 
 Decision-making processes are opaque, communication is often unclear or non-existent, and there's a pervasive sense of disorganization at all levels. This lack of leadership has resulted in a profound lack of direction, leading to frustration and inefficiency among employees.  EVERY Year, management and leadership are given poor scores, with claims things will be done - and of course, nothing is.  
Performance management is zero out of 5 - fill out a form, be a proponent of yourself, and then never discussed on something you took time to be a better employee, person or advancement.  Yes, that is true.  
You can't understand the value of your employees without, at least, effective listening.  Further "Frustration" also develops from this when the great employees are not recognized - with whatever their "drivers"/motivations are  - and it's recognized that the "weaker" employees are not being held accountable for their lack of production.

Compensation:
Consistently failed to provide competitive compensation package upgrades; same weak standards set YOY. Salaries are below industry standards, and despite promises of performance-based bonuses, they are rarely delivered. 

Culture:
Toxicity permeates the culture - favoritism and a lack of accountability are rampant.   often the "cheerleaders" are promoted or praised versus those working hard, being great at their craft, developing skills for advancement, but again, dismissed versus those making "noise" rather than properly leading or producing.

Promotions:
Advancement are virtually non-existent. Promotions are often based on nepotism or favoritism rather than merit, leaving many qualified employees feeling undervalued and overlooked. This lack of upward mobility has led to widespread disillusionment and high turnover rates of the better/best employees.

In conclusion, I cannot in good conscience recommend  as a place of employment. The pervasive issues of poor leadership, inadequate compensation, toxic culture, limited advancement opportunities, and disregard for employee well-being make it a profoundly unhealthy and unsatisfying work environment. Prospective employees would be wise to steer clear and seek opportunities elsewhere.
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I really like this company. It has a great product and place in its industry, a great spirit and corporate culture, excellent benefits, and they really work to care about their employees. Since I am not based in their main office, I unfortunately do not get to benefit from a lot of what they offer their employees, but they try to keep us involved. Originally coming from the publishing world, I have learned a lot about selling advertising and marketing services in the digital space. I am much more adept at technology-related tasks and appreciate much more what exposure on the internet can do for a business and my role in all that. I have also learned a ton about the industry they serve, which is much different from my past experiences and quite fascinating.

The problem is that they are growing fast, so they are making changes to what they expect us to do besides sell their products effectively. Some are just a nuisance and some have been very disruptive. Often I have to spend an additional 3 or more hours a night after dinner, just to try to keep up with all the required training, research, record keeping, etc. Plus, they are adding sales staff to do what I do at a lower rate. They seem focused on those newbies at the exclusion and at times determent of the more seasoned staff. They have restructured the company so they have taken very lucrative accounts away from me without leaving me much opportunity to make back that revenue. And, there is really no other job at this company that I want to do, that I can do without moving to their main office.

So, all in all, I am sad to have to leave this company but I feel like it is time to move on. I look forward to finding another great company to produce for and learn from.

The company was at one point in time a fun easy going company, it made me proud to say I worked for this company and was happy to promote the business even considering the low starting salary.  However after the company was bought out and then it's parent company was restructured the company's culture has changed from a work hard play hard company to work hard and work harder, and get less benefits and incentives to work.  There use to be a lot of office parties, game nights, cereal and cartoon days, etc. now there barely is birthday celebrations for the team I worked for.  The company cater more to the sales teams and not as much to other departments. Sure they try to promote that they are a company that values their employees and want to help them with career paths by allowing them to transition to other departments, however there is a lot of office politics that are in place that would keep you from getting the position you want because someone else has the ear of the hiring manager and want someone else in that position.

The people here are great. I've met many, if not most, of my friends here and have had some great experiences. However, in the last 18 months the culture has changed so dramatically it was not a fun or positive place anymore. Now that Gannett has bought them out and they've moved their management and work style into the culture it's even worse than ever before. I'd suggest only recent college graduates to come here and gain some experience but if you are looking to advance your career I would highly suggest looking elsewhere. Also keep in mind that the compensation is WAY BELOW every other digital or even start-ups in Chicago. I was speaking with recruiters who were offering me ranges $10K more than what Cars was giving me. I spent 4 years here and it was 2 years too long. 

Pros: People and Work/Life balance

Cons: Poor compensation, shift of company culture, power-hungry upper management, close-minded management to any idea not their own, no room for growth and advancement, and poor department alignment and communication of responsibilities.

Cars definitely facilitates a welcoming environment with fun and innovative coworkers, has an amazing flexible work from home schedule or flex schedule in general, offered in office career courses, company get gatherings or parties were amazing and falling short in the last few years and has really made good headway in the technology of an online business. 
My position and team was often overlooked by the entire company and the ability to move into another role has proven difficult even when following everything the company encouraged you to do to move or create a role. I think it's also important to know that people were put on an efficiency scale that put you up against your peers, was never accurate, consistently changing and caused friction with coworkers even to the point of cheating. It didn't matter how good you were as an employee, just that your numbers were high.
Overall, I think it's a great corporate career start.

There's the saying- the people make the company and I think that is true. I was surrounded by amazing coworkers when I started working for the company, but as I was promoted and the culture shifted following the purchase and some key leaders leaving, I was surrounded by arrogant closed minded alcoholics, who were more concerned with going to happy hour than doing their work. If you are looking for a company to start with, this is great- but for any professionals farther into their career, I advise to keep looking. Unless you are in sales- then this is a great place for you- the sales team is amazing and treated they should be, as that department is ran by some of the best managers I've ever seen. Anything outside of sales and operations- such as marketing, do yourself a favor and keep looking.

Cars.com is a great company for young people to begin their careers. There is a lot of growth opportunities for data or product driven people. There is also a lot of career development options for those that want to do be propelled to leadership or management. 

There is a lot of micro-management at times to drive big business practices and low communication between departments. There is also a lot of reliance on individual contributors, which is a great opportunity for people to learn. The culture is also very young and fun. People make life long friends here, and you have the ability to interact with senior leadership openly and your opinions are valued. Overall, I recommend starting your career here.

Working at Cars.com has its pros and cons. The company offers a professional environment and decent learning opportunities, especially for those interested in the automotive or digital marketplaces. Colleagues are generally helpful and collaborative.
However, there are some challenges. Communication between teams can be slow, and processes sometimes feel unclear. Work-life balance depends heavily on the department, and growth opportunities aren’t always well-defined.
Overall, Cars.com is an okay place to work if you’re looking for industry experience, but it could improve in communication and career development support.

Long days required at work, did sometimes comp.   Job culture relaxed, as well as relaxed dress code.   Sometimes has free meals during or after work.  Good opportunity to work with up to date web based technologies.  Many issues related to Management priorities and differences between project manager expectations and QA manager expectations.  Most QA work now offshore with only Test Coordinators/Managers onshore.  Frequent changes to offshore personnel made time specific goals sometimes difficult to achieve.  Good relationship between QA and Development staff.

Overall my experience at Cars.com was fantastic. Everyday in the office you are challenged to do your best and everyone around you wants the same. They do their best to make sure the job itself does not feel like a call center and provide great training when needed. During COVID-19 we were put onto WFH status and there were layoffs like many businesses. Once they are back into the office after COVID-19 is over I would absolutely suggest this company to anyone. The only reason I had to leave the company was because of the WFH situation. 

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