Pros
Only pro is that you meet great people who are also going through the disaster that is the BDR department, and company as a whole. I have made great friends and am thankful for that. I liken it to people who have gone through a traumatizing experience together who form a strong bond as a result.
Cons
Blackbaud as a company operates on lies, and goes against everything they supposedly stand for. You are lied to about compensation, lied to about how many BDRs hit quota, and are lied to about opportunities for growth internally. You were lied to that you do this for "12 months" and are able to easily move into other areas of the company. The fact that you could have done that pre-covid was also a lie. Hiring managers have told me that they don't view the BDR role as a role that prepares them for sales, marketing, etc. so why waste your time? You work a job that pays less than a retail worker, cashier, fast-food employee etc. and are expected to put in whatever amount of work must be done to get to your goal. I have heard the phrase "There are 24 hours in a day" many times. You are expected to do whatever it takes to hit your number, rather than your number being adjusted to make sense for market conditions. When the pandemic struck, we were told to "ignore the sensationalist media" and focus on our jobs. When BDRs expressed that they were feeling burnt out as a result of removal of growth opportunities, COVID, Blackbaud's reputation in the marketplace suffering, lack of resources etc. we were told that "bars and liquor stores are still open" as if that somehow makes it better. I saw a review on here that likened this role to being a frat pledge, and I think its close but doesn't do justice to how truly horribly ran this department is. I think its more like an abusive relationship, where the abuser is gaslighting you into thinking they are taking your feedback, promising change, and are working to be better all while undermining you and making you think you are the problem. I have watched as intelligent, fresh-faced individuals have come in and are now shells of themselves, seeking therapy for the stress of this job and the way they are treated by management. Management is somehow immune to the punishment they inflict upon the BDR. You can have a manager whose team hasn't hit quota in months who is never reprimanded or put on a plan, but has a team full of BDRs (trying their best) on plans being threatened with termination. The verticals are all completely different and are for some reason treated (management incompetence) like they are same. Someone who calls on foundations is not going to have the same success, opportunities, etc. as someone who is calling into one of the better verticals. As someone in a decent vertical I am thankful, but feel for my colleagues who are being placed under enormous pressure for no fault of their own. It seems like the current MO is to push out all of the tenured BDRs so they can restart their cycle of lies with a new group of fresh-faced people sold on the promise of working at a (once great) company. This company also makes a habit of taking advantage of the customer, selling them on promises that are never kept and then leaving them hanging with horrible implementations that cause issues that can only be fixed by the customer spending more money. We take the money and run, making the customer go through a disjointed web of support, CSMs, and implementation managers to get any kind of help with the issues we created for them. If Blackbaud wasn't so big and able to acquire competition, I am confident it would fail. When Blackbaud's servers were breached, they hid it from their customers and employees for months before coming out with a statement ensuring that "no private info" was accessed. After already damaging trust and risking customer info they realized in their continued incompetence as an organization that they had in fact exposed information like SSNs, bank info, etc. to the hacker. This meant that for months customers didnt know their private info had been accessed, and then were lied to about the severity of it. Hearing from the market/customers constantly about how they have lost trust in the company as a result, and I know employees feel the same way. None of this is taken into consideration when determining quotas or who to call. We gave them a month before starting to inundate them with calls/emails again. Blackbaud as a company also sells software to hate groups that are anti-LGBT, and are anti-immgrant and racist in nature while simultaneously promoting "diversity" internally. There is very little diversity at Blackbaud, and I wish it would change.
