merchandiser

line cook

sales representative

field service technician

account executive

The Coca-Cola Company

A typical day (should have been 8:00-5:00, but was more 7:00-7:00)  
Which saw you;
7am opening your emails (usually at least 15 - 20 first thing in the am)
8am quick conference call 
8:15 - 9:30am route planning and other daily organization
9:30 or 10:00 on the road completing sales calls.  This included all details listed in resume i.e.:  selling in priorities, monthly deals, merchandising, completing orders, cleaning coolers and displays if necessary to enhance sale of product, re merchandising, and pricing.  Public liaison with your customer and putting out fires. 
Always on call during the day, as well ensuring Customer Support Calls are being handled through out the regular duties.  
4:00 sometimes later back to computer for follow ups and signing out of calls on BOSS System. Usually until 7:00 pm.  Sometimes earlier sometimes even later

What I learned?
Multi Tasking skills, organizational skills and learning how to pace ones self through the day ensuring to eat and not become overwhelmed, especially during trade tour times.

Management
I had 2 amazing District Sales Managers during my time with Coca-Cola.   Both skilled in different ways, but extremely good at their roles and ensuring their teams were taken care of accurately and supported as best that they could given disorganized circumstances.
We went through 2 Area Sales Managers in my time.  One was great the latter was lacking in personal skills and communication skills.   It made the DSM position difficult, but they did a great job despite.

Co-workers
Could not have asked for a better bunch of people to share my time with.  We all worked very well together, being a very diverse crowd we all had different things to offer, and worked very hard for each other.  Extremely supportive and fun group.  Outside Sales you don't see each other that often so it was a testament to see how close we all were.

Hardest part of the job?
How disorganized it was.  The team and our DSM's worked very hard to make our customers happy, however there was not enough time in a day with the amount of staff we had to provide customers with the proper care and follow up they each deserved.  As a result, days did not run smoothly and despite efforts I never left a day feeling at peace with my accomplishments, even though at best I was the top achiever and my territory ranked best bonus structure more often than not.
There was quite a revolving door in my three years in the company and the sales teams.  As a result I took on many territories at once as well as coached and trained the new staff and the special projects.  Add constant Trade Tours, this job all of a sudden robbed me of any work life balance and ultimately led to my desire to leave.
The team became fragmented due to exhaustion.
Throughout, I will maintain that my DSM's were great as they did the best they could under disorganized circumstances.  All have since left as well.

The most enjoyable part of the job?
Selling, the customers, the people.  The diverse group of customers from territory to territory.  The accomplishments and pride in selling in and merchandising a good looking sale.  Making customers feel good, laugh and communicating with different personalities everyday.

Our team was great and there were a  lot of perks.  We were worked very hard, but they were always flexible when you needed something.  There was never any guilt when you wanted time off and they urged you to take your holidays.  The DSM team was great at acknowledging your accomplishments and rewarding your successes.  As they burned out it became less, but they always had an open door and were very supportive.

I interviewed twice with this company in the space of one year - once for a production position in Richmond, BC, and another (for which I was hired) as a seasonal order picker at the distribution center in Montreal, QC. The hiring was done via a phone interview with the head office in Toronto, ON, and an in-person meeting with one of the warehouse supervisors. I had done the same process for the job in Richmond, only without being retained. What stood out at that particular engagement was the way the hiring manager referred to his habit of "booting out" temporary workers that, for one reason or another, didn't meet his requirements (namely obtaining a "boiler ticket" - the reason for which was never clearly elaborated upon); and that they met with many candidates for my positions, and so I shouldn't get my hopes up. He also made me wait for 20 minutes past the appointment time in the lobby. Generally very unprofessional and corporate in diction/demeanor.

Basically, there's no realistic way to be hired permanently by this company if you're taken on as a temp (or seasonal) worker. I inquired and was told the waiting list for a permanent position goes back to 2006. Apparently it now takes one of the "old-timers" (read: guys who've been driving forklifts for 37+ years because they're not competent to do anything else) retiring before a position's available. At that point, it's given for night shift (the one no one generally wants), then evening, then day (both of the latter having their own respective waiting lists).

I found the two on-duty supervisors aloof and disinterested in warehouse operations other than to chide the material handlers for not moving fast enough. The order pickers themselves were given to slacking off and smoking cigarettes behind the pallet racks, and constantly complained of what they were being asked to do. I also found the jokes between the supervisors and workers (usually directed one-way with sarcastic overtones regarding performance) to be entirely inappropriate for such a large company. The sanitary conditions of the lunch room and toilets was also wholly sub-par.

Suffice it to say that my training (which took place during the day) lasted a few days, after which I notified the supervisors that I was leaving. It's worth mentioning that temporary workers are paid half of what the permanent workers make (therefore not a lot) and that you'll get put on night shift (occasionally evening rotations) if you choose to stay. They also informed me that the bulk of the work would be during the summer, after which the work would essentially dry up for us and only long-term temporary & permanent workers would be able to make 40 hours a week.

PS. For all the references to the benefits of having a limitless supply of soda in the cafeteria, I found the Coke flat and the other beverages less-than-flavorful compared to what's sold in stores.

It was a wonderful experince when I first started working. I had a hard-nosed trainer who expected a lot from me on the first day of training but I pushed through. I worked myself to the point where I was getting huge back strains and leg strains from the large work load on a daily basis. I had an awful schedule of 4 on 1 off,1 on 1 off with no room to make it balanced or offer consecutive days off. I went to great lengths to push for more sale space on the floor for most accounts in the hopes of getting some form of acknowledgement. But it didn't matter to Coke as it is still and will always be a clubhouse style of advancement. If you play golf, talk the talk, make informative posts with business jargon, then you've got it made. Let me explain a bit. We'd get appreciation but as a blanket statement during peak times of the year. No different than a platonic greeting you'd express to your neighbors on a regular basis. I have worked at a gas station and felt more appreciated there then I have felt here for this company. Your schedule will flip at the drop of a hat often overnight or 30 minutes before you are about to head out the door. Your breaks are driving in terrible traffic as merchandisers can't risk being late to an account because the order has arrived and is expected to go out immediately. Cuttin corners is frowned upon but ultimately is necessary in order to complete your day on time. Customers would complain that flavours would spontaneously not be in an account anymore and there would be no messages of any kind until you personally asked the sales rep. Speaking of which, Coke has no problems with keeping sales reps that will use questionable tactics to motivate the merchandisers but they'll drop a less than mediocre merchandiser in a second. It can be very frustrating when the reps pump their numbers to hit a goal for each account, and then you as the merchandiser have to take the brunt of the account's frustration as you are the face of Coke in their store at the moment. Seeing the other Full-Time workers leave one by one demoralized me to the point where I started to become depressed. I plodded along before I left as there was no point in pushing myself anymore. There's been a lot of turnover since May 2017 and I no longer feel like it matters that I'm heading out the door.

This job seemed okay at first but over time it changed drastically. I was given training for 3 days in my first week but then the whole week after they never scheduled me at all and when I asked why I wasn't I never got a response until 3 days later & didn't work for a whole week. After a whole week of not working I was trained for 2 more days and expected to work in stores overnight by myself which I felt was really rushed. The job its self can be tiring, if your lucky there will only be one or two skids of product to place but usually there is about 6 or 7 loads to do per store ( you get about 3 or 4 stores a night ) and after awhile this can be tiring when working by yourself, I suggest stretching before and after if your going to do this job and to get alot of sleep and eat well before your shift cause work starts at about 11 pm - 1am and can go all the way to 11am the next day, depending on your load but most shifts are 9 hours so to anyone that isn't used to working overnights I highly suggest you prepare your body for this. Your going to random stores within the GTA so sometimes at certain stores the pump trucks aren't working well and there can be delays in when the trucks deliver coca cola product which can delay when you finish.  

Management is horrible with communication and they often will only email you back when they need to get information through, it seems as if they dont care about your problems. Many times they have scheduled me on my days off that I requested I have off when I first started and when I would finally get a response back I would get responses such as " Were short this week and it will change next week" or " sorry, would you still be able to work?"

This job is a minimum of 24 hours weekly but sometimes there are weeks where no hours are given at all, sometimes 2 weeks straight so if your looking for a steady job with good income I would be cautious of working here.

when I applied for the job the recruiter said This is a summer relief position that would last at least 6 months.

 After a mountain of paperwork I was sent to the terminal to start my training. 

The job was work, physically demanding and as you have a handheld
computer that counts the cases and sells the product to the store, so counts have to be accurate, you could have 20 deliveries on your truck so alot of the drivers use GPS.

For training they sent you with another Driver and the first thing we did was get our handhelds put in our information and collect our route paperwork for the day.

 Then it was off to the dock to get our dollys and pallet jack and be signed out from the dock for a second count, then it was the pretrip and paperwork for the truck. I noticed that the drivers spent a good 30 minutes or more inputing all the addresses into their gps for their deliveries for the day. 

We had to unload each case by hand so if had a store that had 200 or more cases you had to wheel it in on a dolly then merchandise the product which is putting it on their shelf or display area. Where they aloted you 30 minutes to do.

There was many complaints to management from the drivers
 ( unreasonable unloading times no parking etc.)

The co workers were always helpful and the drivers that have been there the longest said "just ask and we will help as best we can".
a great bunch of guys.

The hardest part of the job was the handheld computer because you have to have all of your totals match up at the end of the day.

I enjoyed the physical work and the comoradity of the other drivers.

The part I didn't like was they trained me for 5 weeks and then put me on call. I was called back once or twice but I had found other work at that point.

Then once my training had finished they hired my brother trained him for 5 weeks and then put him on call.

Was a great brand to represent and gave me a sense of pride to say whom I worked for. My latter years with the company were more challenging as new ownership brought on changes that were difficult in a large geography, small work force area.

A typical work day is 10 to 12 hours with only a 5 minute 
commute to nearest account. Days can be longer at busy times or if you decide to stop to eat or have to "fit personal things" into your day. The job does have some flexibility to fit things like doctor appointments into the schedule but you still have the same amount of work to be done each day.

Management in my area have a large geography to cover and there was a lot of expectancy from upper management which usually leads to asking for more out of employees. 

The company does offer benefits that are not as good as they were in years past or as some other companies offer. Also the pension plan is probably near the bottom of the pack IMO.

The job does have a good physical flow to it that keeps you on your toes and you meet a wide variety of people that you may not get to meet in other jobs.

The company also offers great courses in a variety of aspects pertaining to the industry (some mandatory some optional) and I have found that these courses still server me well in my life after Coca Cola (highly recommend doing most of them if given the opportunity).

A typical day at work for me would involve being at my first store, it may be a convenient store, gas station, or news stand, by 8am. From there I would approach the individual at the desk, and attempt to find the manager on duty or owner of the store. During this talk the individual would be made aware of the deals that are in place, what products they should be ordering, and if any new products the company is selling they should be purchasing. Once this is complete I would write an order for the store, taking into account the product in the fridge and inventory in the backroom, and this would be saved in my device. After this I would merchandise the store to Coca-Cola code, and insert the proper signs for the store.

This could be repeated anywhere between 10-20 times a day.

I have learned a lot from this job opportunity, such as; how to properly handle customers, dealing with and resolve issues on my feet, and also organizing my day so that I would be able to efficiently assist my customers. 

The one thing that I did enjoy about this job was management, and my co-workers. They were always willing to help and teach, which allowed me to enhance my personal skills and establish a solid foundation to solidify myself in the working world.

Finally, the hardest part of the job was the commute. But, making customers happy and doing my job to the most of my own potential outweighed that.

Did not really enjoy my time with this company. Worked really hard for them and never really got recognized. Turned my sales area around and made my target volume every quarter but nothing was ever good enough. 

Management is VERY unprofessional as they slander customers. Management considered in market "execution" as giving away hockey tickets or gift cards in exchange for extra product or floor space. In other words they would ask the lower workers to bribe customers. Management would often make promise and either forget about them or not follow through. This made a huge problem as my customers took it out on me. 

For the amount of driving done for this job the compensation is not worth it. The wear and tear you put on your vehicle is ridiculous and only compensated with an extra couple hundred bucks every month. Also damage to inside of car from management making us take out 4-8 "case stackers" in cardboard boxes which in turn would smell up your car and make the inside dusty. It came to the point where stores would already have one and when I was asked to take 5 case stackers I would just toss them. 

Bonuses are usually attainable and benefits were really good. Other then that there wasn't much upside to working. It sounds a lot more glamourous then it actually is. 

I'd recommend higher management do a month as an account rep and see if they can meet some of the ridiculous goals they expected from us.

I was an employee who left and I  haven’t been happier.  They work you like a slave, then pretend you did not hurt yourself at work.  Engineered labor standards are a joke. Voice pick system is a joke and causes errors that you get punished for. Night shift gets the brunt of the work and the highest engineered labor standards to achieve.  Discipline is handed out on an almost daily basis. Definitely once a week, you are “reviewed” and followed to make sure you are achieving optimal numbers.  No quality, just quantity.  While others who know how to kiss up to the bosses, stand around and gossip about the people actually doing the work.  Toxic environment, and blind management.  Actually had an employee scream at me in front of supervisor who did nothing.  Would not recommend working there unless you have skin so thick a nail couldn’t penetrate.  Can’t believe I stayed so long.  I recommend you read a few of the reviews before you apply because you could be wasting time working for a company that does not deserve good employees. Revolving door of employees and management.
Pro. Good pay and free pop.. 
Cons...management, supervisors, employees, HR team, and health and dental.  So if you work there, don’t drink the pop, or all your money goes to pay for your dental.  And no health cards... pay and then hope you get a refund.  Good luck and keep your head down and your percentage over 100%.

When I started working for Coke I worked day and afternoon shift. I learned how Coke is made, bottled, and packaged. I learned about the machines on the four production lines and a little about how to program them for the various products that are made at the plant. Later I switched to graveyard shift and I learned the importance of cleanliness within the production plant. The plant recently went through some upgrades and we all did some training on new computers for inventory control and tracking. 
Management is great. They have an open door policy and will listen to questions and concerns that employees have about any topics. 
My co-workers are the best. They are always happy to answer all my questions about safety, equipment, production. 
The hardest part of my job is working all night and being in school during the day. Some weeks I was working up to five nights going home getting a couple of hours of sleep then going to school for five or six hours then going home getting a couple of hours of sleep and go back to work and doing that for the week. 
Most enjoyable part of my job was working with great people, earning a living, and being independent. I get some much gratification from working hard for something. Not just my night job but also being in school and working towards something.

Top Job Titles	Average salary
Merchandiser 12 salaries reported	$19.32 per hour
Line cook 6 salaries reported	$33.00 per hour
Sales representative 4 salaries reported	$46,800 per year
Field service technician 3 salaries reported	$29.07 per hour
Account executive 3 salaries reported	$116,667 per year

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