Hikvision Hiring 50, Direct Out of College, Sales People

By: John Honovich, Published on Feb 20, 2017

Hikvision is hiring 50, direct out of college, field sales people across the country.

This is the next major expansion for the Chinese government owned manufacturer and a shift from their previous focus on hiring industry veterans.

Inside this post, Hikvision explains it on video, we examine the job description and analyze the strengths and weaknesses of the move.

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Overview ** ****

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Responsibilities ********

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Best **** ********

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Worst **** ********

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Vote / ****

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Comments (20)

Avatar

Rich Moore

02/20/17 02:38pm

I don't know what the average age of a surveillance integrator is but I can imagine the conversation going like this:  "What happened to Bob?  You replaced him with a kid my daughter's age?  Bob knew the industry, he knew the products and more importantly, He knew my business."  People do business with people they trust.  

John Honovich

IPVM | In reply to Rich Moore | 02/20/17 02:46pm

On the other hand, college grads are the standard workhorses in lots of industries - law, consulting, banking, etc. In the valley, college grads populate SDR roles so popular now in SaaS businesses.

I do agree with you about the risk of going on-site to a surveillance integrator. Usually college grads are there to do the support / busy work and not so much to be the 'lead point of contact' for customers.

We will see. On the positive side, Hikvision will be conducting a multi-million dollar experiment for the industry to see what works.

Undisclosed Manufacturer #1

02/20/17 02:52pm

Two points...

1. Hik is not really hiring 50 people for long.  My guess is that they will hire 50, and in 90 days, they'll let 48 go and keep the two diamonds they found.  Classic high pressure boiler room.

2.  $150k total for Veterans?  How in the world do they attract true veterans with that?  Axis could get away with that back in the glory days, but you can make so much more elsewhere. 

-Counterpoint to #2-

I know of one other Top 5 camera manufacturer who recently cut their pay package pretty dramatically, could be a trend.

Undisclosed #3

In reply to Undisclosed Manufacturer #1 | 02/20/17 04:46pm

The more exposure to the security industry the better. Retirement to most of the  dinosaur mentality that survived the comet.

Undisclosed Manufacturer #1

In reply to Undisclosed #3 | 02/20/17 04:48pm

...and Longsee can now hire ex-Hik Vets!

Jeremy Ellis

02/20/17 03:26pm

They are going after the "soft market". They want young professionals to spearhead the brand, not some crusty person that is wearing a 30 year old sport coat that smells of cigarette smoke talking about "high security" jobs he designed in 1984. 

Avatar

Rich Moore

In reply to Jeremy Ellis | 02/20/17 05:58pm

All older sales people don't dress like Herb Tarlek on WKRP in Cincinnati.  Yes, I know I just dated myself.  It's good to have a mix of older and younger sales people.  Older know how to build raport, younger know how to use technology to their advantage.  

Undisclosed #6

In reply to Rich Moore | 02/22/17 08:55pm

All older sales people don't dress like Herb Tarlek on WKRP in Cincinnati.

True.  Many dress like Les Nessman.

Avatar

John Williams

In reply to Jeremy Ellis | 02/21/17 06:55pm

Yeah, I hate old people too.

Undisclosed Manufacturer #2

02/20/17 03:49pm

I personally have been very pro- hiring right out of college grads for 2 reasons. 1) they are enthusiastic (bright eyes and bushy tailed)  and they are a college grad.  No offense,  but I personally want more college level educated people I the field. 2) people with the right discipline or course transcript will have the it and ip experience that is needed in this field. 

I have seen people moved around a large organization,  who used to sell TVs or printers or whatever,  and come to security and are a fish out of water trying to support or design complex systems and be comfortable with networking,  etc. 

Most university settings,  even without an it major will provide much needed pc experience.... 

John Honovich

IPVM | In reply to Undisclosed Manufacturer #2 | 02/20/17 04:47pm

#2, I agree with you about those advantages being valuable. The key thing would be how to get them up to speed on the industry specific issues because that is the downside.

In fairness, most industry salespeople, including Hikvision's RSMs, have been selling and supporting video surveillance for many years, meaning they have lots of relevant / valuable experience to draw from.

Avatar

Ari Erenthal

In reply to Undisclosed Manufacturer #2 | 02/21/17 02:06pm

No offense, but I personally want more college level educated people I the field.

Why?

Avatar

Jonathan Lawry

Trecerdo, LLC | In reply to Undisclosed Manufacturer #2 | 02/21/17 03:33pm

Lately I have seen less correlation between a college degree and maturity/discipline than there once was.  There are some diamonds in the rough, for sure, but the days of a college degree being a dependable proxy for talent and work ethic are in the past.

The only real exception here are high-tier (but not top-tier) engineering schools....places where you go if you couldn't get into Stanford or MIT (think Rensselaer, Carnegie-Mellon, Harvey Mudd...), or any decent university that does not offer liberal arts degrees.

Graduates from those schools tend to by able, hungry (want to prove something against MIT and Stanford), as well as not having been distracted by friends with much easier majors.

Undisclosed #4

02/20/17 05:53pm

You leave me no choice Hikvision can have them they will learn that college grads in the US are different that in the East.

Hiring A Millennial

And for the not safe at work but when you hit the "king of Nutcase Millennial's" 

Hiring an SJW

 

Avatar

Jon Dillabaugh

Pro Focus LLC | 02/21/17 03:52am

I know of software companies that do the exact same thing. They hire cheap, pretty people with little or no experience. They churn them fast.

Avatar

Norm Dimick

02/21/17 03:41pm

I believe the term for this type of new hire is Jr. Woodchuck.


Avatar

Nick Giannakis

02/21/17 05:03pm

Hikvision is doing the US physical security market a favor with this initiative. It’s expensive to find and develop young sales talent. Hik has already shown an unmatched tolerance to accept losses. They’re bound to find a few unpolished gems, perhaps more than a few. As several above have noted, turnover will be high in a fresh young sales team with no experience and a steep learning curve. This industry is sticky, perhaps some of the churn sparks potential that flourishes elsewhere.

Honovich said Hik is conducting a multimillion dollar experiment. I see this as a multimillion dollar investment in new talent to our market. To anyone not afraid of competing against millennials, you should be cheering for this expensive talent search.

Avatar

John Williams

02/21/17 06:51pm

The first questions is where's Bob, the second question is what's the price. 

It tough to explain how you upheld American values and lost money. It's called market forces.

I think the only "defense" is to have cameras that are sensors in a security solution that includes Access Control, Intrusion and all the other requirements.

Undisclosed Integrator #5

02/22/17 08:28pm

Well I guess the question to ask is how did it work for Avigilon? Last year wasn't there something about hiring sales people with ZERO experience?

John Honovich

IPVM | In reply to Undisclosed Integrator #5 | 02/22/17 09:44pm

Well I guess the question to ask is how did it work for Avigilon? Last year wasn't there something about hiring sales people with ZERO experience?

Those are typically inside sales people. Axis has a similar approach to inside sales. But with inside sales, those are either cold callers (e.g., Avigilon Is Trying To Sell To Me Direct) or people who handle initial requests and then pass them on to more senior people.

What Hikvision is planning to do here is to have zero experience people be the lead point of contact in the field for customers. That is much more ambitious.

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