Pros

If you are enamored by international travel and the different cultures of the world, this is the place for you. The work is interesting, the people are passionate about what they do and the guests they look after and the atmosphere is fun.

TCS is at a crossroads. They have been successful in their business for 25 years but change is afoot. To survive and grow as a company, it cannot rely on the same way of doing things. Some people don’t like change and are resistant or openly fight it. Those that embrace it, see the bigger picture and can look into the future will find the current environment invigorating, challenging and fulfilling.

There are pros and cons to working for a smaller company. I have worked for multinational companies with over 100k people and I’ve worked for small company with less than 50. Personally, I like working for smaller organizations. I enjoy the ability to have a large impact without having to involve 30 other people to get things done. You will wear many hats at TCS. A necessity with most small companies. This isn’t a Microsoft where there are resources to hire tons FTEs, contractors and agencies to get things done. You either do it yourself or it doesn’t get done. Again, you can find this challenging and invigorating or you can moan and groan about it. I choose to be energized and accept the opportunity to expand my knowledge and skills in areas I am not necessarily an expert in.

There is always a fine line between balancing what has worked in the past and innovating for the future. Change is necessary to be able to meet future goals and objectives. I find it a fun challenge to figure out how to grow the business by introducing new processes and methods to make us more efficient and successful, while still keeping legacy things that have worked in the past. Not everyone embraces new methods and to a certain extent, that’s ok. Bit there’s a difference in fighting change because there’s legitimate concerns that it will break the system versus fighting change because you are open the the possibility of improvement. I find that the change TCS is going thorugh, while challenging to everyone’s way of doing things, is well thought out and will have a positive impact on the business.

In general, I find the TCS atmosphere supportive and flexible. The people are friendly and caring and it’s more of a friends and family environment than most other companies I’ve worked for in the past.

Cons

As with any small company, there are limited opportunities for growth. I have seen some growing about TCS not being somewhere you can easily get promoted in. Again, when you have 80-some-odd people, there are only some many layers you can have. The ability to go from specialist, to coordinator, to manager, to senior managers, to director, to senior director to VP just doesn’t exist when you’re in a 10-12 person department (if that). It’s more like specialist to manager to director and is clearly dependent on whether the person above you or not is leaving. That’s just the reality of a small company. That said, TCS is open and encourages movement within. You can move from guest services to product development to sales with creative ease, giving you the ability to try different hats and reenergize yourself in a new role.

Pay and benefits are what you would expect for: 1) a small company; and 2) a company within the travel industry that’s not Expedia. TCS is not a company that’s making hundreds of millions of dollars in profit. The results is a pay and benefits package that is clearly below average to average for the Seattle market. Is it enough to compel me to leave TCS, no? I find the satisfaction I get from my job and the environment I work in to help make up for the gap I could easily get elsewhere.

Some people view not being able to go on a partial TCS trip as a con. Some positions rightfully are able to go on a partial. Those that need to have a deep level of familiarity with the product or who are essential to the operations of an actual trip. That said, the reality is, not everyone can go. I think most people don’t recognize the sheer cost involved in a typical TCS trip. We’re not talking about thousands of dollars, we’re talking about multiple tens of thousands of dollars. Additionally, there are a limited number of open seats available and a finite number of seats in any given year. I recognize and accept that I will may never experience the product/service we are selling and I’m ok with that.