CarGurus Career Growth & Development

Tell us about your sales journey thus far.

I joined CarGurus in August 2022 after being referred by a former colleague who couldn’t stop raving about his experience here. Transitioning from telecom retail to an online auto shopping platform meant leaving a leadership role for an individual contributor position and shifting from selling tangible goods to software and marketing solutions. Despite these changes, I took the leap and never looked back.

My first role was as an account executive working with small dealerships. Then I progressed to selling to larger ones and eventually moved into the associate manager role I hold now. While my experience and inherent drive have been key to my success, CarGurus’ exceptional sales team culture has been truly instrumental to my growth and development. The team is highly collaborative and supportive, with managers who offer guidance and encouragement to everyone, not just their direct reports. We also have an official mentorship program for new hires.
 

What is the sales culture like at CarGurus?

Most of our routines and rituals are built around this collaborative spirit and a broader commitment to inclusion and transparency at CarGurus, ensuring everyone has a voice. They give people a platform for sharing best practices, efficiency strategies, new reporting techniques and other valuable guidance. This culture of generosity and camaraderie is rare in sales organizations, where top producers often keep to themselves.

One example of our collaborative spirit is the monthly all-hands sales meetings. Representatives from different sales teams share their wins and challenges, providing helpful insights for everyone. Another highlight is our end-of-month rallies, which are fun, motivating and full of incredible energy as everyone bands together to help achieve individual goals. We also have “champions dinners,” where we celebrate top performers from each level and group. Our annual events include the awe-inspiring revenue kickoff and a holiday party filled with exciting and unexpected moments that underscore what a special company CarGurus truly is.
 

What advice do you have for sales professionals who want to join your team?

Curiosity is highly valued at CarGurus because we believe in continuous improvement. Asking questions and wondering ‘what if?’ or ‘what’s next?’ helps you learn more and find better ways to do things, and it shows that you are ready to embrace the inevitable changes in business and tech today. 

It’s also important to take ownership of your work. Engage fully and be proud of what you bring to your role. Treat every customer and task with care and respect. When you work for a company that recognizes and celebrates success, these contributions will help you stand out and create even more opportunities to learn, grow and make an impact.

We need to make sure that people have opportunities to upskill and that we’re creating that space at work — not making people feel like they have to do it on their own time.

Being able to grow as an individual and as a leader is a huge selling point for any company. It’s especially true here because of all the support and collaboration from our colleagues, and the strong vision for the future.

What are your go-to resources for keeping your engineering skills sharp? 

Beyond what I mentioned above... YouTube! The engineering community is incredibly generous with knowledge-sharing there. I particularly enjoy content from influencers like Colt Steele and Andrei Neagoie. I also supplement my learning with Udemy courses, technical documentation and articles in Smashing Magazine. For more interactive learning, pair programming has been invaluable — exposing me to different problem-solving approaches while helping me sharpen my own skills.

What does the learning culture look like at your company or on your engineering team? 

I’ve always thought of learning as a team sport, and that’s especially true at CarGurus. Knowledge-sharing and hands-on collaboration are key to both individual and team growth. We host biweekly tech talks to share new and noteworthy work, an annual hackathon to tackle business challenges or introduce new efficiencies and a yearly science fair to showcase innovative new and in-progress work. There are also plenty of opportunities to contribute beyond day-to-day projects. For example, I was part of a Web Vitals task force that looked to improve our overall website performance. This enabled me to dive deeper into the technical specifics that can help me optimize user experiences more broadly.