Pros

Generous discount on the clothing, cheap gym, good benefits, casual work environment, excellent cafeteria, columbus, oh has cheap cost of living, competitive salary

Cons

- Work/life balance is non-existent. I worked upwards of 70 hours some weeks and it was expected, not appreciated. Associates feel guilty for working less than a 12 hour day. The company expects associates to put the company first, their own well-being last.

- Poor senior level management. Those who are up top don't know how to make decisions and their inability to either make a decision within a deadline, or their inability to stand behind their decisions are ultimately costing the company dearly. There is a reason why the company is experiencing, to quote a yahoo finance article "eroding profit margins" and it is because numerous changes to financial strategy and to the product assortment and an unfocused and shaky big picture strategy for the future of the company. This all stems from the inexperienced and immature senior management in the company.

- Corporate culture. The company prides itself on hiring "nice, young, funny, smart" people. They expect the campus to be a "diva-free zone," Mike Jeffries should read the company creed again. He is neither nice, young, funny, or smart and he is the epitome of a diva. The corporate culture is one of extreme elitism, based upon the notion that A&F is a "cool and sexy" brand and therefore, the associates who work there are also "cool and sexy." This creates a corporate culture no better than the cattiest high-school. Fraternization with co-workers is encouraged, meetings are often conducted like a fraternity or a sorority meeting including inappropriate side discussions and humor.

Advice to Senior Management

There is a reason why the company is suffering financial right now, it is because the associates are deeply unhappy and frustrated with the way the company is run. Senior management needs to trust, appreciate, and nurture their teams so that they are able to contribute and be heard in meetings. Product development should NOT be a merchant role, EVERY OTHER COMPANY has a production team so the merchandising team can focus on building a strong product assortment. The split focus of merchandising an product development is just a cheap way for the company to combine 2 jobs into 1 to save money. Trust the merchants, trust the designers, and hire people OTHER than college grads, maybe someone with a background in fashion and not just another pretty frat boy? And to Mike and Chad, every change you make to the line has a financial repercussion and every change you make means dollars in the toilet and your associates have to stay that much later.

Pros

Working at Abercrombie and Fitch was a blast and a learning and growing exprence. You leaarn the basics of running any store recruiting hours payroll.

Cons

4 year degree required to be in management that you never use. You can't think for your self . you don't really control any aspect of the business.

Advice to Senior Management

Comunicate

Pros

Decent discounts
Flexible scheduling
Good pay rates- started above min. wage, and I got a raise in 6 months
Overall fun place to work, as long as you like house/trance music

Cons

You work practically every Friday and Saturday, so be prepared to sacrifice any social life until 10pm. Also, unless you have more than 6 months under your belt, be prepared for management to not even remember your name. Not that its a big deal, they will just call you by zone anyway.

Advice to Senior Management

Just because you primarily employ high school and college students does not mean you can treat them as faceless drones.

Pros

The work is extremely easy, folding clothes for hours is not difficult. No interaction with customers, very relaxed work place.

Cons

Long hours, management often pressured associates to stay past their scheduled hours.

Advice to Senior Management

Make corporate jobs more apparent, most of these kids are in college and can ad some benefit to the corporate ideas if they are removed from the store front

Pros

Good benefits; fast promotion if you are lucky; GREAT people/friends in stores

Cons

Almost everyone in management is on a power trip (especially district managers) and don't know how to manage people effectively; lowwwww pay; high-stress; recruiting pretty people in the stores is the only way to get ahead (I'm not joking)

Advice to Senior Management

The company wonders why it has 100% turnover in management... but ask any manager that has been in the stores more than a few months and they will tell you that A&F does not treat their employees with respect and appreciation. The home office campus is AWESOME, but working in stores is pretty much hell. Fast promotion is great, but most of the time people are not ready for it and cannot lead, train and develop effectively. I will say, however, that I do not regret my time at A&F simply because of all the great friends I made (other SMs and AMs), and also because what doesn't kill you makes you stronger... and I have a pretty strong resume because of my experience at A&F.

Pros

The average age of a Hollister employee is around 16-18. It's good for a summer job during high school, because your co-workers are all around your same age.

Cons

Upper management is terrible. I had 3 different managers since I worked at Hollister. None of them treated their jobs seriously

Advice to Senior Management

Motivate your employees more

Pros

Relaxed work environment, younger crowd, no formal apparel necessary, simple tasks, great benefits plan, simple interview

Cons

Terrible hours, low salary, little freedom to make your own decisions,

Advice to Senior Management

Try not to make the day to day activities of the job so cookie cutter. Every day there is a print out called "The Program" and it literally spells out exactly what to do every single day. There is no sense of accomplishment because you are treated like a child and are told what to do for every situation. I am confident managers would prefer more flexibility within their own stores.

Pros

My co-workers were nice most of the time, of course there is gossip all over the place. Not many pros, I guess the discounts were ok. The only reason I took the job is cause it was the first offered to me at the time.

Cons

The worst part was probably the management, because they didn't know what they were doing at all. There is no room to move up except to Lead Stock, any other position you can't get without a bachelor's degree, which is a total joke.

Advice to Senior Management

Advice I would give is to put more emphasis on talent, dedication, and those who take pride in their accomplishments, rather than simply falling back on good looks. There are a lot of above average looking people who could handle managing the stores better than more attractive people who don't have a clue about management.

Pros

Set schedule, Monday-Friday, with weekends off.
Mandatory schedule is for closing everyday, but it can be flexible if you have school or another job etc. (Good for college students or someone with a busy schedule)

Cons

No room for advancement opportunities. Only bachelor's graduates are eligible for management positions. Therefore no matter how much effort or time you put into this position, no matter how well you do or how great your reviews are, there are no opportunities to be promoted if you don't have a bachelor's. This is the single position in any store and is the backbone of the stockroom and impact system, yet there isn't much compensation for playing an important part.

This is the only other full-time position besides management but treated like a part-timer. Although we do as much work as management, our pay is nowhere close, don't get raises when they do, and have no chances to get promoted.

Advice to Senior Management

Create a better system on your promotion and hiring policies and maybe the turnover rate wouldn't as ridiculous as it is.

Pros

- Great culture, fun environment (very laidback)
- Flexible hours and management is fairly lenient with time-off
- Employee discount and other perks
- At least with my store, very organized

Cons

- Low pay
- Forced to wear specific colors or clothing that accurate represents A&F's image
- No benefits for part-time employees

Advice to Senior Management

Cool beans