Barnes & Noble – “Good place to work if you have something else in your life to focus on - this is not a place to build your career.”

Pros

Really great mid-level people, good work-life balance policies.

Cons

There is no career advancement (at least on the digital side of the business), management always prefers to hire from the outside rather than promote from within. Titles are completely random - since there is no career-pathing, the people that are your "peers" could have decades more or less experience than you. There is a lot of micro-managing going on -- do not expect to have any sort of authority. ALL decisions (no matter how small) are made by about 5 executives. Every decision - no joke.

Advice to Senior Management

Trust the people you hire to do their jobs - they are really smart and could help move the business to the next level.