Pros

The benefits are amazing! Awesome discount that extends to Torrid & Shockhound.com. Low cost healthcare options for management (even part-timers!), Stock options, company-matching 401k, monthly bonus opportunities, band grants, tuition scholarships, concert reimbursement and other contests for cash & prizes. Additionally, Hot Topic is a fun place to work and has great people across the board extending from HQ down to all the stores. Career growth potential? The sky is the limit! If you are willing and able HT will take you to the top of the company and everyone above you has a vested interest in you, your training and your advancement.

Cons

From my experience, it is impossible to be highly effective as a member of management without having Hot Topic consuming a lot of your free time. Do not misunderstand me, they discourage and actually prohibit anyone from working off the clock, but if you want product knowledge (namely music) you have to seek that out on your own time. You are required to be an "expert" on everything HT sells, being an expert on that much stuff is time consuming! Every really good manager has no life outside of work- sad but true. I also think that there is a lot of stress for management, especially if you take your job seriously and want your store to do well. Managers wear many hats- they are sales people, they are coaches, motivators, planners, merchandisers, stockers, cashiers, loss prevention and sometimes have to unclog toilets and dig through trash- all while trying to make it appear to customers that they're just hanging out having fun. It is a lot to juggle sometimes.

Advice to Senior Management

I would strongly advise them to try harder to find candidates to promote from within the company before looking elsewhere and hiring outside the company. My personal experience with this has led me to believe that if they invested as much time, effort, training and confidence in preparing the assistants they already have for Store Management positions as they do with outsiders their success rate would be much higher.