Nordstrom – “You need to work at Nordstrom if you are in retail...there isn't another retailer in the world that compares!”

Pros

You have the ability to have any job you want within the company...you just need to work hard and treat customers how you would like to be treated. Nordstrom has a great 401K plan as well as great choices of medical/dental insurance. You can start out as a salesperson - and literally work yourself up to a store manager - overseeing a 50 million dollar a year store to start! Nordstrom consistently provides on the job learning and development training - which gives anyone on the salesfloor invaluable help on how to increase their paychecks by providing outstanding customer service!

Cons

The holiday season schedule is crazy...but not unlike other retailers. When you are first hired as a salesperson - you are ranked at the "bottom of the schedule" - and through hard work and giving great service you can move up to the top of the schedule. Sometimes in a large department it may take you a while to do this - which is a negative because the employees at the top of the schedule are given the best hours, preferred day(s) off and will most likely meet the criteria to have benefits. Also, it can, at times, be an aggressive environment because it is based on commission.

Advice to Senior Management

I would say that Senior Management needs to look at each region in the country and understand the people a little better...the employee as well as the customer. The employees & customers in Seattle are very very different than the employee and the customer on the East Coast. There are different challenges, different needs, different trends, different financial woes etc. It's hard to have the same exact expectations for every region in the company. If Senior Management worked for a month on the sales floor in any department on the East Coast - they would see a huge difference than what they have experienced in Seattle or the North West. For sure.