Pros

REI is a great place to work if you like people, if you like the outdoors, and if you appreciate a work environment where everyone is respected and given a chance. We go above and beyond consistently to offer great customer service which makes customers happy and which makes our job enjoyable. Employees are friends not just at work but outside of work as well. It's a great place to be! Work at REI and you'll have a fun job with opportunities for advancement and you'll meet a lot of great people who are active and who enjoy what they do.

Cons

Some of the downsides are that headquarters are based in Seattle and if you want to advance with the Co-op outside of the traditional management track, you have to live in Seattle. Otherwise retail management is your primary advancement option. As with any job, the quality of your experience with REI depends on your attitude and how much initiative you are willing to take. In my experience, taking initiative and seeking out advancement on your own is rewarded. In the end, REI is a retail company so if you don't like retail, this is probably not the job for you.

Advice to Senior Management

The advice that I would give Senior Management is to strive to be more like my store manager. He is a great leader and he really promotes his staff. He doesn't micro-manage people which allows those who want to step up to do so and to feel encouraged. I know that management at other REI's is not like my management team and that really affects the experience that staff and customers have when they come to REI. So I would say that REI's leaders in Seattle need to go out into the stores more regularly and talk with staff as well as management to stay in touch. And they need to be more proactive at talking with and responding to store managers.