Nordstrom Reviews

Current Employee – been working at Nordstrom full-time for more than 3 years

Pros – Decent benefits, work and life balance. As an employee you receive a 20 percent discount.

Cons – Pay is not the highest in the industry and if you are not mobile you are not eligible for promotion.

Advice to Senior Management – Listen to employees and be available to support as needed.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

Former Employee – worked at Nordstrom part-time for less than a year

Pros – A sales associate has the potential to make a unlimited amount of money on the sales floor from pay period to pay period.

Cons – Nordstroms intiative to increase sales online (which doesn't beneift sales reps). Along with the low commission percentage which varies from dept. to dept. and the "No Return Policy" that allows customers to return items in any condition at anytime. All work against your success at Nordstrom as a Sales Rep. Not the end all be job for sure.

Advice to Senior Management – It seems as if 100% of my success was determined on how well my selling perfomance showed through metrics reports. I would suggest putting more tools in place that work in favor your sales people rather than against them. Such as high commisions or more strict return policy. taking in account of how SPH numbers can be skewed when the employee is opening or closing.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend – I'm not optimistic about the outlook for this company

Current Employee – been working at Nordstrom full-time for more than a year

Pros – Encourage promoting from within, fun, easy, no cap on commission--so you can make a lot of money.

Cons – Sales people tend to make more money than managers since they have no cap on commission and can be on the sales floor for 8 hours a day. Managers have a high sales goal to meet but rarely have time to do so. The base salary for managers is so low that you need to make those sales goals in order to take home a decent paycheck. It can be a frustrating cycle.

Advice to Senior Management – Raise manager base salaries. Respect the work/life balance. 12 hour works days on a low salary is a lot to ask!

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend – I'm optimistic about the outlook for this company

Former Employee – worked at Nordstrom full-time for more than 3 years

Pros – Great company culture. Always putting the customer first! Decent pay for someone who does not have a degree. You can get promoted very quickly if you get everyone in the store to like you.

Cons – Don't care if you have a degree or not. People get promoted based on if your "manager supports you" They don't even ask you for your resume! Put the customer over there own employees which is horrible if you work there! Environment is extremely fake and dog eat dog.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at Nordstrom full-time for more than a year

Pros – Discount 33%
Coworkers (50% of them were the best!)
Clean Work enviroment

Cons – Anyone above my department manager did not care about... well anything! HR didn't care that they shorted me 40 hrs of vacation. Management is a bloated collection of the worst "Mean Girls" you saw in high school movies. If you aren't a favorite, you can kiss any idea of a promotion goodbye. Management picks and "grooms" employees for promotion based on... LITERALLY... who sits at their lunch table!!! I only received a promotion after my department manager went to bat for me, since she was "a cool girl." Many times as manager i was encouraged to "ice out" employees that had upset the management above me (be short with, ignore and not talk to) as punishment.

Advice to Senior Management – Be the company you claim to be. Be the management that you appear like! Those of us who have been on the inside see that it is truly a facade! Care about your employees, the facade will fade and you will be exposed as another retail establishment like all the rest, stop faking it and start making it a reality.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Former Employee – worked at Nordstrom full-time for more than 3 years

Pros – Room for growth if you shark everyone's sales and become buddies with management. Human Resources is almost always around to help you during normal business work week. Actually was chosen to have lunch with Blake Nordstrom. He seemed like a nice guy but flew in on his private jet and paid for lunch with his Nordstrom card and made sure everyone knew it.

Cons – Commission based and if you don't make draw they write you up or threaten you with termination. Did I mention the sharks? If you work in Men's departments, then you work Christmas eve to set up for Men's Half Yearly Sale.

Advice to Senior Management – Actually work with your sales associates to gain knowledge of products and how to sell them instead of throwing them in and seeing if they drown.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend – I'm not optimistic about the outlook for this company

Former Employee – worked at Nordstrom

Pros – Good money for retail sales job

Cons – Everything depends on the manger, I had a terrible one. All they care about is making the department reach their goals because they get a bonus, it does not matter if you have surpassed your individual goal.

Advice to Senior Management – Pay attention to how the managers treat their employees. My department had a high turnover rate because no one could stand the manger. She would constantly higher new people that we had to train, cutting into our selling time.

Former Employee – worked at Nordstrom full-time for less than a year

Pros – The hourly pay was good.

Cons – I worked in cosmetics and the turnover for employees was outrageous. I've been gone since August 2012, and I see job postings for the same job about every three months. If you like to be talked down to and harassed about sales constantly, this is the place for you.

Advice to Senior Management – Reevaluate the way you train your employees and then you won't have such a high turnover rate. Don't talk down to people; it doesn't make them work harder, it just caused bad attitudes and resentment. Don't make hourly quotas so high that only one or two people in a huge dept. can make them.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Former Employee – worked at Nordstrom full-time for less than a year

Pros – Great environment very friendly and welcoming. The people (both employees and customers are great) Great products. I like that Nordstrom offers full health benefits and 401k.. its just expensive.

Cons – Commission sales. Because of the open return policy employees are constantly being hit with returns which makes it nearly impossible to get commission. The hourly rate $9/hr is disappointing and cruel. The store closes at 9:30 but employees may not leave until 10:30-11pm (Nevermind the fact that the mall closes at 9pm) Scheduling is a disaster. The shifts aren't the greatest. (i.e. opening 8-5 or 9-6 midshifts 10-7 or 11-8 closing 12-Close or 1-close) I was told that I would have weekend flexibility in my schedule and I don't. I have worked every weekend since I was hired and I was fired because I needed to stay home with my young kids a few weekends out of the month. None of the managers want to offer days off when you NEED it.

Advice to Senior Management – Don't work the employees to death. Commission sales is challenging and everyone isn't born a sales person. Commission breeds tension and an unhealthy culture of competition between salespeople. There should be an easier way to advance in the company for those who have no interest in selling. FNL should be open to everyone. I dont agree with the open return policy because it hurts employees and after working 9-10hrs everyday it would be nice to go home in the daylight hours and spend time with family and friends or get some errands accomplished. Department managers need professional development days because they are unprofessional and only concerned about themselves. The assistant managers aren't much better either.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at Nordstrom full-time for more than 7 years

Pros – Reasonable discount, not great
Commissions
Nice customers

Cons – Horrible oversight of managers and management training
Weak follow through on poor managers, tend to promote incompetence
Benefits.... thin and few and not enough incentive to spend years here
Return policy raids otherwise solid commission structure
Incentives built in for customers to return and ruin commissions

Advice to Senior Management – Don't just train managers, follow up, examine and get 360 degree feedback aside from floor production numbers to see how they are really doing. Seek employee feedback! Customers are constantly asking for "x" and store has loads of "Y" and there is a huge disconnect between managers, buyers and front line sales employees who get asked constantly why we don't have something. Re-connect the buying process to the 'what's asked for' side of the business.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend – I'm not optimistic about the outlook for this company