Sephora Reviews

I have been working at Sephora

Pros – Apart from all the gratis we get from reps... It's fun and exciting!

Cons – As retail goes we all have to work on holidays!

Advice to Senior Management – Always be available have an open schedule in order to be a lead

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

I worked at Sephora

Pros – Great Incentives (Gratis(Free Products), Decent Discounts, Travel for Trainings)
Very Focused on Education (Store/Product/Techniques)
Advancement Available
Decent Benefits Plan (Medical, Dental, Vision, 401K)

Cons – Scheduling Is A Problem If You over perform or under perform
Over Perfomance = No weekends off ever, inconvenient scheduling
Under Perform = Dont expect to see you name on the schedule but once or twice a week
Cast can tend to be very pretentious
Education outside of what company is doing is not always looked on favorably

I have been working at Sephora

Pros – *Gratis - when products are not expired or damaged
*Friendship - genuine cast members
*Friendly and sometimes knowledgeable Brand Reps
*Free samples
*Fun atmosphere - for the most part
*Advancement opportunities - if you continuously annoy upper management enough or enjoy being a total kiss ass

Cons – I have been in a few different positions within the company - leadership and cast. There's a sense that upper management, DM, RVP, and up, need to learn a thing or two about economics. There is so much micro-management that the Store Director nor Leadership can even use the bathroom without getting an "okay" first.

The whole concept of entrepreneurship is to let store management run their business. They know the areas of concern (at least those that are competent) and opportunities for improvement. After all, they do spend countless hours on excess conference calls and overbearing reports that spit out numbers from a poorly designed and outdated operations system. I've been with the company for almost 4 years and still don't have a clue what the individuals at "home office" actually do. If upper management actually relieved SD's from conference calls that seem to do more harm on the business and allowed more time to focus and run their business, Sephora would be able to earn more profit.

Sephora pays WAY below the average for this type of industry. Heavy demands can seem oppressive at times and can create a heavy workload for management and cast. They start to feel undervalued and overworked. There are too many requirements for the little compensation offered. We have to obtain brand knowledge, maintain cleanliness of store, help multiple clients, ensure a fun shopping experience, meet/exceed sales goals, memorize assigned brand sales goals/top products, multi-task between worlds if short staffed, help operations with brand updates/missing product, tolerate a horrible commute, listen to constant criticism - during "observations", "P4D's", "coaching" opportunities, etc. It's enough for anyone to just throw in the towel. It's just sporadic, chaotic chaos. It makes you feel like a screaming banshee. The average for a SD is $61,000? Are you serious?! It's such a shame since this company is known for being a "innovator" in the beauty industry.

I really wanted a career within this company. Too bad for them. Sephora stores end up losing a lot of great individuals.

Advice to Senior Management – Listen to business decisions from the people that ACTUALLY run the business. We see the supply and demand traits on a daily basis. No computer can calculate supply and demand in a free market society.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

I have been working at Sephora

Pros – -Overall a fun environment to be in. Guys can and are encouraged to wear makeup, and all employees are allowed to wear whatever looks they want.
-A decent brand selection
-Gratis
-My management has always been pretty good about time off requests.

Cons – -incredible lack of communication between managers
-too many management roles (captains, leads, specialists, store directors... etc)
-pay is way below industry standard, especially for NYC
-Far too nit-picky about ridiculous things, such as zoning, costumes, jewelry
-Are not allowed to accept tips and don't make any % commission
-The costumes are absolutely disgusting and terrible
-"on-calls" and hours in general
-way too many expectations for what we're paid and very quick to point out "opportunities" but not enough positive feedback.
-Favoritism
-There are a lot of areas to grow within, but hard to get the opportunity to be put on a path to reach that point.
-a lot of shady happenings within upper management

Advice to Senior Management – Please feel free to read the "cons" section about to see what are some of management opportunities to be seized for a better work environment.

I worked at Sephora

Pros – Sephora is a great way to gain knowledge about the beauty industry. It really is all about how hard you try. You won't get a ton of training, so you kind of have to teach yourself if you want to be really successful, but if you're a beauty junkie, it's a great place to be. Work/life balance for me was great, but I had a great relationship with my manager.

Cons – Retail is just a tough place to be for a life-long career because they expect so much out of you with little compensation. You will almost always have crazy hours and you deal with unappreciative customers constantly. It's a pretty good place to be if you're in retail though.

Advice to Senior Management – I think managers in all retail places are extremely overworked and underpaid. Most of my managers were pleasant, but some could be very catty and not say things directly to your face.

I have been working at Sephora

Pros – all kinds of free stuff

Cons – All you do is dust every thing all the time

Advice to Senior Management – Better communication and training

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

I have been working at Sephora

Pros – its great to work for a company with lots of opportunities to move to. as well as the education they give there cast.

Cons – sometimes there are people in management that should not be in management and its very hard to move those people. the company should think about the rest of the cast as well as those managers who really don't want to be there, but are there if a check!!

Advice to Senior Management – if someone is not happy, nor does not feel they need to be developed let them move on to a place where they can be

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

I worked at Sephora

Pros – -the environment and cast are great to work with
-manangement gives you great feedback
-really pushes work/life balance

Cons – -could be a little difficult for growth

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

I have been working at Sephora

Pros – Great place to learn & improve on how to give excellent client service.
Gratis is good but you must wait a long time to receive it.

Cons – Pay is way below industry standard for the amount of workload that is required.
Upper Management only focuses on what employees are doing wrong and does absolutely nothing to develop confidence to improve performance.
Grueling work schedule that changes daily if numbers are not met making it impossible to depend on regular pay. Sometimes working until 1am then having to return by 8am the same morning. Working sometimes 7-10 days consecutively with out a day off.
Micromanagement in it's most extreme form. Tremendous amount of multi-tasking required making it impossible to do all things correctly and effectively. Not being properly trained before being put on the floor. Extremely high turnover rate.

Advice to Senior Management – Upper management & Leadership are overworked which then has a "trickle down" effect to the cast. Key employees then feel that their work is not valued which leads to high turnover. Budgeting issues cause a large amount of tension in the workplace as well. Simply not enough employees because of high turnover and "On Call's" so everyone working is stretched too thin to perform at their best. Because the Store Director is only on "stage" 10% of the time, she relies on hear say from other castmembers to make assumptions and then documents unfair accusations as fact during performance reviews, 1X1 conversations and reports to HR & DM's.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

I worked at Sephora

Pros – Sephora is was an exciting place to work. There was always something to do. The discount was decent for high end products.

Cons – Very unorganized management. Management is young an inexperienced. Many customers are unhappy and are not enjoyable to help. Catty employees and customers make it a very miserable place to be.

Advice to Senior Management – Dont go downtown and party with your employees

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend