Ulta Reviews

Current Employee – been working at Ulta

Pros – The discount is what keeps me from outright quitting.

Cons – The corporate office and store management are routinely showered with luxurious gifts and gratis while the rest of the employees are lucky to get a "thank you" for their hard work. Mostly it's criticism for not being able to pull off the job of three people simultaneously. I mean, it's totally realistic to expect three women, all weighing in the low 100 pound range, to unload five pallets of boxes filled with liters of shampoo and conditioner, stacked six or seven feet high, carry them out to the floor and then stock all of it on the shelves in four hours. Not at all impossible, and that's what they'll tell you every time you show up for a shift (that was probably adjusted to your detriment hours, or a day if you are lucky, before) and the truck is running an hour and a half late, to top things off. All while your task manager is also expected to be the floor manager and close the store when she should be focusing on her job, WHICH IS LOAD. And then she'll face a reaming because everything didn't get done. Five years of loyal service will get you less than a dollar more in hourly pay than someone who walks in off the street. The stores are so understaffed that breaks and lunches are nonexistent (and I'd like to take this opportunity to mention it's illegal as hell). It is not uncommon during the holidays to work shifts that qualify for breaks and lunch periods, only to be expected to sign your approval on a piece of paper for involuntarily working straight through the shift.

Advice to Senior Management – STAFF YOUR STORES PROPERLY. You cannot reasonably expect for customers to be properly taken care of, product to be properly shorted, and ad sets to be completed when there are two employees working in the store. Show some appreciation to the "little people" who bust their humps each and every shift so your stores can make their numbers each week. Pay your employees reasonable wages, especially if they're silly enough to hang around longer than six months. Employee morale is incredibly low in stores because we are expected to perform the impossible day in and day out.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Former Employee – worked at Ulta full-time for more than 7 years

Pros – Access to new products and education on hair and skin care. In the Salon you can keep busy with the steady flow of Ulta customers.

Cons – Unfortunately the company is growing so fast that they have lost that more personal vibe. As a Salon Manager I have seen some disturbing treatment of the retail and salon teams. " they" say it's about growing your team, but truly it's numbers. It's all about the numbers!!! To many changes at the corporate level and chaos on the ground. I had to resign due to the way I was being treated by my General Manager and District Manager.

Advice to Senior Management – There are some amazing folks in upper management. Some have reached out to me after I resigned. Please listen to your people on the ground when they tell you there are issues. It is never pleasant to be called liar or worse.

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

Current Employee – been working at Ulta part-time for more than 3 years

Pros – -Discount
-Flexible schedule
-Salon discount is nice
That's about it.

Cons – -Horrible pay
-Underappreciated
-Extremely demanding for no reason
-Made to bleach down the whole store (IN ALL BLACK!) but they won't provide an allowance for all the clothes you mess up
-You're more of a janitor than a cashier
-Entitled customers that don't understand the concept of a coupon with fine print. You've been a "loyal" customer for "years" yet you still don't know that you can't use a 3.50 coupon on Bare Minerals.
-No breaks
-You can barely keep water at the cash wrap and they when you ask to go get some they look at you as if you're going to be gone for hours. You end up feeling like you're an inmate smuggling cigarettes.
-After 3 years, and constantly being recognized as the only person who contributes to Brand success, there's still no benefits, breaks, or pay. A .14cent raise? really?
-The only reason I'm still here is because I like getting my hair done for 20 bucks :)

Advice to Senior Management – Stop being so cheap! If your employees feel appreciated and valued, the customer service would be extraordinary. But when you treat your employees like crap,

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

Current Employee – been working at Ulta part-time for more than a year

Pros – The discount is probably the only salvaging factor of this job.which aslo explains all the one day employees.

Cons – Prestige is very misleading,more like cashier/janitor.The position requires very few of the skills asked for in the description.Become accostomed to angry customers over coupon exclusions and promotions awarded to the best in brown nosing.The better you do your job the more they expect,always saving employees that are below standard to go on with being themselves.

Advice to Senior Management – Perhaps when veteran employees are the ones who have endured three months of servitude and new staff is required bi monthly youll look teice at the hiring manager and the store in general.Best employees are not always just a pretty girl.After all it is more benefitial to have happy consistent employees,than to take a chance in the new.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at Ulta part-time

Pros – discount
occasional free stuff
associates
salon staff
helping guests
education on products
requesting time off was easy and almost always granted when reasonable

Cons – pay
hours
no breaks sometimes
management doesn't know how to effectively coach
not flexible with your schedule if you have another job or want to take another job after hire
want you to be available 40 hours a week to only schedule you 12-18

Advice to Senior Management – learn what management means....

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

Former Employee – worked at Ulta part-time

Pros – Close to my house and I knew my co-workers.

Cons – Never stocked on any products to use in the salon or to sell in the store; training was a joke because the company would send a video & "certify" you after watching it; stylists moving appointments from scheduled stylist to their books; lying to clients about they employment of stylists to gain more money; and never scheduled for more than 10 hours a week.

Advice to Senior Management – Upper management needs to realize that if you're going to have a salon in the store, you will need to offer more hours to the stylists to gain a clientele. Having a salon manager worked 40+ hours a week with the rest of the stylists fighting for 20 hours is unrealistic. Also, how do you expect services to performed on clients if you do not have the products in the salon because "you didn't reach budget."

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

Current Employee – been working at Ulta part-time for less than a year

Pros – Love seeing new product before other people get a chance! It definitely gives me some time for pre-shopping.
We're encouraged to use fragrance testers throughout work, so I always go home smelling nice and fresh!
If you are scheduled to work at open, you can come early and use testers to apply your makeup. Maybe not the most sanitary, but it helps you familiarize yourself with the product you're selling others.
A lot of young, friendly staff.

Cons – Incredibly incompetent management. Had a manager who loved to leave passive aggressive notes everywhere instead of taking up the issue with people herself. Would post online reviews of the site on the board in the break room and when someone would criticize her, she'd make sure to defend herself.
There is absolutely no training whatsoever! I've been called to the register multiple times when the line is too long and I have to tell the manager sorry, but I haven't been trained on that yet. They just walk away and find someone else. Nobody finds it necessary to educate you on products, either, so when people have questions (What is a BB cream? Why should I use a toner?) you will get completely different responses, and often times they'll be completely wrong.
Upper management is cutting hours in all stores! Often times there will only be one cashier on shift, along with one, maybe two? Prestige team members! I was originally getting 20+ hours a week when I started working, but as of recently, I'm lucky if I can pull together 8 on a paycheck! However, the 6+ managers per store will definitely make sure that their full 40 hours are taken care of.
I was under the hopeful impression that maybe by working at a beauty store, I might get some product out of it. Maybe manufacturers would send us free samples or.. something! It's not really unheard of. I've seen people in Prestige go home with $50 Bare Minerals palettes, but I haven't seen anyone else receive the same treatment. I've actually been told to throw out over $1,000 worth of unopened product because they were being replaced with new things. They weren't offered to anybody at all.
A personal anecdote that appropriately sums up my whole experience: For our Christmas presents, we were given a little goodie bag! I was super excited.. until I opened it. They gave me used testers for Christmas. Cream blushes that looked melted, face powder 4 shades darker than anyone even working in the store, a half empty eye shadow trio, a couple old GWPs and about 3/4s a bottle of what I can only politely describe as "granny perfume." It's the thought that counts.. but in this case, the thought was "I don't really care about you, take this off my hands."
I've been discouraged from facing product (making everything nice and neat, lining product up with SKUs, etc.) and told to "hurry up and just get it out." Never before this job have I ever actually been told that making the store nice and neat should not be at a top priority. We actually have a note in the warehouse telling us about how "sloppy" our front facings are and that we need to clean them up a bit! (Written by the same manager who told me that as long as product is on the floor, people will buy it, so it doesn't need to be clean....)

Advice to Senior Management – You can't expect to cut your worker's hours, increase the workload, and still expect the same output. All that is happening is that workers are realizing that there is no room for improvement, and that Ulta would rather hire an outside worker rather than promote from within. This creates an environment where you do not feel welcomed at work. Look at your turnover rate, obviously something is amiss!!!

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

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

Pros – - good products to work with

Cons – - for prestige: may tell you to expect 30 hrs/week, when i quit i was getting less than 5
- management (not LP) watching you on store cameras, telling you to hound customers in your earpiece
- all employees have extra cleaning/maintenance tasks that should be contracted out
- open sales environment means customers don't NEED to be helped, so prestige consultants are often sent home early
- never more than one prestige consultant scheduled at once, yet expected to handle an entire salesfloor

Advice to Senior Management – it would be nice if store managers didn't lie during interviews or give overinflated expectations, especially if employees can't also work for a competitor; management needs to be more concerned with advertisement and getting customers into stores rather than watching employees' every move.

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

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

Pros – -A good discount.
-Free haircut with employment.
-Good discount on salon services.
-Customers are friendly.

Cons – -Employees are incredibly stuck up regardless of what they try to tell you beforehand.
-Management treats you like crap.
-Pay is low.

Maybe I wasn't there long enough, but they barely gave me a chance to even show what kind of employee I am. I worked there for a few weeks and I really enjoyed it. Management always talked down to me, but I looked past it, trying to prove to them that I was great with sales and interacting with customers. Before I knew it though, I had zero hours for three weeks straight. That's when I stopped embarrassing myself by showing up and calling to check the schedule. I tried to stay with them and push through but in the end, I couldn't take the disrespectful treatment I was receiving.

Advice to Senior Management – Treat your employees like decent human beings.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at Ulta part-time for less than a year

Pros – Fun working atmosphere (on the rare occasion you get to work) - opportunity to learn more about the products) - clean, bright atmosphere

Cons – Hired twice as many employees than they needed when store opened 2 months ago. Got plenty of hours during set up and Grand Opening then virtually nothing since. We were led to believe that a "part-time job" would be 15-20 hours a week now, if you're lucky you'll get 4 hours a week and many weeks NO hours at all. Store managers say that upper mgmt. is making them "cut hours" and they don't have any budgets to work anyone. I've been the only employee in the retail part of the store and have been sent home to have the managers do all the work including cashiering. Most of the shifts for Black Friday were cancelled and I have had ZERO hours during the Christmas rush ... sure can't expect any after the holidays, either. I have to go through the humiliation of calling in every Friday and being told I'm not scheduled for the next week. I really love this store and just want to go into work and help make it a success but I feel like I'm being treated like dirt and strung along. This is the unprofessional outfit I've ever experienced!

Advice to Senior Management – DON'T OVER-HIRE!! If you are going to consider someone an employee give them some work. Have schedules ready earlier than 2 days before the work week.

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