Pros
If retail is your thing, Nordstrom might be the place you want to work for. The interview process is very pleasant, and no experience is necessary to join the company. The work environment is culturally diverse, as well as sex orientation friendly. The company only hires Management and upper management within, which is good if you are thinking of making this your career and are willing to jump through all the hoops. The Pay rate, compared to other retailers is not bad. All sales associates, with the exception of Cosmetics, Express bar, and Café, are Commission only. In my department Commission was 6.75%, Women’s Shoes, kids Shoes, and Kids Clothing is 10% commission, so ultimately those are the departments you want to work for. Cosmetics gets an hourly of $16/hr plus 3% commission. Schedules are flexible, and there is relatively no hassle to request time off. Most employees, and managers are friendly, and pleasant to be around.
Cons
The company only hires with in, and here is the downside: Most managers are very young, and all to often incompetent, with no real world experience, nor in management, also lack judgement along with ethics. (most managers are in their early 20’s and are managers just because they have been there long enough. The company likes to squeeze employees like a lemon, they set your sales and personal trait goals higher and higher, but give very little, to nothing in return. The company believes that the customer is always right and would do anything to accommodate them. This means that the customer is more important than you, all to often the customers take advantage of that fact, in other words, you kinda become a servant. The benefits are pretty lame, you have to work 129+hours a month for 3 consecutive months to get health insurance, and if the following month you drop, you wont be covered. Which makes me think, what I one gets cancer? Or any other illness that requires constant medical attention. Management and Store management (at the Farmington, CT store) have their favorites. I witnessed many people who worked hard and never got a promotion, yet others that barely get by and get promoted fast.. So in order to grow here, one must be willing to kiss a lot of ass. Their loss prevention unit treats employees like criminals, you are not free to work pleasantly without loss prevention monitoring you, watching you, questioning you, as if you were one of the bad guys. If you express your interest in growing with the company, like for example working for corporate, management and store management gets highly intimidated, and will not follow up with any questions that you might have, or will not follow through in helping you get promoted. Being a commission sales job, any returns will be deducted from your net sales as well, this is completely fine BUT: this allows for much fraud to happen, management, store management, nor the company in general provides a way to track your returns, or stolen sales… at times you will come to work and be $2000 dollars negative, and no one to give you an answer. Finally, no bonuses, commission is capped, and no perks other than a 20% discount..