Nordstrom Employee Reviews about "promote from within"
64% would recommend to a friend
(182 total reviews)
Erik B. Nordstrom and Peter E. Nordstrom
73% approve of CEO
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Top Review Highlights by Sentiment
Excerpts from user reviews, not authored by Glassdoor
- "Great benefits and it’s great having the liberty to be able to manage your own team and department" (in 1345 reviews)
- "When you work for stock and web department the job is usually Independent and good pay" (in 1293 reviews)
- "The people are great and its one of the best retail environments out there depending on the store" (in 1181 reviews)
- "I had great coworkers and we were able to make the day to day processes better than some other jobs of similar nature" (in 626 reviews)
- "Most managers don't care and will issue a return even if it is a sketchy or fraudulent activity." (in 980 reviews)
- "There can be long hours and similar to any other sales position it can feel like a roller" (in 796 reviews)
- "Barely will make commission unless you actually make over minimum sales goal which is super hard" (in 663 reviews)
- "No Work/Life Balance: Scheduled me a lot of hours despite being in school full time" (in 548 reviews)
Ratings by Demographics
This rating reflects the overall rating of Nordstrom and is not affected by filters.
Found 182 of over 23K reviews
Updated Nov 30, 2023
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Reviews about "promote from within"
Return to all Reviews- 3.0Sep 22, 2014Commissioned Sales AssociateFormer Employee, more than 3 yearsSchaumburg, IL
Pros
great training and there is opportunity to grow since they promote from within....I personally don't want to live in Seattle where corporate is.
Cons
Favoritism is huge here as one could imagine...goals were pretty ridiculous at times
- 5.0Feb 13, 2018Anonymous EmployeeCurrent Employee, more than 3 years
Pros
Great company culture. All levels of upper management truly care about employee input and they offer really good benefits. They promote from within and if you are mobile there are a lot of opportunities for growth.
Cons
Typical retail lifestyle--working weekends and holidays. Manager salary isn't great but you are still able to make commission.
2 - 5.0Dec 31, 2016SALES ASSOCIATE, MANAGERFormer Employee, more than 10 yearsConroe, TX
Pros
Great work environment with a real sense of teamwork. Awesome associate recognition and wonderful benefits.
Cons
Absolutely no downside to working for this organization...they take great care of their people and promotes from within.
- 2.0Oct 7, 2015ManagerCurrent Employee, more than 3 yearsNatick, MA
Pros
i met some great people here and the company likes to promote from within if your friends with the right people.
Cons
company is always switching things around and they never keep anyone in the loop. they combine departments and people are getting demoted often. It is a popularity contest and everyone their acts like they are in high school. the gossip and drama is absolutely out of control. the pay is AWFUL and the insurance is AWFUL.
- 4.0May 28, 2020ManagerFormer Employee, more than 10 yearsSeattle, WA
Pros
many become your family, as long time employee 1994-2017 being able to promote from within and experience many areas of the company and many opportunities for growth and mentor-ship with those that provided positive leadership, always something to learn and when lead by the best a balance of autonomy and mentored direction
Cons
work/life balance, shifts in staffing with overall retail evolution particularly to e.commerce resulting in instability in staffing, hours fluctuation with same expectations for performance in many areas of responsibilities and goals
- 4.0Oct 7, 2016Anonymous EmployeeCurrent Employee
Pros
Nordstrom as a whole is a great company to establish a great clientele base, depending on where you are. The many different departments give you a wide selection of merchandise to sell and the freedom to take your client anywhere. Nordstrom wants to make sure you are prepared to assist any and all customers so they will try there best to motivate you, help and assist you when you seem to be struggling. You can make some real money as well if you establish your clientele book. The more consistent your client base is the more you make basically. The best part is that the more expensive departments have a great commission rate. So the more expensive your sales are the better your paycheck. Nordstrom really tries to make sure you are knowledgeable about their products by having brand reps come in and teach you about their merchandise, its history and where its going in the future. The management is also very kind and they emphasize teamwork among each other through communication. Build a healthy relationship with the many department managers and you'll see them trying to help you in every way possible. They also like to promote from within which is great if you haven't had an established management career before Nordstrom. You can build your career in Nordstorm and continue up the corporate ladder, though that may take a while.
Cons
The biggest problem with Nordstrom is their return policy, or the lack thereof. What I mean is that Nordstrom doesn't have a true return policy which means customers can return whatever whenever they want. And what makes that worse is that all associates are commission based. If a customer buys something from you today but decides to return in in 364 days, that's money out of your paycheck (After a year, your pay is no longer affected but they may still return and it will still hurt your department). They try to encourage you to establish a relationship with all of your customers and communicate with them to prevent these returns but the truth is it's just plain unrealistic. The customer can return used merchandise and get there money back, and all of this is worse if you work in a designer department. Most merchandise there is worth $100+ and having sales with large amounts of merch. from there can really kill you especially if you've struggled during your pay period. You can communicate all you want but if your customer wants their money back they're getting it back. Nordstrom tries to create restrictions to help minimize the returns, like designer merch. cannot be returned if worn, missing tags and/or seemingly fraudulent, but the fact of the matter is that all the customer has to do is argue enough to the store manager and they'll grant them a return or exchange or the customer just goes to another department where they don't understand the designer return policy. The employee PTO system is also very flawed. You have to work a large amount of hours to even build one hour of PTO. I've worked for 8 months and have yet to see any accumulated hours of PTO. Lastly they really expect employees to make money when it is extremely slow with is very difficult if you don't have a well rounded clientele book. Many times in Nordstrom you'll have a customer drought and that may be more often depending on where your store is. Mine is in a pretty populated area and even we get struck by this drought and it creates a very depressing atmosphere when you don't see your numbers improving especially if you've been struggling throughout the pay period.
4 - 4.0Feb 13, 2015Anonymous EmployeeFormer Employee
Pros
The promote from within philosophy is great and you meet a lot of really fantastic people along the way.
Cons
Retail hours are hard, but other than that there isn't anything else bad.
- 3.0Jul 8, 2016Womens Sales AssociateFormer Employee, more than 1 yearAuburn, WA
Pros
The great part about Nordstrom is their company culture and constantly trying to promote from within. If i hadn't have left, my manager was going to start training me to move upwards. Pay was decent for a part time job.
Cons
Especially in the women's department, the job is complete chaos. I worked there during the period of time that we started mobile checkout. It was a disaster. Women's is already the most heavily shopped department and to have us ringing on top of that takes away from the pure workload of cleaning and helping customers. Hours were rough. Everyone works weeks. I saw the fitting room girls cry on multiple occasions.
1 - 4.0Apr 4, 2011Customer Service/CashierFormer Employee
Pros
rack division - sales are non-commission so that is perfect to start a career in retail. Great reputation and very financially stable. Very positive environment from managers down. Nordstrom Credit card sign-up incentives - $5 for each card that is successfully processed. Register funtions are touch screen. Returns/defectives can be ticketed/tagged from the register. Transactions and items can be voided/deleted even after pressing Total so don't need to redo transaction or call a manager. Transactions can be suspended and resumed very easily. Customers in line directed to a cashier by using colored flags instead of yelling - flags were fun. Hours and schedules were very good and flexible. Lots of free food. Employees get 20% Discount and can be added to sale prices. Customers are very nice and spend a lot. Did not have any customer issues - that is rare in retail. Nordstrom promotes from within so there are very loyal and happy employees - lots of career advancement and manager training programs. Direct TV in break room and lots of other excellent amenities.
Cons
Cashier position is very low stress and can be very very BORING when it is slow. This job is not for someone who needs intellectual stimulation and variety of work. Can be very frustrating to just stand in one area for 8 hours so it is not good for someone who likes to be more mobile. If you are not good at signing up credit cards your hours get cut without warning and then you are 'reduced' after your 45 day review.
- 5.0May 23, 2018Sales AgentFormer Employee, more than 1 yearBoca Raton, FL
Pros
Promote from within; Great Opportunity to learn about fashion and make a great living; Healthy Enviroment
Cons
Can be hard to maintain during the slower months without a strong clientele list.
