Pros
Helping a bride find her wedding dress is such a great experience. I got to meet all sorts of people. Being excited for and with a bride was very fun and hearing about how she got engaged and wedding plans was really awesome. Gained lots of knowledge of fashion styling which is why i applied to the job. And getting more familiar with the bridal industry was really cool and interesting. I loved the environment and was generally really happy to be at work. I love fashion and really loved being around dresses and accessories. Really fun dressing up brides and helping customers find dresses to wear to events. It was very rewarding in a more personal way. its a really awesome feeling knowing you were a part of someone special day. I learned a great deal about the sales industry. My favorite job I've had so far.
Cons
Not much room for advancement unless you're a managers favorite. Even if you have all the qualifications and drive to be promoted, managers won't let you attempt to if they don't like you or feel threatened by you. It is a commission based job, but only if you sell according to their minimum per week/pay period. Less then 20 hrs. a week and yet you're expected to make high sales numbers. Even if you do hit commission range they still dock base pay a couple dollars. so commission is barely anything. If you're not being pushy enough, you are encouraged to be more pushy and dishonest just to make a sale even a small one. Turnover rate is really high. The 2 1/2 years I was there I seen dozens of girls come and go. Having to be dishonest to customers especially about the most "the most important day of their life" never made me feel good. If your sales are low they will let you go no matter how much you've committed to the company, or how long you've been there. Other stylists can be catty over sales and therefore girl with highest sales is usually favored by managers. Also, you're basically running your own business, so you're required to call customers everyday. Most of the time they don't answer or get angry that we're bugging them, and usually say if they had a concern or question they'd call us. Basically you're an annoying telemarketer just trying to sell anything and everything you can. Expectations for selling is crazy high. They don't see how any person that walks into the store can walk out empty handed. At one point my store was number one in the company, yet all the stylists were getting written up for low sales numbers. Doesn't make sense. Expect not to ask for any time off during bridal christmas (dec-april).
