Pros
1-Very easy to get hired directly into the position with competitive salary. (Mid 60s-low 80) Outside talent do get a significant higher pay than those who are promoted within. 2-Most stores are low and very low volume. 3-You make your own schedule based on a 45 hour work week salary plan. 4-Insurance/benefits for salaried managers are available within 90 days. 5-Training for position takes only approximately 12 weeks.
Cons
1-Payroll, most stores would operate at "minimum" payroll, which means, as a manager you would be doing everything yourself and would spend the majority of your working day as a stock clerk, cashier, cleaner, greeter, book-keeper and photo associate. You would have absolutely no time to truly manage, delegate or develop any team members. 2-Turn overs is extremely high on just about all levels. You will see constant change in District Managers. Store level turn overs are atrocious, to a point that even within a district, most store managers have no relationships with their peers. 3- Be prepared to live in your own "island". The culture of the company is non-existence. Most managers are very unhappy and dislike "corporate". The general theme in most stores is "corporate sucks". 4- Bonus would be near impossible to attain. 5- Customer service score importance is approached incorrectly, instead of an overall score as practiced throught retail industry, Survey are weighted according to what "corporate" feels is more important each year. The method of collecting the score (slow stores have it printed on random receipts, busy stores with higher loyalty card usage will only be through email.) The sample size for surveys are about 1:2500 customers. Your score would almost always be inconsistent as it would never meaningfully reflect customer service level. 6- Be prepared to work many doubles, be prepared to work 7 days, be prepared to cancel all plans at a whim, be prepared to get a call while you are on vacation because you will have call outs and with no one around to help cover shifts (read point number 3). Also, Be prepared to get calls from other store managers begging you to help them cover a shift atleast 3 times a week. 7- Warehouse deliveries/overstock is just mind boggling. Do yourself a favor and ask to tour a store before your interview. 8- Audits! So many audits.. so little payroll.