Pros
- Co-workers - Fast career progression if you can exceed sales goals (however if you start in retail don't expect to head to corporate anytime soon) - Decent pay for post-secondary students - Introduces you to the financial world
Cons
Pretty much everything else: - Extremely unrealistic sales goals with a lot of pressure to meet them or be hounded day and night by management and be professionally "coached" - Some extremely rude customers but that's to be expected of any retail job - especially one in which you are handling people's money - Insufficient training : you get one day of "orientation" and you are to be taught everything else in-branch but what ends up happening is that you are thrown to the wolves immediately. Branches are usually extremely busy and understaffed so there is no one to get help from without having the customer wait 10-15 mins extra - and that creates its own problems. - Micro-management: your every move is looked upon by the managers present and your sales are tallied every hour to make sure that you meet the *very* high goals