Completely obscured my view of working in retail.
Pros
I got to learn a lot over my three years working in River Island and I met some friends for life. Working in a busy store is good as there are always jobs to do to keep yourself busy and especially when it comes to that dreaded Boxing Day shift, it ends up flying by and you get double pay. I would say there are definitely worse places to work but for me River Island was a pretty painful experience. Perks are quite good, however you'd only get 3 free pieces every quarter if you worked part-time, I worked 9 hours a week while at University and when doing over time I was expected to have a different outfit on of all current new season but even with 30% off (£150 every three months) it is still a lot of money to spend on clothes you would never wear otherwise.
Cons
The whole store, and from what I have heard, most stores are extremely cliquey, this resulted in a lot of arguments and awkwardness during shifts. I was often refused holidays although I had not taken any yet in the year and was left with almost a full month off as the tax year ended which wasn't what I wanted. Being a sales assistant the upper management within the store spoke to me like I was an idiot. I would bend over backwards to help customers and other team members to never get a thank you, only criticism. At the end of the day, a job is a job, a means to an end for me as I only worked there on weekends while studying but once I moved to a different company I could not believe the difference.
