Pros
I have worked both on store side as a sales associate and repair side as the administrative assistant (except I do all the shop maintenance without a pay upgrade - they still just call me an 'apprentice'). I've been lucky to have coworkers I can get along with. There's always work to do on both sides, and getting to work with and on beautiful jewelry is cool.
Cons
*CEO is no longer Mark Light. CEO is now Virginia Drosos.* 1) Pay rates are pathetic, with raises even more so - when minimum wage went up in my area, my pay did not adjust based on the previous raises I had received, making them basically null and void. On top of that, I've been with the company for 6 years, and yet someone else in the same position as me -in my shop- is making way more than me, despite having been with the company for only 1 year. Whenever pay comes up in conversation with management, it's always the same (even from higher-ups): "Oh, I don't have any control over that - Home Office just uses an algorithm to generate your pay rate." 2) No room for proper advancement. Training avenues are difficult to find, and there's never time set aside for employees to do it - on both sides. Those who want to properly train and prepare for a different position (like repair or store manager) are left behind in lieu of promotions offered to the simpletons with the highest sales numbers reached. Most of these people don't have an inkling for how to properly maintain and run a store, or the people employed within it. To that end, there is often too much work to complete within a day's shift to be able to practice and train as we are expected to do, meaning less of a chance to move forward. Between the pay that doesn't even properly account for the area I live in, and the long hours I'm expected to cram as much work as possible into, it's like trying to dig yourself out of an endless pit, but digging just puts you in deeper instead.