Pros
The company makes sure to provide you with all the tools you need to get the job done. Some of the people there are really cool and welcoming. Great place to start off as a jeweler because they have more resources, which come in handy when a job doesn’t go the right way. They give you a decent discount, making their pieces the same price as a mom and pop shop.
Cons
I fully recommend you reconsider sending your application to Signet. As a full time employee that has missed very little work, has had to open the shop all alone, has proven the work ethic, and had the role of a shop manager while still being an apprentice, I will tell you that Signet STILL won’t appreciate you and will kill your motivation. I ignored all the reviews on here because I was hoping to finally pursue my dream of being a jeweler. But surprise, surprise, they are all mainly true. They don’t give raises, they give “promotions”, if your metrics make it (if your motivation can beat your metrics). You need to learn about 10 different repairs and each individual repair requires a specific amount of successful attempts. Overall, I had to do 200+ jobs before I could test out my metrics. Once you do that, you have to get 10 jobs a day consistently for at least 2 weeks, in order to reach C jeweler status. Oh yeah, and just to mention these aren’t practice pieces, these are live jobs so the pressure is on. So now that I told you that you pretty much won’t get a promotion unless you threaten to quit or you work your butt off for $16.50, let’s get into the other things. So they say we have “paid holidays,” which means you don’t get that holiday off and if you end up being scheduled for that holiday you get paid regular pay. That’s right, regular pay, not 1.5x. Signet employs both of their jewelers and their sales representatives, but have unfair differences among the expectations. The sales representatives can relax when business is slow, but if we have nothing to do the best thing is to go home and eat into your PTO or else Signet will count those labor hours and tell you to make up jobs for them. Oh yeah, and we both start at the same wage, but jewelers don’t get paid commission, even when we make the sale happen. The only thing that we get extra is a bonus based on shop production, which I have yet to see and is only a small percentage of our quarterly wage (so I have heard, will update once if I see it). I was hoping that even though the pay is terrible that they would at least pay for my insurance like all my other jobs before. Well I finally got the heads up to sign up for benefits and find out I have to pay for my insurance. I still remember when my district manager told me I have to practice my work at home and get my own tools and I just thought to myself, how am I going to pay for rent, insurance, food, and tools that cost $25 per set of pliers on ~$1000 biweekly? Signet relies on artist that love the work and takes advantage of them. Unfortunately for them, I am not one of those artist (who will give them 5 years and only get paid 25/hr like my coworker) because I am soon leaving. Signet Jewelers killed my love for the job.