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Job opportunities: What to take?

Victoria

(website)

Veteran

For those of you who remembers my previous post about my horrible boss, I finally had enough and left that job about week and a half ago. I have been looking for work ever since and I think I am about to get a job offer for office manager job. Which is good and well but its boring.

I saw an ad for Nordies job as "stylist" and applied for it at the spur of the moment. Someone called me and I had interview today-I would love to do it as I worked in retail before getting stuck in admin field but pay is ghastly.

You get paid only commission, anywhere from 6% to 10% depending on which department you sell from. Believe me, its not going to be a lot of money, especially since they only want you there 25 hours a week(even if you sell your butt off)

I guess, if I want stable paycheck, I should take boring office job.

Nordstrom's job sounds like something for the person who is not in need of any money. And that's not me.

Still, I can't help but wonder if that's the right decision. "Sigh"

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18 replies

Latest reply was from Jeanie

Caro in Oz

Veteran

Difficult choice. If you would REALLY love the stylist job then I say it is worth the risk, otherwise the regular pay is probably more important.

Sveta

(website)

Veteran

Can you take the office job and do part time at Nordstrom to "test the waters"?
We have some ladies here who worked for Nordstrom (Rae and Marianna come to mind). You may want to PM them to ask their feedback.

marianna

Veteran

I worked for Nordstrom and the pay is not steady nor consistent. Some pay checks were good, some checks were really bad. That did not work for me. They provide good health insurance, though.

crutcher

Veteran

I have read your post and wish I had a definite response...I guess my practical side asks, "Do you need the money?"...Do you need a specific amount to make your bills, etc?...If money is an issue, then that would probably color my response...I keep coming back to the idea of a shared part-time position with both the fun of the stylist and the more practical office position...
Why don't you consider something where you can do both?...And you never know what will come up in either one of them...I guess I do so believe in fairy godmothers...smile..

Glory

Veteran

That is a hard decision. I think for me it would depend on how much income I require monthly and this would drive which job I would take. If you have some leeway you could try the stylist job.

retailgirl

Veteran

I worked for Nordstrom ( as a manager...but I still had sales goals to meet and commissions made up a sizable portion of my salary...) It works for some people, not others. You need to be very focused and it makes a difference what department you are in. Shoes is good, but hard work...the stockrooms are two level and you are up and down all day. I had Point of View and Narrative, women's departments, which I liked because you could sell merchandise from any department to your customers. I also had Men's Sportswear for a while, which was fun because men are easy to work with.
( generally!). You said it was only 25 hours a week...when I was there, I only hired full timers because I wanted people who were committed and considered the job a career. It's hard to develop a clientele when you're not there all the time. So: a great place to work, but not for everyone. It's not anything like working at Macy's, or even a little boutique in your hometown. There's a culture there and unless you buy in, you won't like it and you won't do well.

Peri

Veteran

Maybe you could message Rae. Where is she anyway???

She was a Nordies stylist and would have the inside scoop...which may not be great because didn't she recently leave that job?!

texstyle

(website)

Veteran

I wonder if you could find a management/sales combination job for a smaller boutique sized store instead where you could be more hands on with the styling, displays, sales and the office management? I don't know where you are located (big city, small town, etc.) and what type of options you have but I remember one upscale resale shop in Austin that had 2 women who obviously loved what they were doing running that place and helping to style their customers and their windows.

Or maybe consider two part time jobs instead of the one full time "boring" job?

rabbit

Veteran

The office manager job might, or might not be boring depending on the kind of place you are working. Also boring jobs can be opportunities to figure out where your ultimate career goals are and to move that direction in your free time if they are 9-5. So many jobs are over full-time and take over weekends regardless of how they present themselves, and those are harder in my experience to move out of because you don't have any time to yourself to think or search.

ETA: I'm glad you left your previous job and wishing you the best!

jackiec

Veteran

I wish I could help with your decision. I'm glad to hear you left your previous job. It seems quite stressful but I am wishing you good luck with your decision. Take care

bj1111

Veteran

you may want to pm rae, a forum member who has worked as a stylist at nordies. she can give some insight into the nordies culture from the other side of the counter. i believe she is quitting or seriously considering quitting.

admin jobs can be soul sucking for the wrong person. can't beat a regular paycheck tho, if that's what you need.

Gigi

Veteran

First of all, I am SO HAPPY that you left that other job. That took a lot of courage. I'm glad that you have found some opportunities quickly.

It's really a tough one with your conundrum. It may be that you would like the Nordie's job better *in theory*, but the pay and the lack of hours might ruin it for you. Maybe a different sales job where you are working only partly on commission and are allowed to work 40 hours a week would be a better way to test this new career. So I guess from my standpoint, I would say to take the office job for now and get your life settled, and you can always look for retail jobs in the future, when you won't feel pressured to make a decision on such short notice and can really pick and choose.

Victoria

(website)

Veteran

this "Stylist" job at Nordies wants you to work there during the day, part time. During the day requirement also means that I can't have the office job which is full time, 9-5 job.

perhaps I should just try to find part time evenings and weekends job in retail. I have applied to several places and even though I have so retail experience, I never heard from any of them. Applied at Neiman Marcus and got rejection email 2 hours later.

Clearly getting a job in retail is much harder than getting an office job.

Thistle

Veteran

I am not sure how I would pay the bills at only 25 hours per week. Granted, selling is not my strong suit, but it still seems like it would be hard.

It sounds to me like you have answered your question, at least temporarily. The need to make rent and put food on the table drives us to do many things we might not otherwise do.

retailgirl

Veteran

How many hours a week you work at nordstrom doesn't equate to how much money you'll make...if you're good. It isn't how many hours you work, it's how much you sell during those hours. I had a SA who worked Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and then Monday and Wednesday nights for appointments only. So some Mondays and Wednesdays he was off. So, about 30-33 hrs a week. And he made well in excess of 60-70K a year. But he was the exception, not the rule.

Isabel

Veteran

Retailgirl brought up a very good point that pushed me in one directions. She said, " you need to work full time to build a client base.." I find that an incredibly important thing to consider. I agree with the others : what is that absolute minimum that you could get by on ? Can you earn it at Nordstrom ? And can you live with really unpredictable compensation for a while...6 months or more while you build a customer base ?

In the end, I think that you need to be pragmatic. I like Sveta's idea. Could you go somewhere to dip your toes in styling but have a base salary ? Could you take this office job for a year, save a little, then try Nordstrom's ? Or can you get by for 4 months as your are trying Nordstrom's ? With the holiday season coming up, you will have more traffic than usual so you may make money and actually meet people to add to your client list. If you are going to take the jump, you might as well do it at the busiest time of the year for retail.

AviaMariah

Veteran

I would have a hard time not being practical and taking the office job. For me the stress of possibly not making enough money would not be worth it. I like the idea of looking for a part time, evening/weekend retail job to do some more exploring. Hope you can figure out the right decision for you!

Jeanie

Veteran

I think it would be best to take the office job. It would be very stressful to not be able to pay bills. I think you will be able to find a retail job with the holiday season coming up. They will work around your schedule and you would be able to get some retail experience under your belt to see if you like it.