Vantaggi
Working in a fairly specialized department afforded me the opportunity to expand my education on craft beer and wine while being encouraged by corporate management every step of the way.
Svantaggi
I never had a real set schedule; other than working what I called the "Hy-Vee Weekend," which consisted of working until close on a Friday or Saturday and being scheduled to open the following morning (usually with less that 7 hours between shifts.) Before becoming a Full-Time employee, which took moving to a different store/market, I was expected to work 35-40/wk for little more than minimum wage and no benefits. It was difficult to keep a full staff in my department, due to wages and maximum number of hours part time employees could work, causing me to have to cover the workload of two or more people by myself. Overall compensation for my last position left a lot of month at the end of my checks. In the two plus years I was in a management position I received one very hard-fought, yet laughable raise (<1%) even though my department was clearing all profit and inventory goals. After seven years with the company I ended my career making less than $25,000/yr (I was a Certified Cicerone (Cicerone Certification Program,) a CSW (Society of Wine Educators,) a CWS (Hy-Vee/Gallo,) a Certified Beer Judge (Beer Judge Certification Program,) and had my degree in Business Management at the time of this job.)