Vantaggi
The company pays for the monthly buss travel card automatically in your monthly payslip if the shop is in central London. It is a excellent place to get experience in retail and learn the internal operations of such a big company. After working one year in Zara, every job interview that I had in retail was successful because they are aware of the hard work that means working there. There are opportunities to get internal promotions to become merchandiser, mentor or deputy manager, although these opportunities are not equal to all members of the staff and they are subject to the favouritism of the shop and line managers. The shops are so busy that the time flies. The company pays the employees every extra time that they do. 15% discount for staff in every shop from INDITEX (Massimo Dutti, Bershka, Zara home, Stradivarious, etc), even when the items are already on sale. Monthly commission based on the monthly profit of the entire shop where you work, depending on the numbers of hours that you work. In busy times like Christmas, this is a considerable increase to the salary.
Svantaggi
The shifts can become quite tiring, especially at closing times: You know at what time you start but you will never know at what time you finish, as the staff cannot leave the shop until it is perfectly presentable for the next day. The rota are available with very little time in advance, so arranging plans for your personal life is almost impossible. Furthermore, this shifts can easily change from one day to another and you have to cope with it, no matter what your plans were. The salary is not excellent It is a busy environment where you have to be ready to start rushing as soon as you start your shift. Everybody looks very stressed all the time and there are always thousands of things to do, so people with anxiety or not very energetic can find this circumstances quite unbearable.