Employed for just over a year as an Eyewear Consultant.
Pros
Having the opportunity to work closely with customers through helping them shop for what's right for them is great. Some people genuinely appreciate the work being put in, and are understanding of the fact that it's not a "typical" retail job where we ring people out impersonally and get them out the door.
Cons
I wish I had more good things to say about my time here. While it isn't an awful job in and of itself, there are a lot of things I haven't enjoyed. There's a lot of cattiness among employees, I've noticed. Despite having hourly base pay, commission causes a lot of borderline malicious competition. The point is to drive people to sell, I get it, but when it's causing unease and in some cases anger among consultants, it's not helpful. That has less to do with the company itself and more to do with the people, I suppose. Second, the hours. Unless you're a full time employee, don't count on having anything resembling a steady flow of work and money. As a part timer, I've had a week where I was working 32 hours, followed by a week where I was working 17 hours, followed by a week where I was working 8 hours. It's frustrating. The sales goals seem, at times, unrealistic. This may just be the high traffic at our store, but we fall behind on our "hour guarantee" fairly often. I don't personally have an issue with this, but I know it drives customers up a wall. On the retail floor, we have little to do with what happens in the lab. Despite that, and I'm sure customers know this logically but are just too annoyed to care, we catch the brunt of angry customers. It doesn't seem fair. The biggest issue I've had is how I've seen certain "types" of customers treated. I understand that this is a business, and businesses want to make money. However, when you push the idea of working with charities (such as OneSight), to see customers come in from local charities (for example, Lion's Club) and being practically ignored is unfortunate. For someone who is very into competitive sales, enjoys socializing with customers on the job when time allows, and doesn't NEED a consistent sized paycheck, this place is fine. For someone who needs solid hours, is less interested in money and more interested with experience, you may want to seek employment elsewhere.