I am a college student currently working at a Mexican resteraunt that really isn’t paying the bills right now. Even though I work three different postions, between the painfully slow business and the management over-hiring, I can just barely get by on what I’m making. I’ve only been able to get in somewhere between 9-15 hours a week. This must change. I need money.
Now a friend of my brother says she can get me a job at a Barnes and Nobles that will pay $7.00 an hour. Sounds good. I’m an avid reader, enjoy writing (well…having written anyways), and think Barns and Nobles is a very aesthetically pleasing place. I’ve heard of the customer horror stories about customers demanding employees “Find the book form Oprah!”, and none of it sounds like anything I couldn’t handle and with grace. So, how is B&N as a workplace? I’m sure the coworkers and managment will vary on a store to store basis, but in the experience of the Dopers here, have the people that work in these stores been book nerds, or just typical teenagers who got a job there because they figured it was as good as anything? What does the typical workload include? How many rules are there to abide by? Any benefits?
I hate to leave what I have now. If it wasn’t for the money making crisis, I’d love to stay. I really like my coworkers, and love the managment. But it’s Thursday and I’ve only been able to put in about one hour of work so far this week.
IANABANE (Not a B&N Employee, that is), but I am an Employment Specialist. 2 of my clients have gotten jobs at B&N—one with a visible disability and one with a hidden disability. So far, I have found them to be very fair, progressive, serious about the work (not, a you describe, full of teenagers who just got a job there b/c it was there), through about training, good about providing other opportunities beyond just cashiering (i.e. merchandising, organizing in-store events) if the employee is interested.
As always, YMMV, but I like what I have experienced about them so far.
If you’re getting so few hours at your current gig, would it be possible to keep that job while you try out B&N and see what you think?
Yours is a very touching OP and I wish you the best. If you really need the money, waiting tables seems a smart play, providing you can handle the hours and physical toll. Another restaurant may give you more hours. Can your student employment center help?
JoeSki, I normally do not correct people’s spelling errors on the board, but I urge you to note that the name of the company is not “Barnes and Nobles.” It is “Barnes & Noble.” If you submit a résumé with a cover letter that has misspelled the company’s name, you will make a very bad first impression.
I once worked for an advertising firm which had an unusual name. The firm’s owner told me that one reason I’d gotten the job (even though I wasn’t technically qualified for it) was that I was among the few applicants who had spelled the company’s name correctly when I wrote a letter inquiring about the job.
Sounds like a very nice place to land a job from the way you describe it. I should be able to hold on to two jobs at once assuming B&N is willing to hire me for certain days. If not, then I’ll just try to make a clean break from the job I have now and save money the best I can. After a little while I’d like to be able to pick one company and stick with it.
I don’t mind working in customer service, but I don’t like the combonation of cutomer service and food service. I worked in a Publix Deli for one year, and greatly disliked throwing away a pound of sliced meat because a customer suddenly decides when I’m done slicing her cold cuts that the slicer wasn’t clean enough, or throwing away a sub I threw together because I accidently touched something right by the sub making station that someone not wearing gloves may have touched. Working there had taught me one thing: people are very cautious about what they eat, and how what they eat has been prepared. And while I wouldn’t be doing the cooking at my resteraunt, our dishwasher isn’t nearly effecient enough to trust my sanity to. Many plates and eating utensils come out not 100% clean and are sent out to be used anyways. Right now my work consists of bussing tables, making tortillas, and garnishing foods before they’re carried out by the servers.
My student employment center might be able to help, but I don’t think they’ll have to.
Heh. Yeah, this is one of those cases where I know what the name is, but mispronounce it or spell it wrong more often than not anyways. There’s something about that extra “s” I add at the end of Noble that makes the name sound better to me. I’d like to think I would get the name right in writing a resume, but I could goof on that too. I think I’ll be filling out an application after introducing myself to a manager. Still, you’re right. I should make it clear in my mind what the correct name of the company is before pursuing the job further.
I worked part-time at Barnes and Noble several - say six or so - years ago to supplement my government-job income. I loved it! My coworkers were nice people who were bright and really into books. My managers were very willing to work with me on scheduling. I got to do lots of different stuff (including wearing the character costumes for kids’ events) and learned a bit about retail merchandising. And I got paid to spend hours playing with books!
As I said, years have passed and things may have changed, and situations vary at different stores - but my experience was a good one.
My take on B&N being a good company to work for it…Borders is better.
By whick I mean, I worked for a couple of years at BN and then laterally migrated to Borders. And was shocked at how the same business was carried out so much better over there.
Yes, some of it has to do with the individual store and who your working with (and a lot had to do with my manager when I left…who was not the manager when I was hired), but some of it does have to do with the the corporate stucture. Borders was much more open and seemed to know how to take advantage of the overeducated underemployed types who might be drawn to bookstore work. BN was more hierarchal and corporate and didn’t play to the strengths of its semi-intellectual staff.
Oh yeah, and some of it has to do with the likelyhood of BN over other bookstores hiring illiterate corporate drones as managers over people who can understand how to run a book store and understand the people who want to work in a book store.
That said though, I wouldn’t say it’s a bad place to work. Depends on the manager. And you can’t beat the book discount…
I was a Borders Group employee (I worked at Waldens) and I liked it. My manager was a fool, but other than one scheduling conflict, I never really had a problem. One of the girls used to work at B&N when she was younger. She liked them about the same. One of the other employees moved and went to work for B&N and seemed happy. As retail jobs go, it was pretty good. And I made 7.50 an hour.
Oh, sure, it’s a great company, if you don’t mind working for $7.50 an hour and answering questions like this:
“Hi there. I’m looking for this book that I read a long time ago, but I can’t remember what it’s called, or who the author was. … Do I remember what it’s about? Yeah, college, I think. It was about this big [customer makes gestures indicating a book about 8” high] and it was red and had a gold back. [pause] Do you have that book here?"
If that’s not a problem for you, I’m sure you’ll fit right in.
My borther worked for B&N a few years back and had an absolutely nightmarish experience. In the end he had to threaten legal action. Sorry, I can’t remember what the exact problem was - some kind of discrimination I think. In any case, I imagine his problem was specific to the store/manager and may not be relevant to everyone.
A friend of mine worked in a B&N store for years before making the leap to the corporate office in Manhattan. As a company, she swears by it. As for individual stores, your results may vary. I can only say she worked in 2 stores & liked them both.
During the Preakness stakes, the CEO of B&N (Len Riggio) owned a horse in the race named “Noble Causeway.” The week of the race, he had the office close an hour early and had a pep rally of sorts in the lobby. The party in the lobby included a barbershop quartet, hat giveaways and free mint juleps for all. A CEO who gives his employees burbon…That’s a CEO I wouldn’t mind working for.
Ooh, I’m jealous! I tried to get a job at my local Barnes and Noble for a few months during my senior year of high school, but no one there was letting go of their job. Even when they opened a new one I didnt manage to get in. Good luck (if you go)!
I used to work for B&N. Started off as temp holiday help, when I left I was what they called a ‘keyholder’. Part of the management staff, but unsalaried.
I liked it a lot better when I wasn’t a part of management.
It is retail and all the evils it entails. Meaning things like pointless sales goals which you will have very little actual influence over. If a guy is looking for a paperback version of the Hobbit you can’t exactly upsell him to the Oxford English Dictionary. Stupid questions.
The coworkers are usually great. Strange mix of older people looking for supplementary work, and young people going to school or just starting off in the workforce. Everyone loves books and are smarter than your average bear
You might consider looking at Borders or an independent instead. I think the Borders operation is run a little better. Also they do not have a real dress code. With B&N you would have to wear slacks and at least a button down shirt.
Varies by management staff. Some managers will want you to shelve three carts and not be too helpful to customers. Some will want you to have no downtime. Others will be happy with one cart shelved and you asking anyone who looks remotely lost if they need help. There is a lot of turnover, even in management. If you work there a year, you might end up seeing it all.
You have to be fulltime, and if I recall correctly you had to have been there a certain amount of time before you are eligible. However being retail you could end up being screwed. Categorized as part-time, but scheduled 38 hours a week.
That’s good to hear. I can’t imagine things changing too much since you last worked there. Thanks for sharing.
I would take either, buuuut we don’t have a Borders anyplace close by. Plus, I think I may have my foot in the door of the local B&N. I have some amount of experience and a pretty good knowledge and taste for books, but I imagine both stores recieve a lot of filled out applications and resumes since this is a college town.
Nice, a comparison. Like I said, we don’t have a Borders anyplace close by, but it’s cool to know the skills and experience would be interchangeable.
Hahahahahaha. At my last job in customers service I once had a customer ask me to shave an entire roast beef for her kids birthday party, and then stopped by every few minutes to give me guff about not doing it fast enough. Now I was able to do that while keeping my cool, so helping a customer try to find a book based on the vaguest description, or at least explain why I can’t, really won’t be a big deal for me.
Umm…er…Bananna hammock!
Man, a leader that gives away free booze. There’s a guy I can get behind.
Thanks for sharing. Great post with lots of information.
So I have to be fulltime to get a discount, or just fulltime for insurance and dental, or what?
I wasn’t expecting B&N employees to be encouraged to try “associate selling”, or whatever lingo they use for trying to push products related to other products…or not related at all. But whatever. As long as the coworkers and management is cool, I consider myself as having a good job. $7.50 a hour isn’t too bad either.
Thanks for the responses everyone. My brother should get on the phone with me tommorrow as to how much help I’m getting with landing a job, and I still haven’t figured out if I’m going to try and juggle two jobs at once, or make a clean break and just work at B&N. I’ll figure it all out eventually.
One thing that I found interesting in this thread is that while Borders was mentioned a few times, and Walden once, I didn’t see a single mention of Books-a-Million. Is it that horrid a place to work, or what?
Sorry, JoeSki, I was sitting by the pool eating bon bons. Just got back.
I think it depends on your expectations (you won’t be standing around a comfy little store with Meg Ryan, for instance) and the people you wind up working with. I love bookstores, talking about books, seeing all the new books arrive and being surrounded by them all day. I’m a book nerd, in other words.
[hearts and flowers for B&N]This may be unusual, but in my store, the staff, almost without exception, are bright, funny and a pleasure to work with. Most of my co-workers are kids and working with them is always amusing. There isn’t one of them who I don’t genuinely like (by kids, I mean 20-somethings – see, I’m an old bat). So, even though I make bupkiss, I do like my job.* Oh, and the benefits for a full time employee are really excellent. (Pssst, if the SM is reading this, can I have that raise, now?) [/hf]
My advice is to go hang around the store a little. Get a cup of coffee in the cafe and check it out. If the staff seem to like each other and the store has a good buzz, it might be a nice place to work. If it seems cold and tense (like the one I just visited in the sunny vacation state where I was eating bon bons), you might want to try a different store.
Good luck and repeat after me “the Da Vinci Code is not available yet in paperback.”
*In the interests of full disclosure, there is that piped in Christmas music. It’ll be cranking up again before you know it.
