A typical day at work includes a couple of meetings and/or e-mails/phone calls with cross-functional partners, co-workers, and tanneries to review the current status of leather development, color dips, and sample orders.
Over the past four years in this department, I have gained a vast knowledge of leather. There are very few companies that devote a whole department to materials, let alone one material. There are many experts that have worked in the leather industry and tanneries that I get to work with on a daily basis. They are a great resource for information and advice. I have picked up the following skills: leather sourcing, vendor relationships, leather types and quality, costing, color dipping, lead time, production, and logistics.
Management's role is to initiate the type of leather design would like to use for the collection for the season. They also handle high level responsibilties such as Quality Assurance, warehouse management, bulk production, and costing.
The co-workers at my level and in my department each have a collection that they are responsible for. Co-workers in other departments are my cross-functional partners such as design, costing, and engineering.
A big part of my job is to meet deadlines on the corporate calendar. Leather is needed for various milestones such as design meetings and Market Week. This can be the hardest part of my job as the information is almost always provided after the deadline to place the order. I have to be aware of
ProsWorking with design, Learning about leather, Free/discount on handbags, Working for a well known company, Great benefits
ConsNo lunch break, long hours, poor/little management
First of all; If you enjoy the retail industry then you may disagree with what I list as cons. Also, if you enjoy shopping this may not be the best place to work if you have poor impulse control and like nice things.
A typical shift consists of going through the conversational motions with every customer who walks into your section and trying to sell them on a bag (preferably with a wallet), then you could be cashiering and running through the company's 7 service commitments. These totems keep the Coach experience consistent and meaningful to the customer. Quite possibly you could also be tasked with unpacking product or replenishing on the floor. The nice thing is, typically, your jobs and positions will change hourly. Unless you're good at cashiering (i.e. you can run the computer well) then you'll be cashier for the majority of your shift.
Shifts are all over the place because all associates are listed in various degrees of part-time with caps on the amount of hours they can be scheduled. This can result in being scheduled 0 hours one week and up to your limit the next. The variance in shifts and hours scheduled make having a work/life balance difficult as well as holding down a second job (unless your hour cap is low). Planning events ahead of time can be very difficult as you won't know it's approved until as late as a week beforehand.
Turnover is high, because of seasonal hires and the general fluidity of retail. But the people who get hired are generall
ProsGreat co-workers, variety of tasks, employee discount
Good place to work while in school, does not offer realistic long-term advancement opportunities
Great place to work part-time or in upper management. Full-time or lower management comes with a lot of stress with average pay. Not somewhere you can work your way up. It seems they like to hire from the outside, they do not prepare people to be promoted, they prefer people to stay stagnant within their job roles. I was able to move from a part-time sales role to an assistant management role with much persistence and excellent performance. I have talent, and my peers and superiors knew it, however, it was made clear that further advancements into upper management rarely happen and shouldn't be expected. This was discouraging. It's a great company with a lot of missing pieces. The product can be hard to sell, as the current designer does not make much of what is on trend, but he likes to create his own trends and the average consumer is not on board with that. Most of the focus is on conversion because of this. There seems to be a disconnect between corporate and stores, they often do things that the customers notice and are upset about (dramatic sale or price changes overnight without warning, product/coupon exclusions), and the stores spend a ridiculous amount of time overcoming objections instead of styling and selling the product. I have worked for the company for almost five years. It's a place you can "be" for while but not somewhere to work forever. Likely the best way to move up is to be recruited by another company and get hired back later- this happens more than you
Started off being amazing, then changed to a horrible work environment
I worked at Coach for over 10 years. I started out as a seasonal associate and worked my way up. I held positions as a cashier, stock associate, and sales associate and was then promoted to Assistant Manager, then Acting Associate Manager. Throughout the first 6 years I worked at Coach, I truly enjoyed my job. The people I worked with were great, the customer were friendly and fun, and management was fair and dedicated. During the last few years thought, things changed in a negative way. Our store manager decided to leave the company and recruited half of our staff while lying to us about it. We were left with a skeletal crew that was overworked and underpaid. The new store manager that was hired was not equip to handle out store at all. She was used to coming to work and having the rest of her team do all of the work and that is not how our store had run previously nor were were staffed to have her come in every day and just sit in the stock room. My happiness plummeted and I was bringing my stress from work home which was affecting my relationship with my brand new husband. It is hard enough working in retail and not having a strong work-life balance, but when you are doing your bosses job day in and day out, it starts to take a toll on you. I ended up deciding to leave Coach without another job lined up because I was that unhappy. If you had asked me 3 years ago if I would recommend Coach, I would give you a resounding yes. Ask me that same question today, and I would tell
4.0
Retail Sales Associate | Vacaville, CA | Oct 16, 2018
Great people, but the company hates its outlets
Working at the actual store was great, the veterans were super helpful and nice, although exclusive at times. Managers were helpful, but pretty incompetent at giving out breaks and lunches. They also did not tell me about multiple policies upon my hiring and many of the things in my new hire packet were outdated. I was not told about the allotment of 3 call out days per 6 months we were allowed before we were spoken to about absences. I also did not know that I would not receive a portion of teamshare because I had not passed the 90 day probation period, until I asked another employee why it was our second teamshare since I’d been there, and I hadn’t gotten a check. They also don’t provide any safety training whatsoever, i didn’t even know we had box cutters until i went into the stock room for shipment. I was also injured on the jobnot even two months into my employment. There weren’t any available outlets in the break room and we were not allowed to charge our phones at work because that’s “the company’s energy”. For store meetings, the company gave us a budget of $3 per person for breakfast. We had prepackaged bagels and juice from Sam’s Club, when there was a Noah’s bagels and a Starbucks and a Panera, that all cater. I’m not sure if that was a lack of money, or a lack of planning on their part. The discount was great, and it was easy to get days off. The job itself was also the easiest job I’ve ever done, and I really enjoyed it. I was sad to have to leave. It was pretty
ProsGreat people, discount, easy money
ConsPoor communication, the company treats us terribly
I really enjoyed working at Coach from the get go. The people were fun, and somewhat intelligent, and the pay was decent for the amount of work involved. As a manager, you are responsible for opening the store, pulling sales reports from the day before, sending corporate contacts weekly updates, filling in sales goals, and ensuring the visuals are accurate and correct. It didn't require a whole lot and got to be repetitive and boring and lacked elevated responsibility. Good luck trying to work your way up in the company. I participated in the internship program and had to use a lot of my own hard earned money to live in NYC because they don't pay for any of it. At the end of the experience, I was disappointed with the entire program and the lack of knowledge I earned. It left me not wanting to work for their corporate office. Once they get you in the position that works best for them, they keep you there and make sure you don't move up in the company. They take advantage of your kindness and loyalty and don't pay it back in return. If upper management doesn't want to listen, good luck getting anyone else to. Certain people can get away with murder and others get reprimanded for little things. If you're a sales associate, it'll be fine, but management on the other hand is more stressful than it should be. I loved working there and met some great people, but at the end of the day, it wasn't rewarding and the upper management really needs to get its act together.
Prosgood pay, nice discount, fun coworkers, flexible hours
Conspoor upper management, unwilling to help you move up in the company, issues are brushed under the rug and not dealt with
loved the experience as a stepping stone.
i was hired on as seasonal. i applied for part time and was told during the interview that the position was available. (red flag)
i was told about the benefits and bonus pay i would receive for meeting monthly goals as a team. that encouraged me to work even harder for the team. i later learned that seasonal employees did not get bonus pay despite garnering sales for the team.
i was bullied and harassed by management and long time associates about my appearance, my education, and my lack of store operational skills.
i begged for more training and for some odd reason management didnt want to teach me. when an operational problem occurred i would struggle to get the help i needed. the knowledge i did obtain was gained through ease-dropping.
i was the last member of my group of seasonal hires that did not quit due to the toxic culture. as more new hires arrived i made sure to make them as comfortable as possible. i made sure to feed them all the brand and service skills knowledge i knew.
there were two mangers who acknowledged my hard work and positive efforts that i was bullied for later by other staff members. ive never encountered this type of toxic culture in my career.
this experience was the best eye opener in my career and i love that i was able to experience it. it made me appreciate myself and gain a confidence level i didn't know i had. unfortunately after being lied to about my bonus i accepted another job position
Prosdiscount
Consno bonus pay for seasonal workers
4.0
Merchandising Assistant | New York, NY | Jul 11, 2015
You'll learn a lot and you'll be there late regularly to do that
I was a freelancer at Coach through an agency and it was great. I didn't have to stay late often but when I would leave at 6pm I would see people still walking around as if it was mid-day. A lot of the time, especially during business review (hindsight) would be ordering dinner ahead of time because they knew they'd be there past 8pm. I heard of people staying until 11pm just to get things done.
The meeting culture is a bit excessive. In a typical day you could have upwards of 5 meetings, a lot of them TBs (touchbases) with coworkers and/or managers. Things that could be taken care of in a less formal setting not needing to reserve conference rooms needed to be official and strict.
The managers were great! Even though I was not officially part of the company I wasn't treated as such. On the contrary, I was included in as much as possible. I was regarded highly by a lot of my managers and coworkers.
Coach opened my eyes to the possibility of a relaxed environment in retail where favoritism wasn't hard at play like in some larger organizations. Everyone was happy and energetic even if they were busy beyond belief.
This is a great company with great product. They treat their employees well, but they expect you to work hard. If you're at Coach for at least a year you will open the door to other luxury companies. Previous co-workers of mine have gone on to Burberry, Chanel, and DVF.
ProsBagel Fridays once a month, free lunches, relaxed dress code (jeans/shorts)
Great seasonal position, but insane amount of seniority and favoritism- compensation pay isn’t accurate for every employee
I was a seasonal sales associate which made things better since the position was to end. But there was no opportunity for growth as seniority got you up the ladder. If you were a regular sales associate, they would allow you to work your job and be able to build up commission but as a seasonal, they will stick you at the front of the store to greet, leading to no commission, thus no pay. They would sign me on to fulfill hours as a full time employee, when I was only being paid as a part time employee and I made very little to no money in the position because they hired too many sales people to work the floor at once. It was unnecessarily competitive when it didn’t need to be. And for some reason, the non seasonal sales employees feel that they are entitled, leaving us seasonal sales employees to feel like we’re bottom feeders and to vacuum up the store while they all type away on their phones and hide and chat in the break room /stock room. The people were friendly but it was so unprofessional, competitive because of seniority, no room for growth. This location was extremely overstaffed with sales and managers. This job was a filler personally, but also a waste of time.. with a lack of pay and not enough growth.
ProsSeasonal Sales Employees are friendly
ConsFull time staff is unfriendly and unwelcoming, no growth, seniority, lack of strong management in the workplace, lack of organization, overstaffed
• Functioned as a primary bridge between the business, operations, and the technical team throughout the project cycle
• Involved in understanding of existing business processes and existing systems.
• Created As-Is Business Process Models using MS Visio
• Conducted Joint Application Development (JAD) sessions with Business Clients to identify business rules, functional and non-functional requirements
• Implemented a hybrid of Waterfall and Agile.
• Designed wire frames and activity diagrams using MS Visio to outline the “To-Be” screens and “To-Be” processes
• Managed the application support product backlog using Rally.
• Conducted Monthly Business Prioritization meetings with the stakeholders identify features to be scheduled for the upcoming release.
• Documented User Story using Rally to detail the business need.
• Conducted weekly sprint planning meeting with the developers and quality assurance analysts to review user story, assign story points and assign cards to a respective sprint.
• Conducted Weekly Sprint Review meeting with the stakeholder to demonstrate the features developed during the current sprint.
• Documented Test Cases for every sprint based on the acceptance criteria in Rally.
• Conducted Manual Testing every sprint.
• Coordinated User Acceptance Testing (UAT) on a monthly basis.
• Documented release notes for every release to demonstrate the features implemented for the respective release.
Questions And Answers about Coach
What is the dress code and do they provide dress code clothing?
Asked Sep 18, 2016
All black, strict and professional. No exceptions
Answered Apr 30, 2021
The dress code isn't the problem it's everything else, like telling women how they can wear their makeup, nails and hair!!! I personally feel that is a way of "Discrimination" and I say this because what does any of that have to do with good customer service and sales and just plan doing your job????
NOTHING AT ALL!
If your taking away how I can look for work then your also taking it away from me when I'm not there, do you understand what I'm saying? Your in control of what I do to my body, the reason I say this is because I'm working to do what I please with my money I can't get the color polish or put a jewel or two on them because my job doesn't allow it or I can't change my hair color because my job doesn't allow it! Wow I love red lipstick but I can't use it at work because my job doesn't allow it...
Come on I'm not doing open heart surgery here and even doctors get to dye their hair! Employers have gone to far into our personal life and it needs to stop, I get the dress codes but everything else TO FAR! #WomensRights #Discrimination #EmployeesRights #FreeWill
Answered Sep 5, 2019
How long does it take to get hired from start to finish at Coach? What are the steps along the way?
Asked Jul 7, 2016
They have to do background checks and about 2 weeks.
Answered Oct 2, 2018
Took 1 month for part-time position. It felt quite ridiculous but I went along with it anyways. Interviewed with SM, had selling interview, 2 other SM’s, then finally DM.
Answered Apr 26, 2018
What questions did they ask during your interview at Coach?
Asked Aug 11, 2016
Very long. First interview with store manager, 2nd with asociate manager and final with DM off site.
Coach is very selective. High expectations for image, communication skills and decorum.
Answered Apr 30, 2021
Tell me how I went and beyond for a customer.
Answered Aug 27, 2020
What benefits does Coach offer?
Asked Jun 20, 2016
Benefits offered depends on position.
Answered Nov 1, 2017
Health benefits, 401k plan, stock options, vision and dental coverage
