Great benefits, training, and customer interaction. Not so great advancement.
Pros
I loved working for Clinique because I believe in Clinique. Even though I am no longer at counter, I still use all of their skin care on a daily basis. The job training you get is outstanding, I've never seen better with any other job. Lisa Boness is the regional trainer and is amazing at what she does. They make it easy to learn skin care and on how to properly education your customers. The gratis was fantastic; couple hundred dollars twice a year to spend on anything in Clinique you want. People complain about the dress code but I loved it. I loved working around makeup every day, but just be aware that if you work at a counter within a retail store, not everyone you work with is going to be as passionate about makeup as you may be. To some, it's just another job. With Clinique, you don't have to pass an application test so you are being considered on your ability to sell, not on application or passion. I had a passion for it so I loved coming to work every day! Pay was pretty average.
Cons
Retail hours, to be expected. No commission off of sales. Cosmetic girls can be pretty greedy because of high sales goals. If you're in gift or are busy, you will have girls from Lancome, Estee, Origins coming to your counter to try and sell when they don't have the proper training. A big one for me was the advancement. If you are at counter within a retailer, good luck moving up! If you do manage to get to be a counter manager, they will want to keep you in that postition for several years (I'm talking 4-8) to see your track record before they will even consider you for something higher. That was a huge reason why I left. Clinique is also a little behind on the trends. They recently revamped their shadows and lipsticks, but I lost SO many customers due to our colors being so boring. They would go shop at MAC for color.
