I came to Nordstrom at an interesting time in 2013. And over 3 years I saw the company progressively turn into something in recognizable. I never had a single year where I had just one manager. Management was constantly shifting , and it inevitably had an impact on my career.
They seemed to have a great culture when I joined , but each year things got exponentially worse. See breakdown below.
Year 1- 4 stars. positive , excited , and growing IT sector. Nordstrom was throwing down a lot of money into technology with optimistic view of their future. The boss I had was nice.
Year 2- 2 stars. In year 2 things started to change. My boss from year 1 was subtly pushed out of the picture to manage another team, and my team got placed with someone who wasn't a manager, but got all the authority to act as one. This manager was the worst manager I had in my career , and I wouldn't even wish it to my worst enemy. They took all the credit for my team's work, didn't seem actually do any work, was always quick to point fingers at team mates for small failures , spoke in buzzwords and jargon to sound smart , and spent all their time trying to "have coffee"no with people in an effort to play the politics game. It was more than a year before this manager was fully pushed out and replaced with an actual manager. This was probably the most stressful time of my career.
Year 3 - 1 star. new manager , but the manager was never sure where our team was headed and what our purpose was. It was not uncommon for this manager to essentially tell me to do less , because for someone "early in their career , they aren't expected to do much beyond that". It felt like my age was often being used as a way to belittle me, which then also felt like the manager wanted to do everything they could to make sure no one on the team could get promoted. It was highly dysfunctional , there was a lack of respect for the team, and this point I felt like my career was dying day by day.
At a high level , this is what I saw over 3 years.
-Nordstrom was trying to make a name for themselves in tech, often mimicking actual tech companies in culture and demeanor.
-they threw down a bunch of investment money into tech.
-After a year or two investors began to realize that the tech leadership didn't seem to know what they were doing , and that the investment was far from providing any ROI. Rather , senior leadership seemed more focused on more or less trying to focus on Amazon and how Nordstrom could compete with them. Want to know why Amazon does so well? Because they focus on their customers and not competition, so if you want to mimic anything they do , at least take that from them.
-In my last months it just seemed like people were being let go or leaving left and right. Anyone who was still in a senior position at this point just seemed to be trying to keep their tenure safe, rather than producing any material value.
-overall, I am happy that I joined Nordstrom, but I am happier I left. When I joined it seemed like a great place to be. By the time I left, it seemed like a place to go to suffocate your career.
