Pros
In my time at RL, I saw this company completely transform leaving its glory days behind. I first moved to NY and worked in their intern program and it was pretty great that I was able to see so many different facets of the company. They have refined there program since then and it's much more established now. At that time they put me in a buying team for a brand and I worked my days as part of that team. The other girls were not nice and I often felt set up to fail. I kept on pushing and by the end of the internship started working in the flagship on Madison. After about a year of trying to figure out my path I found the perfect fit at corporate. I began working with the most talented group of people in the creative side. Times were great! The hours were always long but the connection with my team was family. I moved quickly from a coordinator to a manager in a year from working hard and being self motivated. My Senior Director took me under their wing and really cultivated my growth. I worked hard for RL. Three years into my corporate role I became a Director. It was a lot of work but I loved it. All in all the pros for my time at RL are the people I worked with. They always took every opportunity to teach me and help me become better so that I could help the company grow. I still keep in touch with many of my RL family today.
Cons
So basically the con is that this company is no longer the company I spoke about in the pro section. They operate now with fear. I get that a company needs to make changes to grow. I totally get that. But the day RL handed over this company was the day it hit the fan. I literally saw the infrastructure crumble. Entire departments were let go without warning. People started fearing for their jobs. But the worst part was, they were letting go the people who were producing. I saw the stores start to deteriorate. People stopped caring because there was no direction. No leadership. No cultivating growth. In my time, I never made what I should have. I worked so hard and was always at the bottom of the pay scale for my title. I still worked hard but I never was compensated what I actually know I deserved. Now I work for myself so I do appreciate all the talent I learned from and don't see my time as a total waste! It helped me get were I am today, but that is not the same RL that exists today. I left because it wasn't that company I started with. And I never looked back.