Pros
It's a good first job overall if you are looking to get some preliminary expereince in the cosmetics industry. You get to learn about makeup, skincare, and haircare by just being around it all the time and you learn as you by talking to customers first hand. You can build your customer service skills throughout your time working at Ulta and you can network a little bit with vendors and customers. Some staff members are really nice and look out for one another on the floor and even can become friends outside work! You get to talk to vendors and get gratis here and there from them if you are lucky and there are sometimes fun events you get to partake in for brands. Scheduling is super flexible and is good for students because they will work around your schedule easily and you can request time off pretty easily as well (except block out dates). Dress code is nice because you just have to follow a color scheme mostly, so you can wear clothes you are comfortable in and you can show your own sense of style instead of wearing a uniform. Discount is nice a perk, 25% off everything and 50% off salon services and sometimes brands did additional discounts or they upped the discount to 35%, however this does get you to spend a good chunk of your paycheck on makeup because you are just around it all the time.
Cons
There are more cons than pros to this job. At first you are super excited to work at Ulta because you think you will learn how to apply makeup, know how to shade match, know how to recommend hair products, or what skincare products to recommend to different skin types. The reality is you will either be a tasker or a cashier for the most part. Meaning for the majority of your shift you are tied to being at register or you are doing truck (stocking) or doing planograms (displays). There are times you may be able to go out on the floor and help people here and there but then you are usually called back up at the register not too long after. Training is very minimal for advisors. You watch 2 videos a week on a computer or an app and then you are supposed to get gratis for watching the videos, but the managers usually just keep all the gratis to themselves and give advisors little samples or nothing at all twice a year, even though the store is sent huge boxes of gratis. Advisors aren't paid much and also don't get much gratis so it's really hard to recommend products to customers because advisors haven't tried it and can only rely on what a video tells them. Managers rarely help people on the floor and more so just stay in the back doing paperwork and are on the computer. They should distribute the gratis to advisors who actually have to recommend products daily to customers. Advisors feel uncomfortable asking managers about gratis, so they just keep it all to themselves. Gratis is a major perk to the job, and at Ulta (or at least my location) it is basically non-existent unless you talk to a vendor and they give it directly to you and not to a manager to "distribute", which they never do. Advisors do all the dirty/grunt work of running the store, including taking out trash, cleaning, stocking, cashiering, fixing displays, facing items, making new testers, organizing back stock and are severely underpaid for the amount of work they do. A lot is expected of advisors without the pay to match it. The only thing management really cares about with advisors is their loyalty or credit card numbers. They put immense pressure on advisors to reach numbers, when in reality a lot of it is out of their control. A lot of people just do not want to give their personal information out which is understabnable but management will blame the associates and call you out on it. They put so much emphasis on loyalty/credit cards and not enough on training advisors in makeup applciation/customer service/employee happiness. The only route to promotion is getting high numbers on loyalty/credit card which is mostly just luck. If you don't get high numbers you will lose hours or taken off register and put on truck at 5am. They have almost no trust in associates. All associates must have a clear plastic bag and have to be "checked out" by a manager every time they want to leave the store for any reason. Even if you don't have a bag you still have to get checked out. Also, if you want to bring an item in that the store sells you have to get it marked with a green marker and show proof of purchase by either a paper receipt or through your loyalty account. I just either didn't bring any makeup in or brought something ulta doesn't sell because of the whole process to prove you didn't steal it. The whole checkout process can make getting you out of the store after your shift much longer, i once waited 10 minutes for a manager to check me out! They also don't allow associates to do very much on the register, even though it's usally an associate at register and not a manager. Associates can't do returns over $35 (which is mostly every return), they can't price adjust, or do returns over 60 days. Managers are constantly called up by associates and customers get annoyed waiting. Associates also have to deal with customers getting mad about coupons and deals that don't work and it is out of our control so we just try our best to mitigate the problem. The store is constantly understaffed which causes issues with customers getting mad about not getting service, long register lines, theft, unkept store, and overworked associates. A lot of employees also constantly call out and make it harder on employees who are there and tasks do not get done on time. Employees also constantly ask to switch/cover shifts because they are students and want to go out or need to study etc. Hours also vary greatly week to week. You can be given 8 hours 1 week and 24 the next. They cut hours if if the store is down in sales and you can just never tell how much you'll make in the next week. They also create the schedule extremely last minute, even for retail. They would sometimes put out the schedule on a Saturday night for the next week (weeks would start on Sundays). So you would not know if you were working Sunday until literally 9pm the night before and you couldn't make plans outside of work until the week of because you wouldn't know. Also at my location, there was stacked employee parking meaning you have to get other people to move their cars to leave or you would have to move yours. Ulta should really buy spots at a local parking garage because it caused a lot of frustration and wasted time moving cars around, I sometimes paid for parking to avoid the whole mess. Overall, beauty advisors just aren't treated that well, and in the eyes of management you are 1 of 15 part time beauty advisors that get paid a little above minimum. They do not invest much in your training or your career/job at ulta. There is not much room to move up in the company, you will be an advisor for over a year then maybe go to be a lead cashier then maybe a Merchandiser service coordinator then maybe one of the other store management positions, however the higher up positions beyond store level are almost never filled internally. Corporate people that would visit the store would take no interest in talking or getting to know advisor and would only be interested in talking to the general manager. Attendance policy is incredibly strict with getting half a point for being 5 minutes late! You also get a point if you call in sick with no one to cover. Only holiday the store is closed is Christmas. Advisor are not paid time and a half for holidays like New Years Day, MLK Day, Labor Day, 4th of July etc. Overall, it is a fine first job to get your feet wet in the beauty industry but after some time you've gained everything you can from Ulta. Management also constantly teases and says you will get promoted to something with possibly a raise but it never happens. They need to be more transparent about what it takes to be promoted and the time frame it will take.