Pros
Good pay (but not in relation to actual hours worked). Learned a lot in terms of looking at the business in many different angles and challenging myself. The role wears many hats- you're essentially involved from beginning to end and perform the job of many people. We're responsible for creating the assortment, "making suggestions" to design, placing weekly buys, store strategy, all while actually planning, and then doing miscellaneous tasks. The company runs a tight ship both in a good and bad way. But the data available is abundant and clean which makes it easy to find answers and provide analysis.
Cons
Overworked overworked overworked. Absolutely no work-life balance. Good pay BUT in terms of actual hours worked, it was consistently over 50 hours per week. So is it really good pay? There is practically no conversations among the team and other planners because we physically did not have the time to make small chat. The first time I even spoke to some was months later at a corporate convention where we weren't glued to our computers for the first time, which is sad. (And found out many of us echo the same frustrations about work-life balance.) Many of us sometimes skipped lunch just because of the volume of work. Burnout just becomes your middle name because you don't even have time to think about how burnt out you are. Expectation from GHQ and multiple management created a trickle down effect of having to constantly sidetrack to do other tasks, most of which was ultimately a waste of time. Because of multiple senior leadership each wanting a piece of the pie, the direction was at times confusing and contradicting. All of senior leadership are workaholics and prioritize work over other aspects in their life. If you want to climb the ladder, be prepared to dedicate your soul to this company.