Pros
Good company for those looking for entry/low level positions as a means to grow your career. There are lots of positions available across brands and they are generally open to people moving around. Good employee discount and sample sales.
Cons
I honestly believe Williams Sonoma could be a great company to work for if there was a complete overhaul of the executives. Laura Alber and Sandra Stangl are simply not executives that inspire people to do their best. Laura, as well as the other brand VPs, have instituted a culture of fear. Everyone is scared to speak up or give a real opinion to them. Middle and upper management will say yes to anything they ask for, never challenging or offering up alternative ideas. Business is stagnant because we do the same things over and over and over. Business decisions are made completely reactionary to hourly sales reads. No one has time to put quality thought and effort into projects because we're always playing catch up. I have seen countless people passed up for promotions because they aren't in the "in crowd". Most people are not promoted based on the quality of your work, but whether you go to happy hour with your boss and play the politic game. Compensation is below all of the other major retailers in SF/Bay Area. The company is so cheap THERE ARE NO OFFICE SUPPLIES. People seriously bring their own paper and pens. It is pathetic. Laura and Sandra are given multi-million dollar bonuses at the same time HR tells us there is no budget to backfill open positions. In summary: you will be overworked, under-compensated and experience extremely low morale working here. If anyone from the board is reading this, change is needed -- please!