Fun, but difficult to make a career out of
Pros
The job itself is fun, you get to paint toy soldiers for a living! If you enjoy running largish events and dealing with hordes of excited children, the weekends are fantastic fun. The contract is surprisingly generous compared to other retailers, and you enjoy a fairly large degree of autonomy.
Cons
Especially on the retail side, the advancement options are extremely limited. If you are given the opportunity of a management position, it is almost always a 1 man store, not exactly using the extensive training that the company offers on managing a team. Moving upwards from management is even more difficult, as there are very few middle management positions on the retail side. The company is also quite schizophrenic. On one hand, they tell you retail are the most important part of the business, all the while the trade reps are telling Independent Stockists that taking on more lines could leave to GW store closures, increasing their trade. The upper management expect a huge amount of their employees. Not necessarily a bad thing but it is rare to be rewarded for putting extra work in.
