bookseller

barista

seasonal retail sales associate

travel consultant

customer service representative

Barnes & Noble

Barnes & Noble is, without a doubt, a really upbeat, positive environment to be in whether it be as a customer or employee. It's always clean and pristine and low-volume, light music is playing in the background. The staff is usually always pleasant and very knowledgeable about its products.

A little known fact about employment at Barnes & Noble are the job titles; essentially, everyone is either a bookseller or barista, for those locations with a Starbucks cafe within. The term they use, bookseller, is a wide one; your roles can vary between the front lines or support for the cash registers, the information desk, shipping and receiving or simple floor assistance (walking around, straightening, interacting with customers.) It's hardly ever dull if you're a bookworm or just like the idea of working in a book store. There are moments of boredom and all you can really do is try and look busy or involved in something, but those periods hardly lasted long. The ultimate downside is that if you're a cashier, don't expect to be able to leave the area and help a customer locate a book. You're practically glued to your register.

Barnes & Noble is one of those employers that has a "push this" concept and that comes by way of the Barnes & Noble Membership and often around the holidays, gift cards. There is no commission or bonus compensation, but everyone, primarily when on cashier duty, has a quota for getting customers to sign up for the membership or renew any pending ones. Management won't usually reprimand you for not meeting a quota as long as you make a continuous effort, but aside from the Nook, memberships are a big thing for them.

The customers that tend to frequent the store are some of the most friendly and peaceful people I've met, especially in a retail environment. The regulars tend to know what they want, usually know about any promotions and don't have to be convinced to renew their membership. The once-and-awhile customers tend to have an idea what they want, but will usually need guidance or recommendations. The "I'm only here during the holidays" customers are some of the most difficult, as they're in a rush, usually unfriendly or easily pestered, so pushing the store promotions with these characters is often a difficult and headache-earning task.

Management, in my experience, was overall pleasant but also an enigma. I sensed some heavy tension between two management employees and getting to know them as co-workers and just to get a feel for their personality was tough. I almost felt shunned in a sense due to little interaction, while interaction with fellow booksellers was abundant. Maybe it was just because I was a seasonal hire and they didn't want to bother getting to know me in the event that I didn't stay post-holiday, or it was just their nature to be slightly abrasive toward new employees. They were friendly, for the most part, but really kept you at arms length and any conversations one managed to start didn't last long. The two other management employees as well as my fellow booksellers were some of the friendliest people I'd ever met and really made me feel welcome and it felt like a second family, really. It was a really positive environment and there wasn't a day that I said, "I really don't want to go to work today." It was always pleasant.

The hardest part of the job was basically lack of communication. There were times where I exercised common sense and good judgement when making last-minute decisions that couldn't be paused for advisement and the efforts weren't acknowledged. The two, more "abrasive" managers often had me do something and then sort of reprimand me because the outcome wasn't what they expected. For example, there was a time during the Christmas week where my register needed to be counted. The store manager told me to keep ringing out customers as there was a line and later reprimanded me for letting the register collect so much money over the limit. It was a simple case of poor communication and contradiction, but it really left me with a sour experience.

Job security doesn't really exist anymore, especially in retail environments. With 99% of the United States being "at-will" employment, the only time you'll ever have job security is if your position has some sort of contract or policy that states that at will employment will not be regarded. At will employment basically means you can be fired/terminated/discharged/laid off what-have-you for any or no reason at all. With Barnes & Noble being such a difficult place to get into for employment, the people who are fortunate enough to be hired are avid readers and bookworms and don't wish to leave, but will often pick up a second job to make ends meet.

The only chance new employees have is to start off seasonally during the holidays and hope there's an open position afterward. Even then, you'll still be working for minimum wage pay with minimal hours. There's no such thing as full-time in retail, really, unless you're part of management and even then, sometimes full-time is only reserved for the store manager and the assistant manager. Which means you get zero benefits as a part-time employee aside from the employee discount.

The downside to working seasonally is that unlike most stores who just ask you if you would like to stay, Barnes & Noble has seasonal hires re-apply for permanent positions. I was given inaccurate instructions on how to apply internally and as such, my application was not received and missed my opportunity to continue my employment.

Overall, though, the job was really enjoyable. My fellow booksellers were absolutely fabulous and I really cherished my time working with them, management included even if some of them weren't always pleasant. They're really good people regardless and really work hard to ensure that Barnes & Noble maintains the standards it always has in providing the ultimate experience for readers.

This is a good job for you if you like books but just want it for a part time job to work a few hours a week and reap the benefits of working at B&N.  The job is a joke if you are unlucky enough to work in a place with terrible management. The training is minimal and lacking and seems to vary depending on who is training you. When I was being trained my "trainer" (just another bookseller, they dont have official trainers) would often wander off and leave me to my own devices, hardly anything was explained to me. If you ask the MOD a question they will get irritated and treat you like youre dumb and behave like you are supposed to know everything. You will get frustrated often because policies and procedures change weekly, if not daily. One day a manager will tell you how to do something, and then the following day a different manager will get upset, tell you you're doing it wrong, and show you how to do it a different way.  You will be selling books to people through a giant corporate lens and also through the lens of your General Manager. I have been told to not spend much time in the YA/Fantasy/Sci-Fi/Manga/Collectibles area of the store because it didnt bring in as much money as the rest of the store and they didnt want to waste time with that area. This is in spite of the fact that we've expanded our manga section twice in the past year and we get a lot of customers who are only interested in that area of the store. You will bust your behind for impossible goals and then get scolded for not meeting them. It is clear they dont care about their customers or workers and only care about turning a profit. You will be expected to get every customers email address and force them to sign up for a membership. If you dont meet their impossible expectations you wont be considered a great worker and your hours are based on how well you perform to their expectations. You can also have a wide open availability but still only be scheduled 18 hours a week. You will be passed up for projects, hours, and respect without knowing why. Rampant favoritism. Brand new employees will come in and will get more hours, respect, and projects than you ever will despite you going above and beyond what is asked of you. Numerous coworkers have thrown out their backs or torn muscles in their shoulders but are still expected to push stacks of boxes around the store weighing in excess of 100lbs while injured. You will be expected to completely reset the new releases octagon in 90 minutes despite the fact that you have to unbox everything, move the older releases off the octagon, and then put the new ones out. Or better yet, expect you to have 50 boxes unboxed and shelved in three hours despite the fact that there is not physically enough room in the store for everything. They will pull you off the project you are doing to help booksell on the floor or cashier because they are short staffed and then get upset because you never finished the project. You will be overworked, underpaid, short staffed, and punished for the fact that its a slow day and not many customers have come in. If you are assigned cashering you are not allowed to leave the front of the store and there is nothing for you to do, it can get very boring if you only check out one person in an hour.  Some of your coworkers will get away with things that will get you in trouble and seem to do as these please with the managers blessing but if youre not busy every moment of the day your job is on the line. They will deny changes in your availability no matter the reason. Most coworkers were awesome. Some were petty and childish or vindictive.  Working in a bookstore should not be this stressful.

Working in the Receiving department was great; most of the time I only interacted with my fellow employees, being given tasks by my manager and set to work, which I prefer. However, I was still required from time to time to go out onto the floor and give the cashiers or customer service reps a hand, or to cover a break. I didn't mind this, as I learned quite a bit about what we had in stock through working in Receiving, and it was nice to put that knowledge to use in helping customers.

My co-workers were the best part of the job. The culture at our branch was very geek-oriented; I worked with fellow gamers, science fiction and fantasy fans, movie fans, and of course, fellow readers, so we always had things we enjoyed talking about. I've met with many of them outside of work for group activities, and still keep in touch with them via social websites. When the company scheduled theme days (such as the summer "Get Pop-Cultured" events), my co-workers really got into the costuming, P/A announcements, and other aspects of running these events, making it fun for everyone involved.

Management was great. We had a certain degree of turnover because our branch was a "teaching branch," meaning managers would be sent to us to learn the ropes, and then go on to another branch to assume a position there. Perhaps because of this, most of my managers operated with an attitude that they were working with us, not over us. I always felt as though my concerns were heard, and was comfortable enough with my managers that I felt I could speak with them when I needed to.

The most difficult part of the job - aside from the physical aspect, because lifting and stacking shipments and keeping up a quick receiving pace could become exhausting, especially in the summer - was keeping the changing security measures straight. There would be certain procedures that you would become used to (the red label goes on products from this Zone, the blue on another, apply this label to audiobooks, this spider-wrap goes on these products (but only if they're over $50), these items go behind cashwrap, etc.), but in a couple of months, they would change in response to new shrink data, and you'd have to keep the new procedures in your head and forget the old ones. The positive side of this was that these changes made it clear that the executives higher up were paying attention to what was happening on the floor and were trying to make things better. Right before I left the company, they had simplified some of these procedures because someone higher up realized that it had gotten overcomplicated.

Finally, the employee benefits were wonderful. The discounts on cafe items and books meant that I could buy my lunch at work every day and spend less than I would getting fast food. Of course, it also meant a portion of my paycheck would be going right back into the company, as I like to make a lot of book purchases...

I worked at the cafe, so a typical day at work could be swan diving into a rush of people then crickets. I had been a bookseller since 2013 but it was my first time working in  the cafe part time, even though I have been trained in both the bookfloor and cafe previously, it had been many years since, so I had no idea what changes had been made.

I tried my best to keep up with the changing times but the place just wasn't the same as it had been when I first started. I really wanted to love it but after a few months my health started failing and I became severely depressed because of personal issues, but nobody seemed to care. First of all I wasn't actually trained properly during my first week. I was just expected to know everything after my manager handed me a binder and after that we kind of hit the ground running. Then my store manager and cafe manager became emotionally abusive and my job security was shaken to the core when they told me I wasn't making the company enough money and I needed to change my habits if I wanted to keep a job there. Let me tell you something. I am a good employee. I have a good work ethic and I always showed up on time and I tried communicating with both of them to see why they were always seemingly angry at me. My cafe manager had horrible mood swings that gave me whiplash, and she definitely picked favorites. I would get yelled at, humiliated in front of other employees and customers, and belittled, and once she didn't even speak to me one whole 7-hour shift because I made a mistake and threw away an empty juice carton because she said it was waste. That was a really awkward shift. Another time I opened and arrived at 7:30, so I would have plenty of time to get everything done. I was unwrapping the bake case and she came in ranting and raving for no reason (implying that I was slacking off and asking me if I had come in late, even though I had literally done everything I was supposed to on the checklist we have). I wasn't too worried about it at first, because I felt in my gut I wasn't doing anything wrong. Later I was confronted by my manager that I wasn't making enough sales and "asking customers the right questions" and they didn't like the way I did things, even though the things they were saying I was doing wrong weren't making any sense.  They just needed somebody to blame for the store not making enough money, so they asked me if I would like to be put on a "recovery plan where I can change my work strategy in 30 days." I felt like I had gotten punched in the gut. I told them whatever problems they felt like I was having, I said it seemed like wouldn't be solved in 30 days. I suggested that maybe I wasn't right for the job, and I put in my two weeks. At the end of the day, they do not care about you or your loyalty, it's just about money to them.

The pay is not great, and unless you work full time, it’s not much to live on. Getting a full-time position is a challenge, but from what I understand that stems from a budgetary limitation through payroll. Promotions happen from within, and you will receive an annual performance review. These reviews can lead to pay raises, which are usually pretty small in my experience. 

I love my coworkers and the management team is awesome. If you show up and work, you’ll do well. If you show up and play on your phone all day, you won’t do as well. The job itself is not hard. It involves talking to customers and figuring out what they’re looking for. As with any business, there are challenging customers, but the process of finding the books they need is not difficult. Even as a bookseller, you will find yourself on the cash register as there are busy seasons and slow seasons. So, having some familiarity with computers will benefit you.

Another large part of your shift will be straightening bookshelves and putting away inventory that comes through the warehouse. It is monotonous at times, but it is not hard to do. You may also find yourself in the warehouse conducting shipping and receiving support. Those functions require a higher level of critical thinking, but they are satisfying. 

My least favorite part about working in this bookstore is straightening up the toy section. I usually work a closing shift, which means I straighten the store and prepare for the next day’s opening. The toy and game section is usually the most disorderly section at the end of each day. But again, it’s not hard work, just annoying.

My favorite part about working here, other than the team and management, is the amazing discount. I love to read, so having a discount that feeds my passion is very satisfying. As for benefits, B&N does have a 401k program, but you have to work for a year or more before it’s available to you. It took me 13 months to meet the “hours worked” requirement in order to participate in the program. They also have a number of health and dental benefits that employees can take advantage of right away. As a college student, I was excited to see that they offered a tuition reimbursement program; but I had to work a certain amount of time before I could participate. I don’t think that program is still active because I can’t find anything about it on the HR website any more. As a suggestion, since most of the employees are college students, it would greatly benefit the company to bring back the tuition reimbursement program, and then make it more easily accessible to part-time employees. 

Overall, this is a great place to work. The pay is lacking, but the job is not hard to do. So I guess it balances out.

I've only been working  at Barnes & Noble for two and a half months so far, and I've learned quite a bit at the Irvine location. 

If you truly love books and reading, and don't mind the unfortunate minimum wage pay, then this job will be for you. Not all B&N stores are the same, and the Irvine location specifically is one of busiest store's mostly due to the fact that it's in the Spectrum Mall. So far, I've really enjoyed the job. What I love the most is helping customer's find the book they're looking for, and recommending books to those that don't know what to read, but want to get into it. Shelving and learning how to display books is also fun but can be tedious because there is a specific way it's done and will sometimes have to get creative. Cashiering is fine (and can be fun at times) but will make you feel more exhausted than walking around, shelving, and helping customers because you are repeating yourself with pushing out the membership signups and of course, among other things. 

What I haven't particularly enjoyed so far, mainly had to do with the people I've worked with...  Most of the people I work with are super kind, considerate, and PATIENT. Others, however, not so much... It's mainly the senior booksellers/younger managers around my age that have a bit of an attitude problem. One in particular was not very welcoming when I had started the job (and I knew right off the bat they seemed like someone that wouldn't be) but I refuse to let these people make me feel inadequate. We're all here for one thing, and that is to get paid for the job we are doing. 

One thing I do want to point out, is do not expect them to "train" you on cashiering, or really on anything. There is no "training," there is only learning as you go.  That was my first mistake of expectation. They say they will "train" you because that is THEIR way of doing it, which is really just teaching/guiding you as you go. I can understand that because it's a customer service/retail job, and there really is no way to train you privately. Which is fine, but I wish they were just more honest about it. 

Another thing I would like to point out is that, yes, B&N is an all inclusive company. I work with lot's of people who are apart of the LGBTQ+ community and it makes me really happy. However, there are not as many POC I thought there would be. I am a dark-skinned Hispanic person, and there are maybe two POC's that work in the Cafe, and only one other senior bookseller/manager that is a person of color, and I was honestly quite surprised. It might just be due to the fact that not a lot of POC apply for this job, but for me personally, it was a bit of a shock. 

All in all, If you do enjoy reading and love books, and have the ability to not let others run you over because of their "seniority" then by all means, apply for the job!


I've been working for BN for over five years. I really love the people, and I feel supported by my direct management. The customers can be a little crazy sometimes, but most of them are excited to be at a bookstore during a time when everything is done online. It definitely tests my patience, especially since most customers are elderly. More enjoyably, I learned about sales psychology, what people want to buy, ordering product, and developing displays.

However, the pay is BAD. I've barely gotten $1.00 worth of a raise over five years. I'm one of few full-time employees, and my health insurance is pretty good. 

I worked here during the COVID pandemic, and I do not feel supported by corporate staff. We have not been supplied cleaning supplies in months, they keep extending our hours even though cases are skyrocketing, and managers have not done a good job about limiting the occupancy to ensure social distancing. Christmas is going to be even more of a nightmare than usual.  I think it's pretty disgraceful to employees that work really hard that they extend their hours to 1am around the holidays. I haven't been able to spend a holiday with my family in six Christmases. It would be a nice "thank you" to be closed Christmas Eve and the day after Christmas for the people that literally make Christmas happen. It feels like the people in the corporate offices don't care too much about us, but that's the same with every job, unfortunately. 

One other thing is the stores are all so big, they need a daily cleaning crew. We don't get paid enough to clean up the restrooms, which people treat very, very poorly in every location I've worked in. I also feel like Barnes has way too much product. One major problem I've had working there has been that the management doesn't do a good job about putting their foot down when it comes to merchandise. Because we have so much toy product, people bring their kids in and act like it's a playground. They open stuff, throw it everywhere, touch everything, don't put anything back, and that can really impact sales. I wish management was more direct to customers and told them if they break it, they buy it. We lose a lot of money from damaged product. 

Overall, I enjoy working at Barnes. I love the people I work with, and the atmosphere is fun. However, they need to put their foot down when it comes to COVID and close stores around the holidays, because it's impossible to maintain social distancing and occupancy rules (as well as rules like no eating or drinking in the stores, no sitting, etc.) when you've furloughed over half the staff. There's problems, and they need to be fixed.

Don't get me wrong. This is not a difficult job. There are very few angry customers, no spills to clean up, or terrible rushes to suck your energy dry. If you're a cashier, all you have to do is process transactions and look up titles, right? Wrong. 

Even if you're not properly trained to work the Customer Service desk, you are still required to have extensive knowledge of the sales floor and the location of every section (despite the fact that you stand in the same area every time you work and are not allowed to leave except during breaks). 

You are also expected to know how to use PDTs despite hardly being exposed to them. You are also expected to sell 2 memberships per hundred customers every week of every month, despite the fact that many frequent customers already have memberships and the rest of the customers cannot afford the membership fee on top of our already pricey merchandise. 

If you do not know how to execute a task perfectly after being taught briefly a handful of times, you will be reprimanded for incompetence and derided for struggling to 'learn new tasks and retain the information'. If you are away from the register helping a customer find what they need, as you have been trained to do, you will still be scrutinized for being 'inattentive' to customers. 
It doesn't matter how nice you are, or how many people appreciate your positive attitude and instinctual customer skills. If you don't sell memberships (a skill that is almost entirely self-taught), you don't get hours. Also, nobody reaps full-time benefits except managers and a handful of leads. 

Because Barnes and Noble does not maintain the economical stature that it used to years ago, the company is very strict about employee performance and which booksellers can make them the most money in the district. This is a job for experts in sales who understand the technicalities of retail. This is not a job you'll get for being cute and nice.
Be on your toes every minute, because a lot goes on under the quiet surface and you are required to know a great deal and prove your knowledge. If you don't, you may lose your job when it is time for the Yearly Review. 

The managers are very kind and are usually busy, so it is up to you to be aware of how well you're performing and learn from successful booksellers so that you don't look like a useless idiot. The best members of the team are fully aware of their value and everybody else is trying to keep up.

First and foremost, Barnes & Noble does not pay a fair wage.  There are no benefits for part time workers, aside from a hefty 30-40% employee discount.  The culture of the company will vary from store to store, some are more relaxed about policies such as dress code, or curation of stock, while others may be more rigidly defined by a business casual approach.  The location that I work in is very casual about most things, and worker satisfaction is generally fairly middling.  The management is not great at determining what the employees need to succeed, however, and scheduling is a constant morass of people not getting shifts they want, or getting shifts they aren't capable of doing to the full extent of their abilities.  The amount of "clopening" shifts, where an employee closes the store, then reopens the next morning, is frankly ridiculous, and it should be the onus of the scheduling manager to make sure this doesn't happen.  The instances of working 5-7 days in a row with no day off are also very common.  These scheduling issues can be a huge killer in productivity and satisfaction, but they are overlooked by the management.  At times, there are also decisions sent down by corporate that must be adhered to despite being wildly out of pocket, and having no basis in the way the store runs of the way customers shop.  You are expected at times to blindly follow the orders of someone who has never set foot in your neighborhood, let alone your bookstore.  

This is a job that requires a fair bit of passion for the industry, and is suitable for young writers, or other humanities based students, but those who desire more technical, or nuanced work will not find anything interesting here.  As the opportunities for advancement here seem to be dwindling, this has become a stepping stone job for young people looking to get a taste of the industry.  Turnover is very high, as the lack of appreciation, compensation, or even acknowledgement can be a major downer sometimes.  Again, I can't stress enough that the pay scale is unfair, not only to the bookseller, but to the entire management team.  Store managers with 20 years of experience within the company are barely breaking 20/hr, with very few perks.  The kind of passionate "book people" that this job draws, however, can be a very diverse, and highly motivated type of person, and the opportunity to network with others who share an interest in the book industry is definitely there, if you make the effort to find connections.  

•	Configuration of Business process in SAP FI/CO (ECC 6.0) to enable integration between various functionalities in a cross functional team
•	Worked in all phases of the project from blue print development to the end user training and post implementation support on ECC 6.0
•	As a team member, involved in Project Management, configuration, testing, support of various functionalities in FI/CO modules
•	Configured settings for controlling areas, maintained versions
•	In cost element accounting created standard hierarchy, primary and secondary cost elopements, created cost element groups, and maintained cost element attributes
•	In internal orders, maintained order types, allocation and settlement profiles overhead costing sheets, screen layouts
•	Worked in supporting Finance, Controlling and Project Systems modules
•	Met the critical turnaround time expectation on support calls and established key user comfort within a short period of one month
•	Involved in the workshops for the new company code creation and gather the business needs 
•	In Profit center accounting, maintained standard hierarchy. Assigned cost centers to profit centers. Planned allocation for profit center accounting
•	Implementation of the solution using ASAP methodology to implement core modules (FI/CO) in SAP version ECC 6.0. Identified requirements and documented them accordingly
•	Conducted Fit-Gap analysis to find the gaps in the system
•	The role involved in meeting with business representatives for issue resolution (Designing, mapping and prototyping current business cases into the appropriate SAP functionality)
•	Configured settings for company code, currency and parallel currency, assigning exchange rates, posing period variant, assigned document ranges, defined tolerance groups for employees
•	Configured and customized General Ledger accounting – Creation of G/L accounts, screen layout rules, automatic account assignments, financial statement version
•	Configured and Customized A/R and A/P modules including creation of Vendor master records, Customer Master records, account groups, number ranges, tolerance groups, reason codes, account determination, default account assignments, automatic payment program for outgoing payments which included payment methods, house banks bank accounts and ranking order of bank accounts, credit risk management

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