sales lead

sales associate

retail assistant manager

assistant store manager

retail sales associate

J.Jill

If you have a passion for fashion and an eye for visual merchandising, J.Jill is the company for you. If you want your career in retail to be women's apparel, you won't find a better fit. All things considered, J.Jill is an easy brand to learn and it's not a hard job. That being said, please be mindful of the following:

*Proficient visual merchandising skills is a must for success. The Company has extremely high standards when it comes to this. One Wednesday a month, you will be required to work till midnight and back at 6 AM to ensure floor set is complete by 10 AM sharp Thursday morning. If you don't have the right team in place, you will drown and become very overwhelmed trying to maintain this standard by yourself.

*All stores are facing huge staffing issues because wages are low. You will only find middle aged women who are retired and interested in a hobby job that apply. They will only want to work a few hours during the week in the morning leaving yourself and ASM to pick up the pieces and work mostly nights and weekends. Most are only interested in treating the job as a social hour and serve nothing more than a warm body.

*The ASM's area of focus and ownership is to be maintaining visual standards and backroom organization. If you have a weak or lazy ASM, this responsibility will fall onto you and can be very stressful without the right support.

*Credit cards and online omni sales are a huge focus and KPI. However, customers are becoming frustrated due to a fee for receiving a paper statement and canceled orders. Both issues make achieving these KPIs very challenging.

*The company is moving into a more tech direction. Given that the workers and customers are older, this can make each day difficult due to lack of understanding of how to use technology.

*J.Jill is a very task heavy company without the staff or payroll to support both needs and selling. You will be required to find, package, and ship multiple items for sales, returns, RTVs, etc daily while still trying to maintain floor coverage and selling support.

*J.Jill's target customer is loyal, but draining. The average customer will be a retired 65+year old woman. Due to this, customers are extremely needy, whiny, and entitled. You will be dealing with a lot of "Karen" behavior each day. Most of your day will be spent doing online returns from elderly customers who buy multiple items and sizes and have no problem or shame coming in with their mountain of returns ready to be difficult to you. You will receive phone call after phone call from customers expecting you to be their personal shopper on the phone or do a price adjustment for an item they bought 3 weeks ago that is now on sale. Customers are very quick to file a complaint and you will be reprimanded by your DM. 

*DMs are mostly supportive, but mall locations and lifestyle locations are not held to the same standards. For example, Lifestyle stores close at 7 everyday while mall stores are open till 9.

*Store Manager is hourly and offers competitive pay. Ensure you negotiate a high wage when interviewing because the position is only 35-38 hours a week instead of the standard 40. Overtime is absolutely prohibited. Very poor work/life balance. Laughable bonuses,

If you have a strong team in place, the above won't be much of an issue. If you're short staffed, prepare to drown and kiss your personal life goodbye. Again, J.Jill can be a great company, but is not for the faint of heart. Corporate direction is becoming unclear and unstable.

This is not a very busy store - you are catering to a certain type of clientele. Typically there is one manager and one sales associate on a shift. On the weekends there may be two associates and a manager, but there will only ever be one closing associate and one closing manager on weekend schedules.

If you open, you will likely be straightening and cleaning the store, working on "product knowledge", opening new shipments (and there is almost always replenishment or new product) and steaming the clothes that have come in. Most customers (in my area), come in during the afternoon or after dinner, which is when you have the most time to be productive.

If you close, you'll be cleaning the store and straightening, possibly - if you get chosen for this, doing a new floor set, which is done 2-3 times a month. It can get confusing if you aren't chosen for a floor set, because things get moved quite fast, and you have to learn it in order to be able to direct customers to where they want to go, what they want to see, and if you don't know where it is, customers can get impatient. 

Working with customers is mostly enjoyable. A lot of it is repeat business due to personal attention, so you get to know a lot of them quite well. You really do become like a personal stylist. The clothes are high quality, fit is pretty great, and women feel good in them.

Store managers are pressured to push their associates to meet credit card goals, individual item goals (scarves, sweaters, jeans, etc), and the stores get docked if they don't sell a certain amount in a certain amount of time. Sales associates can lose hours if they don't meet credit card goals or sell the whole package (shirt, pants, scarves or jewelry, etc). 

If people window shop and the sales associates can't make the sale, conversion rates go down, and again, schedules can suffer as a result.

I work the weekend shift, we do not get the kitchen staff to come cook for us like the weekday staff does. There's a lot of gossiping in the work place culture,and a few different groups or 'cliques' if you would. Management plays favorites a lot, turning blind eyes to certain people's behavior but coming down on other people for the same behavior. The packing machinery is constantly breaking down for long periods of time, leading to work backing up and added pressure on you to finish. This is a daily occurrence.

There have been a few instances of work related injury restrictions not being followed because weekday management doesn't tell weekend management. Also getting compensation for a work related injury is a pain in the butt, and there is high chance of a repetitive use injury. If you try to report an injury, they will try to find anything to make it your fault so you can't get compensation. They always say if you have pain or the like to go to them to figure something out, but they don't actually want to hear it and rarely change anything if you do go to them.

They will also promise to train people to do something new, then train someone completely different to do the thing, which makes it feel like there isn't room to grow. I was told that because I'm part time, they won't train me in more things, yet I was hoping to eventually go full time and grow with the company. Now I'm looking to leave. I've brought a few things to one of the managers attention and they've assured me they would look into it, then not, or been told right out that they won't do anything. 

Also. They say $15 /hr, but the starting pay is $11 /hr. They have this bonus system that is weighted in their favor and is difficult if not impossible to earn the max amount of bonus. It would require working at a pace that would most defiantly lead to an injury. 

This might be a good place to start, but defiantly don't get yourself stuck here.

Had an excellent teacher in my Store Manager, who was a good  leader to work alongside. She made learning and understanding less complex and easy to grasp, we made a day a fun filled day by acting silly, and joking. Our day would consist in making sure our guest  are welcomed! I would make sure that our team or myself gave 100% customer service to our guest as well as meeting their needs. As a Managers i made sure that the team was well informed about the days business, they knew what was to be expected as well as what was to be done in reaching our goal.      
      As an Assistant Manager it was part of my responsibility to make sure that all associates are knowledgeable about the merchandise, coaching and role playing helped build their skills. Working with other members of management part of my responsibility was recruiting the right talent and leveraging that talent to collectively strategize plans to initiate housekeeping standards, shrink control, backroom efficiency as well as build customer loyalty. While working with other members of management, good communication, executing good leadership, following through on projects, maintaining visual standards, keeping on top of the sales plan, comp sales, payroll and shrink, helped build our business where we ranked #1 in our District in sales.

My powerful listening skills is #1 in knowing the next step to take in showing my customer both what she asked for, and some new items I think can work for her as well. I have become a 'personal shopper' for many of our customers.

I use my time management skills, and can care for 3 or 4 customers at a time. Often customers would call to make an appointment with me to assist them with their shopping needs.

Our management staff has always been friendly, informative and helpful in every way. My co-workers have taught me the computer system and have always been available for my questions. I have become skilled with the computer system. They are a fun group of women, and we shared many enjoyable shifts together.

The hardest part of the job was when the corporation cut the hours of the sales associates. This happens when retail falls off and our overall numbers are down. Having 7-12 hours instead of 20-25 hours made meeting my financial obligations difficult.

Always, the most enjoyable part of my job was meeting new people and making a difference in their lives through my compassionate care of them and always with a smile. I kept a detailed list of customers special requests and telephoned them when the particular item arrived at the store. Learning about this particular retail business was also a priority of mine.

I genuinely enjoy J. Jill's clothing - especially the Pure Jill & Core Collections - and have found many pieces I love. Coworkers are generally kind and easy to work with, and the store environment can be calm, but not always drama-free. Compared to other retail environments, the culture here isn't toxic in the extreme sense - there's no harassment or volatile personalities - but it's still frustrating in subtler ways. 

Customer service over the phone can be hit or miss, for both customers and employers, and reaching HR or senior leadership is nearly impossible. The district manager in my area is known for favoritism, gossip, and a lack of professionalism. Advancement is difficult, even for internal candidates, and scheduling issues are constant despite clear availability being provided. 

While the store team is mostly respectful, management has allowed false accusations and poor behavior to go unchecked. If you're considering a role at J. Jill, I recommend visiting the store first and interacting with the team to get a feel for the environment. It's a decent place to start or work part-time (3-15 hours per week on average) post-retirement, but not ideal for long-term growth. 

I learned the importance of acknowledging customers and hopefully engaging them in a friendly way.  More sales were possible when we encouraged customers to try on our clothing.  It was also important to find out a little about the person and what the occasion or person they were shopping for.  We helped our guests put outfits together and answered their questions about fabric care and obviously helped them find the right size.  We also rang up the sale.

Every month a new clothing collection would come out and we displayed it on the sales floor.  We were also charged with keeping the displays restocked and neat.  This involved reorganizing the product bringing, new clothing to the front.

The working environment was good, store management was very fair and reasonable.  The hardest part of the job were the evening hours.  Many nights were very slow.  It was not uncommon for there to be no or few customers after the evening hours.  We stayed open late only because the shopping mall required us to be open.  Our clientele were older women and the daytime hours were the busiest.

On a typical day, I supervise one or two associates, assist guests, answer phones. I also am in charge of organizing copious amounts of stock (garments, accessories), shipping, receiving and transfers, donations and damages (J.Jill is well known for their donations of gently used and damaged garments to women who are trying to start over in the World; something I'm proud to be part of). I prepare email reports, tracking hourly reads of sales, units per transaction, average dollar transaction, and conversion. At night, I prepare deposits, make sure the store is prepared for the morning, and secured by motion-sensor alarm. On Saturdays, I validate payroll for all associates and management.
My colleagues are generally supportive and we all offer one another daily training opportunities (ways to improve one's work skills and selling techniques). The hardest part of the job can be balancing selling and tasking. We are also required to learn and remember names and personal preferences of individual guests. My favorite part of my job is organization; I love making our huge inventory more easily accessible, which helps my team members assist guests more quickly when items aren't on the floor, and reduces clutter in a space where a small mess soon impairs accessibility.

Working at J. Jill in Tilton, NH was honestly one of the most frustrating retail experiences I’ve had. Management seemed completely out of touch with what employees actually deal with on the floor—expectations were high, but support was basically nonexistent. You’re pushed to hit sales goals constantly, yet given minimal training and little guidance on how to actually succeed.

Scheduling was another major issue—hours were inconsistent, and it often felt like favoritism played a role in who got decent shifts. Communication from management was poor, and changes would happen last minute with no consideration for employees’ time.

The work environment itself could be tense and cliquey. Instead of teamwork, there was a lot of passive-aggressive behavior and lack of accountability. For a brand that promotes a relaxed, positive image, the behind-the-scenes reality didn’t match at all.

Overall, it felt like employees were undervalued and easily replaceable. Definitely not a place I’d recommend if you’re looking for supportive management or a healthy work environment.

There were high expectations when starting at J.Jill in the Finance Department in Tilton, NH.  The turnover in recent history has been extremely high (80 percent or higher), with either employees leaving or being “let-go” without notice and with flimsy excuses.  The department has about 8 employees who actually perform the work (mostly temp help) in a department of double that number.  The remainder are a social group who take extended lunches and just delegate work to others.   Direct management is poor in that they rely on others (the social group) to report to them on the goings on around the department.  So if you don’t participate in the social twitters and compliment the right people you might as well count your days because they will be short.  You will be intentionally fed the wrong information and then accused of making errors, never mind you will be constantly overloaded with more and more work while others have time to sit in offices chatting.  Be aware if you are salaried, in order to keep up with workload you will find yourself continually working excessive hours over 40 at the same salaried wage.  I did not find this atmosphere professional at all.  If you value your resume steer clear of this place.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Sales lead 51 salaries reported	$16.84 per hour
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Assistant store manager 18 salaries reported	$22.02 per hour
Retail sales associate 4 salaries reported	$13.25 per hour

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