retail merchandising manager

merchandise manager

retail merchandiser

laborer

surveyor

ProVantage Corporate Solutions

A company based in North Carolina, which hires people from all over the country as merchandisers. A typical assignment would be, a notification e mail telling you where the job is, and when it starts, and that they have loaded your per diem account card with the necessary funding for room and board. You then make reservations at the hotel of your choice and go there. Most jobs are at night when the store is closed. You must be on time and you must show up. Don't you dare get sick, they will take $60 away from your per diem for every day you are out, and you won't get paid for any day you are out either. So it pretty much will cost you $140 a day to be out sick. Even if it is an emergency, they don't care, they will snap that money out of your account by lunch-time.That said, expect to be working with people who are sick or have dental issues, because they can't afford to call in and get care. Fun things are the road trips, working at night while the store is closed, making new friends and getting away from the b.s. at home. The pay is $10 an hour, $420 a week for the hotel and food. They also reimburse you for the hours spent driving to the assignment and the mileage. I forget how much exactly, but it is a fair amount. You can do well especially if you have a partner or two, and you can find a hotel room to share that costs less than the per diem rate, because you get to keep any money left over. So if you get $60 a day and your partner does too, and you get a room for $50 a day, you get to keep the remaining $70. Sometimes you get a great team leader and it's always fun, and sometimes you get a jerk team leader that makes things suck. You get Friday and Saturday night off so you can go out and have some fun. You will learn a lot. You will probably lose weight. You will probably lose hair. You might even lose teeth. You will probably lose any value you may have left on your car due to the high miles and wear. You will never be able to shop in a store again without facing products on the shelves and straightening end caps. It's great for young people to get away from home and make some money, good for couples without children. NOT good if you have health issues, can't walk a lot or can not work at night. You must have a decent car. Some co-workers are very nice, and some are very weird but it is always interesting. Most stores they do are Lowe's, Wal Mart, JoAnn Fabrics, Ikea, and Dollar General. There are no benefits and no guarantee of constant work, but they are usually keeping everyone busy 9 months out of the year. It will taper off in October and plan on being layed off for the holidays, so sock some money away or you will be very sorry. They do not prepare you to be layed off. You could be sent out to do a month long project and then boom they lay you off in the first week. But hey, it's better than sitting at home broke doing nothing. It gives the old quote "it's not a job, it's an adventure.." a whole new meaning. I have to admit, as weird as it was, I enjoyed it. Oh, and they give you free t shirts. Hope this helps you in your job search.

worked in a travel merchandising role with this company, and overall the experience was fun but very disorganized and frustrating. Projects were often chaotic, and teams were frequently sent to stores without all the necessary fixtures or materials to complete the job, which made it difficult to meet expectations yet they still expected us to finish or better yet come back when they deliver the materials. 

Overtime was common, but the workload wasn’t distributed fairly—some employees consistently did more than others, and there was clear favoritism. There was also little flexibility; finishing early didn’t mean you could leave, while unfinished work could result in extremely long days or pressure to stay until everything was done.

Communication was another challenge. It often felt like there were too many managers giving different directions, which created confusion and slowed down progress. Expectations could also change quickly, such as being required to finish one store and then immediately travel to another.

Team structure and workload balance were inconsistent, which sometimes left certain team members carrying more of the physical workload than others. On top of that, pay is issued biweekly, and compensation has not kept up with the demands of the job. Despite rising travel and living costs, per diem rates have remained the same, and combined weekly earnings often do not realistically cover housing, food, and other expenses.

Met a lot of wonderful people during my 10+yrs employment there. Started as field Rep and worked my way up to Lead. Traveling was a constant; sometimes didn’t see my home for more than an over night stay for a year or more. Despite the increased cost of living over the years perdiem has stay the same. Pay should be based on experience and performance…Person leading the project should never be making less than the new hire with no experience. 
The support from Corporate leadership is lacking and they don’t live by their own core values “Do the right thing “
Projects are stressful because the client is expecting experienced merchandiser/fixture installers and instead corporate sends in an experienced lead and Assistant Lead . With a team (if you’re lucky) of new hires that don’t have a clue and expect the leads to make miracles happen. Then when you are calling telling them telling them you need more support cause your head count is short by more than half and that the people they have assigned to you don’t want to learn and have no sense of urgency they will blame you saying you have to find a way to motivate them. When some people just can’t be motivated cause it’s just a paycheck to them. 
I could go on and on. 
To sum it up. 

THE EXPERIENCE I GAINED WAS FANTASTIC AND I LEARNED A LOT. 
I Would say being in the field as a field rep is great. But if you’re in a leadership role I wish you luck and hope you get better support than I did.


A typical day or night at work depended on the client that you were working with at the time.  Most of the work, though, was pretty easy.  It can be very physical at times, and occasionally the working environment is not ideal, but for the most part it was fine.
I learned a lot about merchandising and retail working with this company.
Management is one of the reasons why I left, so I will not elaborate more on the subject.
The workplace culture was some times a little wild.  Considering you spend a majority of your time on the road, this kind of job some times attracts the wrong kind of people.  Just steer clear of them and its fine.  The fact that you get to travel all over the country, though, is one of the things that excited me most.  Getting to see so many great locations on your down time is a great plus.
The hardest part about the job was the actual traveling part.  At first, it wasn't so bad with 3 weeks to a couple of months spent in one place. But, the company moved in a new direction and the jobs became shorter and shorter.  I found myself traveling every other day, and the stress of moving from hotel to hotel became too much.
The most enjoyable part of the job was getting to travel.  I got to see thing and go places I would never have been able to without that job.

I worked for this company for little over a month, the inconsistency with the supervisors is terrible. There were a couple of times that I showed up to work only to be told they didn't know what we were suppose to be doing. The very last week, I showed up on Monday and was told to go home after 4 hours because there was no more work and the position was ending at the end of the week. I showed up the next day on Tuesday to be told that we would not be working anymore and the contract was over. I emailed HR the next day to ask if I could be moved to a different position only to be told  that the supervisor said I quit, which doesn't make any sense, why would I show up and email them if I quit? I advised HR that I did not quit and they never responded to me. This company had multiple issues, especially with their  on-site leads.  There was on time I was called and told not to come in because the team lead was sick, but he failed to contact HR and tell them, which resulted in me getting a no call no show on my record.  Please be careful working for this company, there is little to no communication and when you want answers, no one will respond. 

Fairly Easy Application Process.

Your day With Team A
(Rockville/WDC) Will Begin Very Fluidly & relaxed. 
However, once the workload begins to get heavier. Your
Supervisor for Team A will disappear and won't contribute a great deal of effort or work ethic.  You'll often find yourself picking up slack for the supervisors lack of.  The pay isn't bad depending on your home necessities and lifestyle. However it is set at $91/DAY
set pay.

Breaks were not given until last Jan 2019. 

The Job is fairly easy. Don't get me wrong. The load is very lite and the employees at TCS (Rockville) are very cooperative and friendly, warm & welcoming.

The team members are fun to work with.
The description of work changes at the WDC location.
the pace is slower and the TCS staff there are partial in cooperation with ProVantage Corp. employees. Majority of the time the workload is handled by PV.

*In my 3-4months of employment, Ive seen a shift/change in TEAM 5 times.

2 terminations (including myself, I was re - hired and fired)
2 Resignations

It isn't the workload. its the work ethic and social conflict the supervisor brings to the team.

Starts off a decent job, pay depends on where your located. Start off a field rep , you’ll come across people who start off at higher positions such as LIT but you’ll most likely find yourself training them while they’re paid more than you. For the most part your paid on time, but once you travel GOOD LUCK per diem (Hotel expenses, Food) is another story TERRIBLE & a HASSLE you’ll find your self just about begging for money your rightfully owed. Their management is rude espicially scheduling , inconsistent, inconsiderate, they’ll leave you high & dry with no travel money in a whole different state at any time an will even take back money they’ve gave you even if you’ve used it already. Bye bye paycheck. THEY HARDLY ANSWER THEIR PHONES OR EMAILS YET ALWAYS READS THEM, they are selective to who they speak to on certain days HR is no help and neither are the higher ups. They hire ALOT of people so they’ll fire you very easily over anything. The work is easy , pay is decent not good enough to travel for and the management is unprofessional not worth it overall unless it’s temporary.

Hi I worked here and the work is hard but its great they always give you another task to do no sitting until break is the rule you always want to be on your feet finishing your task or helping others with their work they are very detailed and neat. they will also hire you to travel with them and they are very understanding and helpful when it comes to work or focusing and personal issues and they are very caring. i got hired to travel and then i got injured the next day i was hurt by a employee who wasn't paying attention i lost my position the co workers were great and funny and helpful. i was soo happy to get up at 5am and get there at 7 my job was everything to me i miss it soo much i learned that hard work and and good co workers make it fun so you can enjoy it. a regular day at work was dirty and tiring but worth it, as long as you focus and find something to do time goes by fast. last but not least i couldn't wait to sit down and eat lunch man did i work up an appetite lol

What is the best part of working at the company?
The best part about Provantage is the traveling to various locations. You get to interact with multiple new people. You get to experience different job task. You get to work in numerous stores. There’s opportunities to advance within the company. The pay rate is amazing. I love this job. 

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
The only thing I can say that may be stressful about Provantage is, the commute from one assignment to the other. I suggest having a traveling partner. 

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
The work and culture environment in my opinion is what you make of it. As long as you have great energy and come ready to work, You should have an awesome experience with your team, other store associates, and customers. 

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
We come in have a meeting, go over our agenda, get whatever tools and materials we need, get the job done, check our work, clean up, get feed back, put up whatever need be, and call it a day.

 You will not get training.  Learn quickly on the job.  

Most enjoyable part of the job: pay.

Hardest part of the job: shelves that fall over.  Do NOT try to get team leads to see your viewpoint.  The more of their attention you get, the more likely you are to get pulled from the job.  That means no more pay until you're at the next project assignment at another location.

Second hardest part of the job: gondola skate crossbars.  They're a safety hazard unless you're sure you'll never drop them.  There is no "safe" way to lower them to the floor.

Third hardest part of the job: having to stay late.  On other jobs this would be a non-issue, but ProVantage jobs are grueling and unpleasant work.  

Meta-difficulty: the confusing, hurry-up-and-wait nature of the job.  You will alternate between having to be fast and efficient and waiting with your hand on the shelf.  

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