retail sales associate

entry level trainee manager

junior marketing associate

management trainee

marketing representative

Thrive Chicago

At first it seems to be a very welcoming environment. Everyone is very friendly and help you to get familiar with the field and what you would be selling. Though, this changes very quickly once you begin to hit the field. Each day we would all show up at the office in the morning, then go into the field. Say you have a good day of 5 sales, if you get anything less than that moving forward , you’re threatened with either being fired or told to take a “break” and taken off the schedule, then never being spoken to again. They become extremely condescending, even throwing jabs at you for anything and everything. There is also a lot of issues with locations. Say you’re set to be in one location the entire week, they’ll change it the second you get into the office without any warning. So the commute could go from about 20 minutes to over an hour! Not only that, but often we would have to update/mark people’s locations as at the store even when they weren’t working that day, so it seemed as if they were. It’s no wonder this place has employees constantly leaving/quitting. It’s a good opportunity to get a great paying job the higher you go, but it’s very hard considering the work environment you’re thrown into.

In a typical day, you’ll meet at the office for a morning meeting, go over training, workshops, kudos, etc, and then hit the field.  I’ll say this: the opportunity is real, and it is big; also, I learned a lot working here in the time that I did. However, while the culture is very tight knit and welcoming on the surface, it can get a bit toxic at times. They will teach you how to get results but if you aren’t performing/ hitting your marks within a timeframe thats to their liking, you’ll either be let go or they’ll “walk you out” and basically guide the conversation in such a way that you voluntarily quit instead of them having to fire you.  Thats the toxic part. 
On the bright side though, if you can rise above that and also take the occasional verbal abuse without letting it mess up your mindset for the day, the job can be quite fun. Sales is a skillset everybody should have honestly, or at least experience, and I was glad to have been introduced to it here. 

TL;DR- the opportunity behind this job is huge and honestly it’s rare to find anything like it, just figure out what negatives you’re willing to go through to get there. 

I thoroughly enjoyed my time at Thrive Chicago. There was a lot of sales training when I started in the company due to starting in the sales roll. I noticed that this company focuses a lot on personal development and growth and will invest time and effort into those that are willing to work hard and have goals to grow! There is a lot of upward growth opportunity in the company, and that growth is based on performance not seniority which I liked. I would not recommend this position to someone that is looking for a normal 9-5 job that you can just show up, do your job, and go home with nothing more. Unfortunately, due to some family emergency I was not able to continue working here but I would highly recommend the position to anyone that wants a team that will challenge you to be better every day and will give you the tools to grow! 

The interview process and details differ greatly from what you are doing. you stand around a Costco for hours hard-pitching contracts for AT&T but before you even get to the "on-field" experience, you must complete 5 days of classroom training. your training schedule consists of going into the office every day at 7:45 am for 1 hour of training, that is it for the first 5 days. what management fails to inform the new hires is that before they are eligible to receive a full work week, they must make 4 sales (on low wages) over 5 days. the company tries to emphasize "growth" however,  management will also tell you "your opinion doesn't matter" if you state your opinions. no wonder the majority of their sales team has been around for such short time spans, as there is simply no way they retain quality employees.

The company culture is unlike any other job I have had. Everyone is very kind, supportive, and welcoming. They make it a point to have fun every day when in the office. It’s such a positive environment which helps when you first start off because you will feel like part of the team immediately. This job is not for everyone. It is required to work every weekend and you are in a retail store each day rather than an office. If you don’t mind standing for long periods of time while trying to engage with guests, this would be a fitting role for you. Overall, great company and friendly employers but the scheduling and job responsibilities were not for me. 

Working at thrive Chicago taught me a lot, how I prefer to be coach. It was shocking to see how many people they would hire just to fire right away. When you were doing good at thrive they would say you need to do better. When doing bad or mediocre they would harshly criticize you and compare you very often to people that were doing good. So it’s like you could never win in a job environment like that. They don’t give all the benefits such as pto, sick leave, or anything like that. It’s not even easy to get promoted and false promises are nonstop. 

Coming from a background in Management and going into an Entry Level role was not something I decided on lightly. After the transparent interview with  the Director of Thrive Chicago I saw what the growth/pay structure would look like for someone in my position. I would say in my short time here I've learned a lot about business management, compliance and client expectations and developing a better student mentality. If someone is looking for a hands on learning structure and working alongside experienced individuals this could be a great position for you.

The job is advertised very differently from what it actually is. You stand all day at a Costco and try to sell contracts with AT&T. You do have to go to the office every morning when you work, even if you are not scheduled until the afternoon. It’s a lot of driving. Pay is very bad, especially if you have a degree. I feel like the position is described very differently from what it ends up being. Bosses seem very nice but are pretty fake. If you don’t perform how they need you to at that moment your out. Seems very toxic. 

The company works with direct-in-person marketing. You will be hard-pitching customers in retail locations in various locations. The management team is good at providing a welcoming environment where anyone can succeed; however, the nature of the industry can be difficult. If you are not providing value to the company, you will be pushed out. There is room for growth, but you need to be very proficient in sales and customer service and come equipped with an entrepreneurial mindset. 

Everyone here is very nice, and no doubt about it. But I did not enjoy being thrown into the field after being sick with very little training. I thought the job was more of an office job but all you really do is stand around in Costco/Target and pitch to people for 8 hours on the side of the walkways. I am sure if you like Sales you will love them, they are nice but the job was not exactly as what described. 

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Retail sales associate 29 salaries reported	$900 per week
Entry level trainee manager 26 salaries reported	$900 per week
Junior marketing associate 25 salaries reported	$900 per week
Management trainee 1 salary reported	$54,000 per year
Marketing representative 13 salaries reported	$900 per week

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