The Guide to Working at Hollister Co.

If you're reading this, you've either been approached by a reasonably attractive guy/girl and have been teased into filling out an application just to have a "little job on the side," or you're wondering what's going on inside that store with that really loud music and broken light bulbs. Being part of the former means this guide certainly is for you. Here are some tips and facts you should know about Hollister, straight from a current employee (I've been working with them for 1 ½ years part-time, 1 year as Impact, ½ as a Model [currently as a Model). The best way to describe the job/process is to see what happens step by step.

After being asked to apply, you're taken to a computer on the side and you're given an electronic application to fill out. You'll go through several pages of information such as basic facts and hobbies about yourself (your hobbies and reasons to work aren't really considered, as long as you don't put down you're a murderer or anything strange like that). Soon you'll reach a page asking what position you want. Full time positions include various types of management: general manager, overnight manager and visual manager. All management positions require a 4 year degree, and seem to be what you would expect from a manager at a retail store. However, I am not a full-time employee, so I cannot give much information other than that about full-time positions. If you opt for a part time position you'll be given two choices: Model or Impact. These job titles can be quite misleading, since the Model position isn't really a model in the conventional sense (don't be scared off by how bold the word "model" can be, there won't be any runways here), and the word "Impact" doesn't really have anything to do with the work in store for that position.

Let's say you choose Model, and the rest of the application runs smoothly. You choose a date for a "group interview," and wait a few days for a phone call confirming it. Once you enter the interview, you'll see usually 3-4 other people sitting in the "lounge" (an area by the registers, decorated with several couches and armchairs). In this group interview one of the managers (very young, usually in their 20's to go with the young "So-Cal" party theme) asks all the potential employees several questions, much like some on the application. This is just for management to get an idea of who you are. Sometimes to break the tension, they'll ask more light-hearted questions like: "What would you do with a million dollars?" or "If you could have one super power, what would it be?"

With a group interview, most are led on to believe that the people surrounding you are all competing for your potential job. What few people know is with Hollister, this isn't the case. Hollisters are very over-populated with employees, with low-volume stores sometimes hitting 100 workers (my current store has 107), and medium to higher volumes with even more. Like management this also goes with the party atmosphere the company tries to build, due to the fact that more and different people working at Hollister makes the shopping experience feel like one gigantic party. Therefore, there is a very good chance that most, if not everyone in the interview will be hired, which will be found out in the following few days. This clears up a common misconception about Hollister only hiring "attractive" people, which from my experience simply isn't true since Hollister seems to want to hire as many people as possible.

The extra-high amount of employees results in a major contest for hours. Most employees get around 2-3 shifts a week (each shift lasting 4 or 5 hours), with even less during breaks and summers due to college students returning. Your schedule can be very random. Don't be surprised if one week you get 30-35 hours and the next week you receive 4, or sometimes even none.

So congratulations, you've been hired! The first shift is orientation (fully paid), which is standard paperwork and training videos. After that will be your first actual day of work. The "Model" position is described as more "customer orientated," resulting in two main activities: register and room assignment. Register is very straight-forward: if you aren't ringing up a customer, you're either fixing up any messy shelves around the area or letting someone into a fitting room. For room assignment, you're given a walkie-talkie and told to watch one of the rooms in the store (Hollister uses ultra-hip lingo to describe their rooms, with "Dudes" meaning men and "Bettys" meaning women). The point of this is to straighten the room up, making sure all the clothes are in order and looking good, while also reducing shoplifting by monitoring the several shoppers in the store. Hollisters have very high shrink-rates, meaning a lot of merchandise is stolen from the store in a given time period. The Model is suppose to lower this rate by using taglines (usually tacky, irrelevant statements like "Have you met Jake and Malaia?" [store fragrances]) and loss- prevention statements, which are general statements about the shopper and merchandise. Models are also encouraged to interact and in most cases flirt with customers who come in to try and boost sales, in an attempt to reach the "jean goal" for the day (how many jeans corporate wants to sell in a day, varies per store. Very important). Overall, a Model's job is very lax, with much sitting around during the dull moments of the day.

Now let's go back to the interview and say you choose Impact. An Impacter's job is described as more "task orientated" as a Model's. This boils down to more bluntly "stock," and making sure everything runs smoothly by being the backbone of the store. After the same standard orientation, your first day will result with you working in the back of the store. The back stockroom has several large, movable shelves called "bays" filled with clothes, large steaming machines, extra shelves, bathrooms, lockers, and several folding tables. Impact has several activities, such as cleaning, USR's and shipment. Cleaning is pretty standard and straight-forward, making sure the backroom is clean and taking out the garbage. USR stands for "Units Sold Report." They come in the form of a list, which is updated whenever a transaction occurs in the front. The list is full of whatever has been purchased in the day as a checklist. As an Impacter, you're responsible to find everything on that list by digging through the bays in the back, then put the items on the shelves out front. These lists can be extremely long since some stores sell a lot of merchandise, making this job very hectic. However, an Impacter must also deal with shipment. Received daily, shipments in Hollister usually come in very large bulks of 10 to sometimes 30 large boxes, with several shirts & pants fitting in each (containing whatever's been sold a few days before). Impacters are required to unpack these boxes and stock their contents in the bays. Shipment coinciding with USR's makes for a very heavy workload for Impact.

As if the amount of work an Impacter has wasn't problem enough, other factors make their job even harder. The bays (which are organized by a system of numbers representing each article of clothing, its color and style) are usually in complete disarray since Models often rummage through them looking for a certain shirt or pants a customer may want while not knowing or understanding the system being used. Another problem comes when at any given time the amount of Models working to Impacters is usually 5:1, meaning not many people are doing the most amount of work the store gives.

From what I've experienced as working both positions, the job of Model seems fairly easier than Impact. It's pretty unfair, considering how expendable and numerous Models can be while the store could potentially fall apart without enough Impacters, and both positions pay the same wage (usually minimum). So if you decide to work for Hollister, I urge you to work as a Model, since it actually makes for a pretty decent part-time job, so long as you have something else on the side to make up for the weeks you don't receive too many hours. I'll also say please be nice to whoever is working Impact, because chances are they have a rough day ahead of them.