MTP/Assistant Store Manager is just a white-collar title for a blue-collar job to avoid FLSA overtime compliance.
Pros
It was a great place to jump on following graduation and the company sold me on all the upward mobility, raises, and opportunities. The product knowledge training is exceptional [there's a catch... see Cons, below]. The starting salary was also above average at $38000 and the benefits were excellent, with the exception of moving expenses [more in Cons, below].
Cons
While the Pro's seem pretty impressive, the Con's far outweigh them. It's easy to get on with the company because of their rampant turnover, especially in the Management Training Program, where you are just another MTP, or "warm body", as I came to understand. The training is excellent, but because of the high turnover, the company focuses on education that will keep former employees buying and using their products long after they leave the company. As an MTP/ASM you are expected to work 48 hours a week with no overtime, a clear violation of FLSA overtime rules, since the exemption tests can't be met. You are called "Management," but have zero control. You have no power to hire or fire [it's all out of your hands], you have no say in matters that have real business impact and require independent decision-making [that's prohibited], AND the work is predominantly blue-collar labor. A slam dunk for the DOL! The company is also so focused on "making customers happy no matter what" and "growing gallons", so much so that they allow painters to lie, return used product <sometimes in empty containers>, and bully MTP'S [the Manager will NEVER stand up for you, either, which continues the feeding frenzy] until you finally quit or are transferred. I could make a perfect color match, but if the painters made an error and picked the wrong product, they are rewarded for blaming it on the store employee and are given whatever they want. They are rewarded for throwing a fit and calling their S-W rep, who goes to the job site and sides with the customer, then gives the contractor a huge store credit to "make them feel better." All that does is reduce a store's profitability stats via the P/L and reward bad behavior. When corporate sees your P/L is sinking [dedicated employees in Dallas monitor it constantly], no matter what the reason, they call you and the Store Manager in for "meetings." An MTP's job is also to make a minimum of 40 calls to painters and contractors [some stores require 70] to chit chat and grill them about projects they're working on or have coming up. If you don't make/log all of the calls, you are written up [which encourages b/s logs, which are commonplace]. This was most stressful job on the Planet. The store is ALWAYS understaffed, by design, with usually only one employee at any given time to meet the needs of the many types of customers who come into the store, each feeling their needs are more important. With a store full of customers, you must go to the back to fetch most products, sometimes high up on shelves, and bring it to the front to tint. Many stores have the tint machines set so employees face away from the customer, and have oil-based tints located in the back room, as well. While tinting paint, that one employee must also answer the phone, carry out finished product and load vehicles, check people out, counsel DIY'ers on paint choices and color schemes, stock shelves, make worker schedules and certify time sheets, and control shrink*...all at the SAME time. Oftentimes painters call in large orders of 100 gallons or more from a block away from the store, and when it's not ready when they arrive, they jump on you with name-calling, threatening to call the Store Manager or District Manager, who is trained to take the customers side...and the painters ALL know it! Your hours rotate between closing one night at 7 p.m., after which you must drive to the bank to make a deposit [all off the clock], and opening the store the next morning at 6:45 [not paid time until 7 a.m.] greeted by a parking lot full of painters who all need THEIR paint before anyone else's - AND making coffee, too [because painters "expect" coffee], ALL while getting everyone's paint made instantly. The physical demands of the job are brutal, as well. Moving and lifting heavy buckets of paint, even with paint dollies, is grueling, physically draining, hard labor [I'm used to hard work, and it whipped me!]. MTP's don't get to choose where they go, either, and S-W often transfers them 100+ miles from their original onboarding address. The biggest reason MTP's leave after Sherwin-Williams University [SWU], the graduation point you were officially called an "ASM", is being forced to break a lease - repeatedly, all at the whim of management under the nebulous guise of "business needs". Breaking a lease forces some MTP's to either buy out that lease and make payments, have a parent pay it off, get a loan to pay, or just move out and suffer having it as a black mark on their credit. The company promises to pay for your move but then requires you to submit all of your receipts multiple times. In my case, I had to nearly become a collection agent, and was still never reimbursed a nickel for my move. Another of the MANY con's is that the company requires a college degree to get into blue-collar management [definitely NOT necessary to do the job]. In rural areas that are difficult to staff with degreed people, the company sends an MTP to be the ASM instead of promoting the non-degreed "third-key". When the new ASM arrives, as it was with me, they are immediately resented, and I had no support from the Manager or the DM. The resulting trajectory for a naive MTP/ASM is not good. I suggest you PASS on this "life-altering" experience.