Pros
The EDP gives you extensive, structured management training. You have webinars, online courses, and a 3-day intensive training session with the rest of your EDP class. I do feel like I learned some important things from the training. It's also nice that right out of college, you're in a management position. Upon my Sales Manager placement, I was in charge of about 20 associates - more during the holidays. It's a good way to learn how to multi-task and develop time management skills. I also found that because you're spending so much time at work, you develop pretty strong relationships with your coworkers and associates. You also develop very good people skills, being that you have to manage so many different kinds of people and also interact with many different kinds of customers. That being said...
Cons
All in all, the job was very, very exhausting and unrewarding. I had just graduated from college and felt that I was physically and mentally exhausted at the end of every day, without actually using any real knowledge. I did not enjoy the work I was doing (which mostly consisted of folding clothes, cleaning and hanging things up). You are consistently dealing with crazy customers who yell at you and stress you out, ESPECIALLY during the holidays. During the holidays, you work 6 day weeks for 10-12 hours per day. I would often work until 2AM with one other manager in the store, trying to clean up and make the store look presentable for the next day. Managers are not appreciated or rewarded for doing so; it's just expected. You also have frequent visits from district and regional managers, so if your department doesn't look perfect, you're basically screwed. I was extremely stressed out on a daily basis. If you didn't catch my drift, work/life balance is non-existent. The recruiters told us that you get 2 weekends off out of every 6 weeks, but I never found that to be true.
