With summer right around the corner, college and high school students alike will be flocking to the malls looking for summer jobs.

Every year, most retail establishments hire temporary workers for the busy summer season. Especially in Anchorage, Alaska, where the number of tourists skyrocket which in turn creates jobs within the hospitality and service industry.

At Nordstrom Anchorage, human resources and department managers are going to begin looking for summer workers to help with the upcoming Anniversary Sale that starts in July and runs until mid-August.

“The best part is learning to talk to strangers; it really opened me up,” said Senior Racheal Garcia who is also a former seasonal Nordstrom employee.

Nordstrom is founded on making sure that employees are delivering the best service to the customer.

Employee handbooks are plastered with a saying that has been around for years, which is to “always use good judgement in all situations.”

In a commission based environment, employees are not paid an hourly rate except those working at the cosmetics and fragrances counters, at-home department, Cafe, espresso bar and the support staff.

For the rest, paychecks are determined by how much we sold. Every department had a different percentage. For example, employees in women’s shoes’ would receive 10% of that sale, or if they were selling womens apparel, they would get almost 7% of that sale.

With this commision based environment comes the great difficulties which include returns, which Nordstrom does not have a policy on. We have to accept everything. The returns also come out of the paychecks.

“The best part of working at Nordstrom is helping people and making them happy, while the worst is being on commission and dealing with rude customers,” said Senior and current Nordstrom employee, Megan Hawkins.

The customers who walk into Nordstrom, expect a lot out of the  employees. In turn, us employees are taught to be thankful for each sale.

Dealing with rude customers and learning how to diffuse situations is important as it is something that employees will have to deal with everyday.

“The rude customers who act like I own the store are the absolute worst, my name is not on the side of the building,” said longtime Nordstrom employee Katreena Watson.

“To be completely honest, I believe some customers just come in here to be rude to us employees like we are truly trying our best to help the customers,” said Watson.

Although, there are downsides to the job, some employees relive the good times.

“The friendships that I have formed with my coworkers and some customers make the job enjoyable, and these friendships are friendships that I will carry for the rest of my life,” said Bartlett Senior and former Nordstrom employee Sarah Henderson.

Nordstrom Rack is opening up in Anchorage in the fall of 2015, and they will be looking to hire about 100 employees.

“The Rack will be good for us and will open up more opportunities for employees who already work at this store,” said Dimond Senior and EBar employee Judy-Ann Banez.

One other upside of the job is that employees can pursue a career within the company. Nordstrom promotes from within. All department managers, administrators, and headquarters employees are former Nordstrom store employees.

“The best part of working here at Nordstrom is that department managers are very flexible,” said Bartlett Senior and Nordstrom employee Malia Symone Sagatu.

“When I’m going to school, I only work on weekends. But during vacations I work the full 40 hours per week,” said Sagatu.

With the expansion into Canada and Puerto Rico, the opportunities are endless. Nordstrom pays their employees competitive salaries and benefits. The company is also a Fortune 500 company and ranked as one of the best companies to work for.