Putting Values to the Test

Claire Chang’s first job out of college was in retail, a position so stressful that although she was a New York City kid who didn’t grow up being outdoorsy, she took up climbing to relax. That’s how she first came across Recreational Equipment, Inc., the outdoor gear store better known as REI: It’s where she went to buy her climbing shoes and where an employee in the iconic green vest helped her with the fitting. “It became a place that I was really interested in,” she said. The company had been on Fortune magazine’s annual list of the 100 Best Companies to Work For ever since the list was created in 1998. It “had a great reputation,” said Chang, as “an awesome, great place to work.”

She landed a job at New York’s SoHo store in the camping department in the fall of 2017. Camping wasn’t her area of expertise, but the company gave her shifts to learn about the gear from