Amazing Company to Work For - Before Late 2017
Pros
This is still the best PC store in retail without question. Best products, best prices, competitive with online selection, and filled with knowledgeable and passionate associates who work hard to succeed. Your earning opportunities are truly immense if you're good at what you do. The commission structure is challenging, but it can be managed in your favor once you learn how the math works, something I highly encourage each associate to study daily. Success as a PC salesman can range anywhere from yearly salaries of 30,000-80,000+ depending on just how good you are. Most will fall somewhere on the lower end of that scale, but that's still pretty darn good money for a retail sales position. The selection of products you get to sell is compelling and exciting, truly some of the industry's top tech is in your hands to play with and demo. Do this correctly and Customers will flock to you, listen to you, and buy from you. Benefits were decent, Healthcare, Dental, Vision, Vacation, Sick Pay. Fairly average, but again, amazing for retail. One of the few job titles I would say is more like a career in the current industry. Done right, the job is actually fun. Some people struggle with customers, but I actually enjoyed the face to face interactions. On average, if you're a PC enthusiast, these customers are a bit more tech savvy than average, so that can (sometimes) be a bit easier to work with... so long as you're also good at dealing with people in general and problem solving their needs.
Cons
Again, best PC store, but that's not saying much anymore sadly. This job was great for a long time, but the company culture has rapidly changed in the past 2 years. Manager turnover is disturbingly high (6 month average for many, a year for almost all these days), and it is obvious to anyone in the business that the company is turning nearly every role into a numbers game in some desperate attempt to increase profit margins by any means necessary. I have spoken with several higher up managers who left, and they each confirmed my suspicions that the company is being horribly mismanaged and someone is soaking it all up in the name of profit at the top. This is despite the fact that we were regularly posting growth and actually seeing increases in our store sales year over year, as well as hitting the sales metrics that were requested of us fairly regularly. Corporate pressure has turned what was once a fairly employee-centric company into a standard very toxic corporate retail culture. Hours and benefits are being cut, slowly, but surely. A new regressive attendance policy was introduced that punishes people for being sick and was much, much harsher than the old one. Some days you work very small shifts(4 Hours + Close, starting at 5PM) , some days extremely long ones (11 hour Saturdays). There used to be a consistent 9 hour day 5 day a week schedule, but it's all gone now. They're now using an automated algorithm that doesn't even understand how proper staffing actually works, while discouraging edits to the system so it can take over scheduling almost entirely. This has severely disrupted work life balance for many employees, and led to increased turnover. Part timers now get almost 'no' hours, while full timers with open availability get lots of weekend and evening hours whether they want them or not. Or sometimes the opposite happens where the system sends too many people home early despite the floor being flooded with customers. None of this was a problem under the old systems where schedules were consistent. Also, word on the street says that full timers will start getting cut and replaced with more part timers with less stable schedules due to lower costs. Management will lie to you about this, but I've heard from better sources that it's the long term goal. This is, again, a common tactic in these types of businesses. Your own performance does not matter. You can be one of the top 10 people in the company on a regular basis and even help increase the ranking of the entire store (I've seen this happen with ambitious top earners), but you are still a disposable commodity in every sense of the word. Do one thing that flies in the face of your leader's ego, and you'll get knocked down and threatened no matter how much you've helped their success. Again, this did NOT used to be an issue. Heck, they're probably more keen to get rid of top performers since they'll probably just see them as overpaid. Cut the fat and bring in someone leaner with lower expectations, right? It truly is a damn shame, but stay away. Some people have worked here loyally for decades and they are finally leaving due to these crude cultural changes. You're getting a customer base that is more loyal than ever, but you will lose it when the people who helped build your business are no longer able to support your efforts and actually create the sales success you so loudly demand.
