Work Part-Time at Best Buy - Blu-ray Forum

krispyjala · 01-07-2008, 03:43 AM

Hi all,
Just wondering, how's working there? Is it hard to get in? I'm just curious as to what's involved, what you have to deal with that you don't like, pros/cons, anything you'd like to add. I already have a full-time job, but it seems like it could be pretty fun to do this on the side if it doesn't involve much (though, of course I can be completely deluded and you guys can tell me lol).

d_rob1031 · 01-07-2008, 03:52 AM

What department are you wanting to work in?

krispyjala · 01-07-2008, 03:54 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by d_rob1031

What department are you wanting to work in?

TV/Electronics? :X

d_rob1031 · 01-07-2008, 04:14 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by krispyjala

TV/Electronics? :X

Home Theater is where I work. I enjoy it, I've been working in electronics sales for a while (the better part of my college career, anyway) and have gained a lot a knowledge and experience. It's probably harder to get into a place like Home Theater just because of all the different things you have to know about the televisions and receivers and speakers but if you have previous experience or can prove to them that you know a lot in the first place you should be able to get in easily.

If you aren't looking for anything too difficult to do a few hours a week try to get in their media department. You'll stock movies, games and cds and help people find the titles they're looking for. Plus you get the same discount as everyone else. But the real kick to working in media is you get to mess with the HD DVD stock and expand the Blu area as much as possible. I still do it and I don't work in media

Delta_FX · 01-07-2008, 04:55 AM

d_rob, what kind of employee discounts/benefits do you get?

I'm also thinking about applying there for part time, media/electronics section as well.

I think that I know a good amount about HDTV's, Blu-ray/HD DVD, games, etc and would do a good job there and all...

What age do they start hiring at? I'm 16 1/2.

krispyjala · 01-07-2008, 05:01 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by d_rob1031

Home Theater is where I work. I enjoy it, I've been working in electronics sales for a while (the better part of my college career, anyway) and have gained a lot a knowledge and experience. It's probably harder to get into a place like Home Theater just because of all the different things you have to know about the televisions and receivers and speakers but if you have previous experience or can prove to them that you know a lot in the first place you should be able to get in easily.

If you aren't looking for anything too difficult to do a few hours a week try to get in their media department. You'll stock movies, games and cds and help people find the titles they're looking for. Plus you get the same discount as everyone else. But the real kick to working in media is you get to mess with the HD DVD stock and expand the Blu area as much as possible. I still do it and I don't work in media

Thanks d_rob. Yeah, it seems to me like working in electronics as a salesperson will require more effort and knowledge. Stocking discs doesn't sound bad (I worked in a library before lol), but I am sure messing with HD DVD section will not be a problem in the near future anymore haha. What's the discount again?

BStecke · 01-07-2008, 05:09 AM

I worked at Best Buy for three years, my fiance still works there. Neither of us would recommend it. As is typical with any corporation, there's a ton of red tape bullshit that gets in the way of doing anything that really makes any sense. No matter how passionate you are about HDTV, Blu-ray, HD DVD, etc., Best Buy has no interest in that and will never put you in a position to make your knowledge work the best it could. They have their agenda and, while they will pretend to advocate employee input in order to promote change, it's a lie. They pay jack shit, yet expect you to know the ins and outs of their corporate business strategy like you're the CEO, and there is absolutely no incentive to do your job any better than the minimum it takes not to get fired.

Don't worry about having to know much to get into a certain department. It's not based on your knowledge, it's based on where they have an opening. Which is abundantly clear when you talk to most Best Buy sales people.

From mine and a lot of people's experience, it's actually kind of hard to get into Best Buy (I think their employee satisfaction overall has steadily decreased, therefore increasing turnover as of late, though). The discount is good on some stuff, not so good on others. It's a straight 5% above cost. Good for TV's, appliances, and especially cables and accessories; not so good for movies, CD's and games. Most of the time, the new release price is lower than employee price. No discount on game consoles at all.

So . . . I wouldn't recommend it, unless it's a situation where you have the freedom of just saying the inevitable "fu*k it" and walking out, or you have the freedom to ignore their bullshit and just enjoy the high points. Honestly I'd try to stay out of retail if I could . . . it'll ruin your faith in mankind, and spoil most of the excitement that typically comes with the holidays, ESPECIALLY at Best Buy. During the holidays it basically turns into a slave camp.

d_rob1031 · 01-07-2008, 05:10 AM

I really can't discuss employee discounts and whatnot. I know it sounds dumb but you have to sign a NDA saying you won't give out that sort of information because BB has a competitive advantage buying stuff as inexpensively as they do. However, googling it will give you a very good answer. First link even.

I'm not sure what age they start hiring at, could be as early as 16... I'm 23 so I'm not affected by those laws anymore. The only evidence that it might be lower than 18 is they have signs posted EVERYWHERE in the warehouse saying if you aren't 18 you can't use certian equipment. At your age I would seriously take any job they gave me and the once you turn 18 ask for transfer to a new area.

If they hire you as a cashier, don't turn it down. Take the job, learn as much as you can about the certian department you would want to work in (I'm guessing Home Theater) and what they sell, how the sell it and all the accessories that people need with their TV's, receivers and whatever. You'll be a shoe in when it comes time to transfer.

d_rob1031 · 01-07-2008, 05:24 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BStecke

I worked at Best Buy for three years, my fiance still works there. Neither of us would recommend it. As is typical with any corporation, there's a ton of red tape bullshit that gets in the way of doing anything that really makes any sense. No matter how passionate you are about HDTV, Blu-ray, HD DVD, etc., Best Buy has no interest in that and will never put you in a position to make your knowledge work the best it could. They have their agenda and, while they will pretend to advocate employee input in order to promote change, it's a lie. They pay jack shit, yet expect you to know the ins and outs of their corporate business strategy like you're the CEO, and there is absolutely no incentive to do your job any better than the minimum it takes not to get fired.

Don't worry about having to know much to get into a certain department. It's not based on your knowledge, it's based on where they have an opening. Which is abundantly clear when you talk to most Best Buy sales people.

From mine and a lot of people's experience, it's actually kind of hard to get into Best Buy (I think their employee satisfaction overall has steadily decreased, therefore increasing turnover as of late, though). The discount is good on some stuff, not so good on others. It's a straight 5% above cost. Good for TV's, appliances, and especially cables and accessories; not so good for movies, CD's and games. Most of the time, the new release price is lower than employee price. No discount on game consoles at all.

So . . . I wouldn't recommend it, unless it's a situation where you have the freedom of just saying the inevitable "fu*k it" and walking out, or you have the freedom to ignore their bullshit and just enjoy the high points. Honestly I'd try to stay out of retail if I could . . . it'll ruin your faith in mankind, and spoil most of the excitement that typically comes with the holidays, ESPECIALLY at Best Buy. During the holidays it basically turns into a slave camp.

Sadly I have to agree with this. With my experience and knowledge I'm grossly underpaid and under worked for that matter. I've asked my Senior and Super of HT simple questions about receivers, simply to see how technical they know it, and they definitely don't. I don't claim to be a audiophile but when they ***** and moan about not hitting certain numbers yet push HTIB out the door like it's going out of style when I'm trying to up sale people to building their own home theater setup, I feel like *****ing and moaning to them. They don't even offer that to people, they just push HTIB on them automatically. Drives me nuts.

I went to work last Saturday and since I'm the newest guy there I catch all the heat. My senior had a 30min 1 on 1 with me on how to sell extended warranties.. and when I look at sales for them I'm ahead of him... go figure. The Peter Principle has a prime example in Best Buy (if you don't know what that is, look it up, it's very interesting about business and promotions).

If you do take a job in sales there, you better have thick skin, customers don't know what they're talking about most of the time and get mad at you for not being able to read their minds about their problems and people above you will yell at you for being new and below them. It doesn't bother me at all, I'm almost done with college, done with retail and into a field that I love and spend every moment I can doing. The managers there are simply the kids that couldn't hack it in college, worked at best buy long enough to be promoted to a salary level with good benefits.

DepTii · 01-07-2008, 06:04 AM

Hmmm, (following your advice on searching Google) Best Buy employee discount is better than what I got a Fry's. Ours was cost + 10%.

Since I've never worked for Best Buy I can't compare it completely to Fry's Electronics, only to say that if you're good in sales, you can go pretty far in Fry's. They promote people to management based on sales, which almost always means a pay cut. The sad thing is, good salesmanship does not in the least bit mean good management qualities.

Corrupteddragon · 01-07-2008, 03:00 PM

Ill give you a good idea of how the company is. Back in April of last year, I was looking for a FT job after having moved to another state. While waiting for my main job to open up, I had to take whatever i could at the moment to pay the bills. So enter BB. I applied for the home theater dept, as I have had experience in the past selling HT. Eventually I was hired for the Digital Tech section, which was mp3/cellphone/cameras/computer. Which was fine, because i am into all that stuff as well.

So....this was a new store opening and we all went to this big orientation where we were required to learn Best Buy philosophy. Afterwards, we started building the store, while doing activities and "tests" to "earn" our blue shirts. This involved learning how to group people into segments..that were broken down by age and type. These were called Lifestyle groups, such as Barry and Jill, Ray and Maria..etc. It was all a bunch of crap, to basically teach you how to lump people into groups and sell to that specific group once you identified what group they belonged to.

But, anyway, so after we start, the HT area is staffed by all these women. Women I might add, who were young...and knew NOTHING about HT. Most of the time they would call me or one of my friends over to help them with questions. They were hired for that section because they were young and hot, and would work good at getting guys to buy from that section. Best Buy NEVER staffs you in a section where they think you have the most knowledge. Its all about what hole they need to fill. Even my computer section was filled with people who admitted they knew nothing about computers/mp3/camera and had no interest in learning it. Was really awful.

The pay stinks, the discount was probably the only good thing there ( cost +5%). and its not about how good you are at selling if you want to move ahead. Its how "corporate" you can be, and pushing warranties and kissing butt. I actually did pretty well there in sales, was the #1 guy in sales and PRP's ( warranties). I loved the day i came in and told them I quit, they were quite mad, and my manager was sad because out of the 50 or so PC sales each week I had , about 90% had PRP/Geek squad attached to them, and the next best guy had a 20% attach rate. I mainly did it by being honest to the people, and didnt push unncessary stuff on them. If you like selling your soul and losing all free will, then BB is a good fit!

krispyjala · 01-07-2008, 03:12 PM

Thanks guys for the honest experience retelling so far. It sure does look like I won't be applying any time soon then lol. But I am sure this is just how the retail industry is and is in no part a "Best Buy only" situation. I'll stay out of retail then, unless it is absolutely necessary for me to go into that sector

Corrupteddragon · 01-07-2008, 05:45 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by krispyjala

Thanks guys for the honest experience retelling so far. It sure does look like I won't be applying any time soon then lol. But I am sure this is just how the retail industry is and is in no part a "Best Buy only" situation. I'll stay out of retail then, unless it is absolutely necessary for me to go into that sector

Oh its for sure all of retail, having been a retail manager for over 15 years, i can attest to that. But, BB is by far the worst i have ever experienced.

alansaysstop · 01-07-2008, 06:34 PM

My brother worked for best buy when he was in high school. He's 27 now, but a lot has changed in that company since then. When he worked there, they weren't strict on there employee discount, now they trace all of your purchases and everything. A good friend of mine has worked at 4 different stores as a customer service expert and she was telling me the quirks to the new rules. She said she bought something for a friend when visiting arizona (we are from michigan) and when she returned from vacation, the manager was asking her why she purchased it. She had to give a writen statement saying it was a gift. Come on, Best Buy, get serious!

01-07-2008, 04:55 AM	#5
Delta_FX Active Member Member since:Jan 2007	d_rob, what kind of employee discounts/benefits do you get? I'm also thinking about applying there for part time, media/electronics section as well. I think that I know a good amount about HDTV's, Blu-ray/HD DVD, games, etc and would do a good job there and all... What age do they start hiring at? I'm 16 1/2. Last edited by Delta_FX; 01-07-2008 at 04:59 AM.

01-07-2008, 05:09 AM	#7
BStecke Blu-ray Knight Member since:Jun 2007 4K collection:182 Blu-ray collection:567 DVD collection:1 Digital collection:1 iTunes collection:1 Blu-ray reviews: 1 Trading Score:6	I worked at Best Buy for three years, my fiance still works there. Neither of us would recommend it. As is typical with any corporation, there's a ton of red tape bullshit that gets in the way of doing anything that really makes any sense. No matter how passionate you are about HDTV, Blu-ray, HD DVD, etc., Best Buy has no interest in that and will never put you in a position to make your knowledge work the best it could. They have their agenda and, while they will pretend to advocate employee input in order to promote change, it's a lie. They pay jack shit, yet expect you to know the ins and outs of their corporate business strategy like you're the CEO, and there is absolutely no incentive to do your job any better than the minimum it takes not to get fired. Don't worry about having to know much to get into a certain department. It's not based on your knowledge, it's based on where they have an opening. Which is abundantly clear when you talk to most Best Buy sales people. From mine and a lot of people's experience, it's actually kind of hard to get into Best Buy (I think their employee satisfaction overall has steadily decreased, therefore increasing turnover as of late, though). The discount is good on some stuff, not so good on others. It's a straight 5% above cost. Good for TV's, appliances, and especially cables and accessories; not so good for movies, CD's and games. Most of the time, the new release price is lower than employee price. No discount on game consoles at all. So . . . I wouldn't recommend it, unless it's a situation where you have the freedom of just saying the inevitable "fuk it" and walking out, or you have the freedom to ignore their bullshit and just enjoy the high points. Honestly I'd try to stay out of retail if I could . . . it'll ruin your faith in mankind, and spoil most of the excitement that typically comes with the holidays, ESPECIALLY at Best Buy. During the holidays it basically turns into a slave camp. Last edited by BStecke; 01-07-2008 at 05:12 AM.*

01-07-2008, 03:00 PM	#11
Corrupteddragon Banned Member since:Nov 2007	Ill give you a good idea of how the company is. Back in April of last year, I was looking for a FT job after having moved to another state. While waiting for my main job to open up, I had to take whatever i could at the moment to pay the bills. So enter BB. I applied for the home theater dept, as I have had experience in the past selling HT. Eventually I was hired for the Digital Tech section, which was mp3/cellphone/cameras/computer. Which was fine, because i am into all that stuff as well. So....this was a new store opening and we all went to this big orientation where we were required to learn Best Buy philosophy. Afterwards, we started building the store, while doing activities and "tests" to "earn" our blue shirts. This involved learning how to group people into segments..that were broken down by age and type. These were called Lifestyle groups, such as Barry and Jill, Ray and Maria..etc. It was all a bunch of crap, to basically teach you how to lump people into groups and sell to that specific group once you identified what group they belonged to. But, anyway, so after we start, the HT area is staffed by all these women. Women I might add, who were young...and knew NOTHING about HT. Most of the time they would call me or one of my friends over to help them with questions. They were hired for that section because they were young and hot, and would work good at getting guys to buy from that section. Best Buy NEVER staffs you in a section where they think you have the most knowledge. Its all about what hole they need to fill. Even my computer section was filled with people who admitted they knew nothing about computers/mp3/camera and had no interest in learning it. Was really awful. The pay stinks, the discount was probably the only good thing there ( cost +5%). and its not about how good you are at selling if you want to move ahead. Its how "corporate" you can be, and pushing warranties and kissing butt. I actually did pretty well there in sales, was the #1 guy in sales and PRP's ( warranties). I loved the day i came in and told them I quit, they were quite mad, and my manager was sad because out of the 50 or so PC sales each week I had , about 90% had PRP/Geek squad attached to them, and the next best guy had a 20% attach rate. I mainly did it by being honest to the people, and didnt push unncessary stuff on them. If you like selling your soul and losing all free will, then BB is a good fit! Last edited by Corrupteddragon; 01-07-2008 at 03:03 PM.

01-07-2008, 03:43 AM	#1
krispyjala Active Member Member since:Dec 2007 Location:Fremont, CA	Work Part-Time at Best Buy Hi all, Just wondering, how's working there? Is it hard to get in? I'm just curious as to what's involved, what you have to deal with that you don't like, pros/cons, anything you'd like to add. I already have a full-time job, but it seems like it could be pretty fun to do this on the side if it doesn't involve much (though, of course I can be completely deluded and you guys can tell me lol).

01-07-2008, 03:52 AM	#2
d_rob1031 Active Member Member since:Dec 2007	What department are you wanting to work in?

01-07-2008, 05:10 AM	#8
d_rob1031 Active Member Member since:Dec 2007	I really can't discuss employee discounts and whatnot. I know it sounds dumb but you have to sign a NDA saying you won't give out that sort of information because BB has a competitive advantage buying stuff as inexpensively as they do. However, googling it will give you a very good answer. First link even. I'm not sure what age they start hiring at, could be as early as 16... I'm 23 so I'm not affected by those laws anymore. The only evidence that it might be lower than 18 is they have signs posted EVERYWHERE in the warehouse saying if you aren't 18 you can't use certian equipment. At your age I would seriously take any job they gave me and the once you turn 18 ask for transfer to a new area. If they hire you as a cashier, don't turn it down. Take the job, learn as much as you can about the certian department you would want to work in (I'm guessing Home Theater) and what they sell, how the sell it and all the accessories that people need with their TV's, receivers and whatever. You'll be a shoe in when it comes time to transfer.

01-07-2008, 06:04 AM	#10
DepTii Active Member Member since:Nov 2007 Blu-ray collection:154 Blu-ray reviews:26 Trading Score:3	Hmmm, (following your advice on searching Google) Best Buy employee discount is better than what I got a Fry's. Ours was cost + 10%. Since I've never worked for Best Buy I can't compare it completely to Fry's Electronics, only to say that if you're good in sales, you can go pretty far in Fry's. They promote people to management based on sales, which almost always means a pay cut. The sad thing is, good salesmanship does not in the least bit mean good management qualities.

01-07-2008, 03:12 PM	#12
krispyjala Active Member Member since:Dec 2007 Location:Fremont, CA	Thanks guys for the honest experience retelling so far. It sure does look like I won't be applying any time soon then lol. But I am sure this is just how the retail industry is and is in no part a "Best Buy only" situation. I'll stay out of retail then, unless it is absolutely necessary for me to go into that sector

01-07-2008, 06:34 PM	#14
alansaysstop Active Member Member since:Sep 2007 Blu-ray collection:102	My brother worked for best buy when he was in high school. He's 27 now, but a lot has changed in that company since then. When he worked there, they weren't strict on there employee discount, now they trace all of your purchases and everything. A good friend of mine has worked at 4 different stores as a customer service expert and she was telling me the quirks to the new rules. She said she bought something for a friend when visiting arizona (we are from michigan) and when she returned from vacation, the manager was asking her why she purchased it. She had to give a writen statement saying it was a gift. Come on, Best Buy, get serious!

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