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For those of you aspiring to work at Gamestop
bobert
Registered User new member
Registered User new member
Warning: Rant from a slightly disgruntled employee
Now before I get all preachy here, let me inform you that I've worked with the company for two years (mainly out of loyalty to the crew I began working with), but I've recently come out of the afterglow of working around video games, and loyalties are wearing thin. On to the good stuff...
First and foremost, working at Gamestop does "not" mean you get to play and talk about video games all day. The average day in the life of a game stop "Game Advisor" ie: "entry level position" ie: "peon" = putting game cases on the wall and realpha'ing all the cases people cant put back in the right order cuz they doznt know wut them funy squigglez on da boxes is. Once you get the hang of the walls you begin gutting games, which means you take the games people have traded in and remove the cd's and place them into little paper sleeves which are filed behind the counter because you cant trust people not to jack stuff anymore. If you get stuck here and never advance beyond this job detail, consider yourself lucky. I'd love to do this all day, because it's at the register that the true evils of this corporation rear their butt-ugly head.
The only thing this company cares about are video game reservations, and magazine subscriptions. I'm sure if you have been to a gamestop in the last decade you've heard the routine, "any games coming out you'd like to reserve? did you have our discount card?" Now all that's fine, and to be honest, it's really not a bad deal. No one is trying to rip you off by getting you to reserve anything, it's just insurance for the company in that it's a guarenteed sale when the game comes out. Same goes for the magazine. If you dont have any problem buying used games (yes, most of them are in good condition, save for a few exceptions here and there that are covered by the return policy anyway) the magazine and discount are actually a pretty good deal. The sucky part about all of this is not for the consumer, but the poor soul behind the computer. More on that in the next paragraph.
Gamestop requires that certain percentages be met on reservations and subscriptions. Some regions do not do this, but in the ones that do, it makes working there hell sometimes. The percentages rise and fall and generally they're fairly easy to get, but sometimes it just doesnt go that way. Now it's here you have to make an ethical decision and decide whether or not this job is for you. Are you willing to pressure someone into buying something they're not interested in? If so, welcome to retail. If not, bless your non-blackened heart the world needs more people like you. I, with all due modesty, consider myself in the latter category and refuse to pressure people into buying things they dont want. I offer up reservations and the subscription, but no means no when I hear it, and I'll leave it at that.
Now where my story ends is at 2% below minimum numbers. I've always been a pretty good employee. I've been in the top 10 in my region numerous times, however, last month my numbers slipped a bit and the guy I'd been working with for two years who I considered a good friend asked me to join him in the back room. He shuts the door and mr. manager comes out of him, someone I never expected to see in this guy. He'd been promoted to manager during the time we'd been working together, and beofre that he'd held the same thoughts about res and sub percentages I had. We did our best to meet them, but if we didnt meet them it was no big deal, however, this time he'd gotten a bit personal with it, told me I was "holding us back" with my last months numbers. He proceeded to attempt to make me feel like I had let the team down, and put me on some guilt trip that I think he assumed would spur me into wanting to get fired up and get better numbers, but I'm not an idiot and I know when I'm being goaded. So tomorrow I'm putting in my two weeks notice, and contemplating writing an obscene letter of resignation.
To sum it up: Gamestop is not a glamorous video game job. It is a sales, retail job that requires you to make certain minimum percentages. It pays very little for the guilt/pressure you endure if you cant convince your customers to buy things they're not interested in. I can make a 1.25 more starting pay at a fast food joint than I'm making now at gamestop and I'm the 3rd key at the store. So esssentially my post was to blow off a little steam, but also to let people know what they're getting into when they apply at a gamestop. We've got a lot of starry eyed kids coming into the store thinking they'd make great employees because they know everything about games. Truth is, Gamestop doesnt care if you know jack about games, or if you can sell product like nobody's business. If you dont meet res and sub percentages, and push trade ins you're no good to the company and they make it a point to train their managers to let you know that. There are no real incentives while working there. They are a company that uses fear based motivation rather than raises and promotions. I'll end on a quote from a little movie I've been watching a bit too much in the past few days
"That's my only real motivation is not to be hassled, that and the fear of losing my job. But you know Bob, that'll only make someone work hard enough not to get fired."
The only fun coming out of this is I've gained an "Office Space"esque attitude about the whole situation and get to spend my last two weeks not giving a rat's ass what happens to me if I dont do my job :P
Now before I get all preachy here, let me inform you that I've worked with the company for two years (mainly out of loyalty to the crew I began working with), but I've recently come out of the afterglow of working around video games, and loyalties are wearing thin. On to the good stuff...
First and foremost, working at Gamestop does "not" mean you get to play and talk about video games all day. The average day in the life of a game stop "Game Advisor" ie: "entry level position" ie: "peon" = putting game cases on the wall and realpha'ing all the cases people cant put back in the right order cuz they doznt know wut them funy squigglez on da boxes is. Once you get the hang of the walls you begin gutting games, which means you take the games people have traded in and remove the cd's and place them into little paper sleeves which are filed behind the counter because you cant trust people not to jack stuff anymore. If you get stuck here and never advance beyond this job detail, consider yourself lucky. I'd love to do this all day, because it's at the register that the true evils of this corporation rear their butt-ugly head.
The only thing this company cares about are video game reservations, and magazine subscriptions. I'm sure if you have been to a gamestop in the last decade you've heard the routine, "any games coming out you'd like to reserve? did you have our discount card?" Now all that's fine, and to be honest, it's really not a bad deal. No one is trying to rip you off by getting you to reserve anything, it's just insurance for the company in that it's a guarenteed sale when the game comes out. Same goes for the magazine. If you dont have any problem buying used games (yes, most of them are in good condition, save for a few exceptions here and there that are covered by the return policy anyway) the magazine and discount are actually a pretty good deal. The sucky part about all of this is not for the consumer, but the poor soul behind the computer. More on that in the next paragraph.
Gamestop requires that certain percentages be met on reservations and subscriptions. Some regions do not do this, but in the ones that do, it makes working there hell sometimes. The percentages rise and fall and generally they're fairly easy to get, but sometimes it just doesnt go that way. Now it's here you have to make an ethical decision and decide whether or not this job is for you. Are you willing to pressure someone into buying something they're not interested in? If so, welcome to retail. If not, bless your non-blackened heart the world needs more people like you. I, with all due modesty, consider myself in the latter category and refuse to pressure people into buying things they dont want. I offer up reservations and the subscription, but no means no when I hear it, and I'll leave it at that.
Now where my story ends is at 2% below minimum numbers. I've always been a pretty good employee. I've been in the top 10 in my region numerous times, however, last month my numbers slipped a bit and the guy I'd been working with for two years who I considered a good friend asked me to join him in the back room. He shuts the door and mr. manager comes out of him, someone I never expected to see in this guy. He'd been promoted to manager during the time we'd been working together, and beofre that he'd held the same thoughts about res and sub percentages I had. We did our best to meet them, but if we didnt meet them it was no big deal, however, this time he'd gotten a bit personal with it, told me I was "holding us back" with my last months numbers. He proceeded to attempt to make me feel like I had let the team down, and put me on some guilt trip that I think he assumed would spur me into wanting to get fired up and get better numbers, but I'm not an idiot and I know when I'm being goaded. So tomorrow I'm putting in my two weeks notice, and contemplating writing an obscene letter of resignation.
To sum it up: Gamestop is not a glamorous video game job. It is a sales, retail job that requires you to make certain minimum percentages. It pays very little for the guilt/pressure you endure if you cant convince your customers to buy things they're not interested in. I can make a 1.25 more starting pay at a fast food joint than I'm making now at gamestop and I'm the 3rd key at the store. So esssentially my post was to blow off a little steam, but also to let people know what they're getting into when they apply at a gamestop. We've got a lot of starry eyed kids coming into the store thinking they'd make great employees because they know everything about games. Truth is, Gamestop doesnt care if you know jack about games, or if you can sell product like nobody's business. If you dont meet res and sub percentages, and push trade ins you're no good to the company and they make it a point to train their managers to let you know that. There are no real incentives while working there. They are a company that uses fear based motivation rather than raises and promotions. I'll end on a quote from a little movie I've been watching a bit too much in the past few days
"That's my only real motivation is not to be hassled, that and the fear of losing my job. But you know Bob, that'll only make someone work hard enough not to get fired."The only fun coming out of this is I've gained an "Office Space"esque attitude about the whole situation and get to spend my last two weeks not giving a rat's ass what happens to me if I dont do my job :P
No, I'm probably not as witty as you.
Yes, you win.
Now, may we have an intelligent exchange of ideas or are
you just going to continue arguing your point?
Yes, you win.
Now, may we have an intelligent exchange of ideas or are
you just going to continue arguing your point?
bobert on
0
This discussion has been closed.