Pros
The ability to help others. The ability to teach, to feel a connection to real people. If you’re lucky, the store culture will be great. Pay is better than most grocery stores. Best way to get the most pay is to sell phones, but don’t do it if the position is for a specific carrier. Hourly pay eligibility is the same as any other entry level advisor, and you only get the bonus for your specific carrier. Working as a normal advisor, your bonus eligibility opens up to all 5 (possibly 6) carriers Best Buy activates.
Cons
Pay is not adequate for the work; Best Buy pays like Target, but expects WAY MORE out of you than even Verizon, AT&T, and TMobile salespeople. At LEAST $10,000 a year less in pay than I am earning at my new job which demands way less of me. At Verizon corporate. No matter what the job description says, if you are an advisor, you are expected to sell customers credit cards and a $199/year membership. If you do not meet the (sometimes outrageous) expectations (at least in the phone department, where a credit card is useless because phones are already financed on an installment billing agreement), you are looked down upon. I worked for three total stores, and worked for the company long enough to familiarize myself with my district. This is a commonplace experience. I worked my butt off for this company to the point I went from weighing 135lbs to 110lbs. I begged for 6 months for a solution to being overworked, which would simply be following company policy (in terms of the staffing, which is nonexistent, and the expectations of my job). On top of that, as a Verizon advisor, I lost probably $1000 in bonus pay over 3 months due to the fact the lack of staff forced me to activate phones (like AT&T and TMobile) that I was not able to be paid for, because of my job description & company policy. Managers never cared and never helped, and it only got worse over time. On the other side, a new-hire who wasn’t even capable of the most basic aspects of his job, was given keys and a raise and allowd overtime, based purely on the fact he sold enough cards and memberships. It was not a surprise when I heard him offer a customer a discount to sign up. But hey! We were constantly showed company propaganda about how great it is to work this company. The $2500 hope fund charity didn’t help much with my medical debt when surgeries cost $25,000 apiece and I was on track to lose about $4,000 annually in unpaid bonuses, but I’m so glad other employees found happiness here. I once loved the job, but the job didn’t love me back, apparently.