Working at BestBuy – My Job Experience

How was it like working at Best Buy?

I will tell you how it was like for me. I will look at my experience positively. Honestly, it was an experience to learn from and grow.

Firstly, I will tell you about the steps and process that lead up to the job; the before scenes.

I was looking to always work at BestBuy or formally Future Shop here in Canada. When I was in my teens I would go there all the time looking around for fun things to play with. When I turned 14, I thought I was an “adult” and wanted to find work that would suit me. I thought I could become computer technician working in the front room servicing computers. That is what I felt I was capable of and liked.

Years later I finally got my opportunity. When I applied, it was BestBuy national hiring day. I gave the interviewers a sense of what I was capable of in my years of learning, volunteering and working in technology. I got along with them I felt. After three interviews I was in.

The final interview was easy. I felt a good connection with the store manager as we both came from the same area in Ontario, Canada. We both did frequent the same Future Shop when we were younger to look for tech.

I really wanted to work in the front room fixing PCs but said I wanted to work on the sales floor first… that was a mistake I think… I will explain.

There are four types of people that work there.

1. There are the stockers (Product Process Specialist) that fill up the stock and arrange things from the truck and back room. They sometimes help customers but mainly wear black to avoid customers who looking for BestBuy employees in the blue uniform. They sometimes were former sales or customer service associates.
2. There are the Customer Service employees that deal with sales and returns mostly. I have worked in that area but you are asked a lot of questions at time of sale if said product has this function or not. I worked briefly but it looks like you need a lot of knowledge than just scanning items and having a great friendly smile and personality.
3. Sales Associate is what I got. This is who customers look for first when they need advice on a purchase or have a question about anything. There are 4 main types of Sales Associates: Connected, Home, Appliance and Mobile. Because we wear all the same shirt, customers find whoever is available to ask for and expect an answer on just about anything.
4. Managers. They work hard to know everything so they can tackle everything a customer asks. Some managers are more sales floor and personable than other who are more behind the scenes.

The good thing about BestBuy I can say is that it is a very brainy knowledge job. Everything is technical and technology based. You are using your head 24/7 because you have to love technology in and outside of work to work here. But being paid minimum wage does not help you get the technology to learn from unless you have a circle of friends that have said technology you need to play with. Or you can spend all day there after work to learn everything LOL.

In the end, I felt I was not a good match for the company. I felt unaligned with the crowd. I thought I was very techy but I found out I was not that techy enough. I also feel that my curiosity with general tech has waned over the years a bit.

I found that now that working at another tech related job helped me work harder and kept me more motivated because of commission. Being a seasonal part timer at BestBuy at minimum wage did not feel right for me. I feel BestBuy should be a commission based job that would give me more incentive to sell. More money always helps. But I guess to be a BestBuy employee you have to love, love, LOVE all sorts of tech to stay.

That is why I think I should have applied to the Geek Squad job to do something more PC based which I know better and feel comfortable with. I got along better with the technicians than the sales floor people. There is always a next time. When I was let go, the manager let me know I was welcome to reapply again for seasonal and that my sales numbers were descent too.

The sales associates that stayed after the season was over were able to sell not only products but services too on top of being extremely tech-savy. My sales numbers for services were low (Geek Squad Device Extended Warranty Protection, Setup, and Maintenance, etc.) because I found it a hard sell.

EDIT 3/4/2021: I forgot to mention that sales people are kind of competitive people and they know how to sell services. They are true sales people with sales marketing genius. I am kind of competitive but not really. I have now found programming something I rather do now. I am fulfilling my childhood dream of making system utilities and game tweaks now.

EDIT 4/8/2021: The customers that come in can surprise you! Like I thought I was a person who knew quite a bit but then you meet encyclopedias or even textbooks people that have worlds of knowledge that knock you. Even some coworkers will have the knowledge that will be so formidable. It makes you want to be so knowledgeable as they are.