Trying to get a job at a cell phone place, help?

[nirvana94]

This is kinda long so there's a tl;dr version down at the bottom.


Hey there guys, i'm trying to get a job at a cell phone place. I currently work at wal-mart for about $8.60 an hour. I've been there for about a 2 years. I think i'm a pretty good employee because within the first 3 months I was asked if i wanted to be a manager over the deli department but i declined because of college but now I don't think i wanna do college anymore. I went to college for general classes for about 2 years. I'm 1 class away from getting an associate degree (I think that's the 2 year degree, right?) but don't really feel like going right now to do that because it's a speech class and the teacher is mean...

Anyways, I work in electronics and the cell phone section of the store is divided up apart from the actual electronics section. The cell phone section is at the front of the store so that means I barely get to talk to customers about that but i do know a good bit about cell phones and have done about ten cell phone activations since I've been working there (It's hard to do them considering I work in a different department)....

Every now and then this guy named Nathan will come into work and put up cell phones and talk to employees about stock and how T Mobile is doing... He's a really cool guy and he knows me really well. He's a Sales Development Representative and said he works only 40 hours a week and gets a base salary plus commission that'll range anywhere from a promised 6k a month to a promised 7k a month so that's really really good money. He said he's worked in California as a T Mobile employee from the bottom-up: regular emplyee, manager, store manager, sales development manager... and where he's at now. Same process: employee, manager, etc...

He said that i'm a great employee and gave me his card, he told me to visit a t mobile store and talk to the store manager after i put in an application. I put one in, put him down as a reference, talked to the store manager, and then talked to Nathan who said he called him later that day to tell him how great I was... so i'm sure i got the job but I was wondering what would it be like to work at a cell phone store?

Is the pay good?
Is it fun?
What stories have you heard?
Any other information.


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Tl;dr
Trying to get a job at a cell phone store, already have over a year in electronics experience. Refer to the 3 questions above.

 

[dan330]

i dont know about working at a cell store..

but you should not let a "mean teacher" stop you from finishing your assoc Degree!!!!!
you worked 2 yrs... and not finish? you could take it some other place and have it transferred in. or even online!

besides.. it might help your career with the corporation (cell company)!

 

[tommy_ed]

I work at an authorized dealer for Verizon, and I can tell you it really depends on where you're working. For instance, in my specific authorized chain, after two years of employment we get to run our own store. As in whatever profits come in are ours, minus a small royalty that goes to the franchise holder. However, most corporate stores give you an opportunity to rise through the ranks and make even bigger bucks.

Ups to working in the industry:
The money is pretty good, and there's a lot of room for advancement
You get to play with all the new toys
If you're at an authorized chain that's pretty easy going, there's a lot of down time where you're just kind of getting paid to hang out
You meet a lot of very interesting people!

Downs:
You're working for a corporation, so your opinion is essentially null, which goes the same for many many jobs though.
Customers.
Customers.
Damn, the customers can suck sometimes.

 

[gallandof]

I work in a cell phone store, and stopped college in order to focus on work. Which that was my biggest mistake. I wish I had stuck with school more. the jobs, decent. pay seems a lot better than it is. I make close to 70k a year but after taxes and such its only round 45k. not to mention how your paid is extremely annoying. You NEED to hav e very good money management skills. Since in your slow months you will be lucky to bring in more than 1k a month which is complete crap. The customers are also a huge issue, so far cell phone sales have been the worst customers i've ever had to deal with, even though i've only been working retail for 7 years.

I would definitely recommend taking the job as it's a great stepping stone to start making money, but don't rely on just the cellphone job it's not a good career. in a year or so once i get enough money in my savings to put a down payment on a house and pay for college up front, i will definately be leaving the cell phone world and never look back.


Also feel free to PM me with any questions you have!

 

[nirvana94]

I work in a cell phone store, and stopped college in order to focus on work. Which that was my biggest mistake. I wish I had stuck with school more. the jobs, decent. pay seems a lot better than it is. I make close to 70k a year but after taxes and such its only round 45k. not to mention how your paid is extremely annoying. You NEED to hav e very good money management skills. Since in your slow months you will be lucky to bring in more than 1k a month which is complete crap. The customers are also a huge issue, so far cell phone sales have been the worst customers i've ever had to deal with, even though i've only been working retail for 7 years.

I would definitely recommend taking the job as it's a great stepping stone to start making money, but don't rely on just the cellphone job it's not a good career. in a year or so once i get enough money in my savings to put a down payment on a house and pay for college up front, i will definately be leaving the cell phone world and never look back.


Also feel free to PM me with any questions you have!

really? I was hoping on moving up in the ranks, like the guy that recommended me is a "sales development representative," and he says he makes about 60 to 70k a year and has been in the business for about 6 years. I was hoping to use it as a stepping stone and maybe a career. I've thought about so many things college related and nothing in that area is for me... I love electronics; I love cell phones; I love talking to people and spreading my passion around about electronics and getting paid for it. I thought it'd be a good field to look into?

The guy above you makes it out to seem like a good career like I was hoping but this is why I posted this question on this forum.

Any other things you'd guys would like to say guys?

 

[TxGoat]

Think of it this way, get past that mean teacher and build confidence in yourself to deal with even MEANER people in your future.

You think that teacher is mean, just wait until you get a customer pissed off because they lost valuable photos on their phone (as much as any sane person would be tempted to ask them if their pictures were that valuable, why use a phone to take them?), lost all their music, can't get their facebook page to load, etc. I'm not sure that I'd let a mean teacher stop me from getting an education. If anything that would motivate me to give the best damn speech I can put together and put the teacher behind me. Maybe a speech on how sometimes "meanness" can come across as insecurity? Make the hard decisions now so that when you get older you're used to them and they won't phase you, or you can allow this teacher to put you in the fetal position where you'll have to be for many years down the road.

 

[nirvana94]

Think of it this way, get past that mean teacher and build confidence in yourself to deal with even MEANER people in your future.

You think that teacher is mean, just wait until you get a customer pissed off because they lost valuable photos on their phone (as much as any sane person would be tempted to ask them if their pictures were that valuable, why use a phone to take them?), lost all their music, can't get their facebook page to load, etc. I'm not sure that I'd let a mean teacher stop me from getting an education. If anything that would motivate me to give the best damn speech I can put together and put the teacher behind me. Maybe a speech on how sometimes "meanness" can come across as insecurity? Make the hard decisions now so that when you get older you're used to them and they won't phase you, or you can allow this teacher to put you in the fetal position where you'll have to be for many years down the road.

Well i understand that , yeah, i'll eventually get over that but i was mainly just posting on here about a job at a cell phone place and whether or not it's worth making a career in? and yeah, i work at wal-mart..the breeding ground of rude employees/customers haha