Work at gamestop — Reviews by Employees

I have been a GameStop store manager for a while now. I see all these reviews, and it occurred to me that most of them are from part-time workers who wanted to get paid similar to that of an industrial engineer in order to sell video games to teenagers. This job is as good as you will let it be.

Pay: Although it isn't what I would like to be making at this point, it is MUCH better than my previous experience in retail.

Respect: This is a 2-way street. I have a DM who like me, is a Christian, and treats me the way he wishes to be treated. I expect that to remain the same as long as I treat him with respect also. The company respects us as employees much more than other places I worked (RadioShack, Friedman's). They don't change the pay plan every year or ask you to do the impossible. Many corporate decisions are only made after a poll of the employee pool. I have never, contrary to these other submissions, had anyone come in my store and threaten my job. I have had a couple of superiors that didn't seem to have the knack for motivation, but most of them came in and tried to help us do our job better.

Benefits: Pretty swell compared to other retailers. The insurance is great. I get stock options. Vacation, sick time, personal days.

Job Security: Do your job, and you'll be okay. Do it honestly, and you'll always have it. (BTW, "Job Security" does not mean "store security". For those of you wanting armed cops in every store, that's never gonna happen.)

Work/Life Balance: Not bad. I only work 2 or 3 6-day weeks at Christmas. If you are working more than 42 or 44 hours a week on a normal basis, you need to learn how to schedule or get employees that can work the required hours. In addition, whenever we ARE required to work 6 days, they always give us a comp day to make up for it.

Career Potential/Growth: This one I'm not sure about. I have been working toward a promotion for over the past 3 years. I don't know if I'm making progress or not, and this has been an ongoing discussion between my DM and me for quite some time. I haven't anything else to say other than I am still waiting and once I get my chance, they'll be glad I did.

Location: These stores are everywhere, period.

Co-Worker Competence: Mine are great. This category mostly depends on the manager at that location. If this manager is the kind of guy working "60+ hours per week", he probably doesn't know anything about hiring good people to operate his store. You have to look at the person managing the unit/district before blaming the entire company for having idiots work in a particular location.

Work Environment: Same as above. This is up to the manager/DM. Seriously there's no way to have a good work environment without a good manager. Mine is good so that's my opinion.

Overall, it's been great working for Gamestop. I am sorry for any of you who have had a bad experience, but you have to either chalk it up to bad managers, bad DM's, or maybe your own attitude about working in retail. Remember, this and other companies have to make a PROFIT. That's why the trade values seem a little low. If you take in 20 copies of Gran Turismo that sell for $3 and only sell 4, you'll lose your shirt if you're giving $2.75 each for them. Do the math. If you're not happy here, go somewhere else and test the water. For those of you that are going to call me a tool, go ahead. I have worked for some of the most non-caring companies in retail, and Gamestop is head and shoulders above them. I speak from experience.

I am an Assistant Manager currently working for the company. It is easy to understand that some people absolutely hate working for this company after a while. I think a large part of that is who you work for. Personally, I work under a very good DM and thats why my experience here has been good. I started out as a seasonal hire in 06, was let go, rehired march 07, promoted to third key in october 07 then to ASM august 08.

pay- Though my pay is good in comparison to other ASMs in my area, i know and have experienced the low pay that comes with being a game advisor. At that time minimum wage in VA was $5.25 an hour and i barely made just more then that. I was fortunate to be able to advance in the company and get pay raises because my DM was there to notice my hard effort.

respect- i have a good amount of respect from my DM, SM and co workers. They work hard for me and i work hard for them.

benefits- two weeks of vacation, two weeks of paid sick leave, two personal days is what to expect as an ASM in the company. Anything below is not considered full time therefore no vacation.

job security- in my area, due to the high number of gamestops (probably 30 in a 25 mile radius), positions are open frequently so i have never seen anyone laid off for no reason. The only firings i have witnesses to date is an ESRB firing (getting fired because a mature game was sold to a minor without parental consent) and a firing due to fraud. So i'll say as long as you keep your nose clean, you'll be fine.

work/life balance- this is probably the low point in this company, especially if you are a SM. Though i am not an SM, i have been a temp SM and this was during the holiday season. I worked 65 hours, 6 days a week during this period to make sure everything went smoothly. Wasn't able to have much of a life during this period. Also based on what i have witnessed during my time here, SMs are expected to cover for anyone calling out and are expected to spend more time in their stores if the DM feels something needs to get done. I've seen some managers pull 80 hour weeks during non holiday periods. Overall, your work/life balance will be fine if you are in a good store and is operationally sound but if you are in a store with incompetent employees or employees who call out a lot, then you will find yourself in your store more then having a life. Now speaking from an ASM view, you are fine. work 35 to 40 hours 5 days a week. Balance really isnt an issue until you are an SM.

Career/potential growth- In my area, the DM always opts to promote and hire from within first before considering other options. I have been promoted twice in a year span along with temp managing a store. In this area, growth is definitely possible. Make sure to pay attention though because I know there are DMs out there who consider outsiders first for open management positions.

location- i live in a central location to about 15-20 gamestops within a 15-20 minute drive so location is excellent.

co-worker competence- i've worked for nothing but fair, hard working managers in the 5 different stores i've worked in. The lower level employees are all hard working and make my job easier.

work environment- is very good. i knew most of the people in my current store personally before i was moved here therefore it is easy for me to get along with them. the only minor gripe is that there are customers who just dont understand and some of them will give you a tough time. Nothing you can really do except continue to be polite.

Final statement- I know reviews of working for gamestop will vary depending on experience. if you are considering working for the company, make sure you know the DM and the SMs first because ultimately that will make your experience either good or bad. I got lucky and ended up working in a good area and for good people. Because there are so many stores in this area, I know and are friends with a lot of the employees. So if the people are good, your experience will be good.

Minimum wage when you join the company at the bottom store clerk (GA) level, in my area that is normal for a retail job. The kicker is the yearly raises are abysmal 15 cents if you’re lucky, oh and if minimum wage increased during that year….you get no raise. Lets say you were lucky enough to get promoted to a key holder position, you’ll get a dollar raise, even though you now have ALL the same responsibilities the assistant manager has.

Respect- You sell video games enough said, unless we're talking about respect among people still in high school.

I wouldn't know I don't get any benefits because I work 39.8 hours a week. I do get to check out video games for free so I guess I can count that as a benefit.

They are very flexible with your schedule never had any problems getting the sick or vacation days that I needed.

Promoting from within the company is very very common.

Location, there are more gamestops in my area than McDonald's.

Co-Workers- Are awesome. The company gets stacks of resumes everyday, the only way to get in is to know someone who already works there so it creates a very tight-nit you are all my friends atmosphere.

Its retail, there is nothing hard about retail.

Gamestop is a rather large company with a rather large number of rules. Most large companies do. When you know these rules and abide by them, it is a good company to work for. Not all bosses are great ones, but mine is fair and respectful and works hard for employees that work hard for him. Being a Gamestop employee is both demanding and rewarding. Let me Explain...

The Pay is very poor for part-timers. But most of these employees are not here for long because they don't want to work! They think working at a game store is all fun and games. Low pay is a way to weed out these poor workers. Managers actually get paid pretty well, but there are only three positions per store.

Respect is relevant to your paticular boss and is hard to rate. Don't judge the entire company because one guy is a jerk. Since job security is good, some of the "old-timers" are still around, and they tend to rule with an iron fist.

Benefits...are...wonderful. Full time employees get tremendous benefits. Dental, Vision, the whole nine yards. You can get car insurance, home owners insurance, renters insurance, etc. all through the company at prices that are a fraction of what you would pay elsewhere, all through the company! Two weeks paid vacation is awarded after only six months full-time service.(check it, it's in the handbook) This more than makes up for the time working for minimum wage when you started out.

Job Security, as I mentioned, is very good. The only people I've ever seen get fired where stealing, and it happens often. If your honest, your fine.

Work/life balance is a stupid question. You work to live and live to work. Store managers work 44 hours a week when it isn't X-mas time, and they get extra days off the rest of the year for working more than that over the hollidays. Everyone else works less than 40 hours per week.

Growth? The industry is not going anywhere. If you think people would rather buy their games at Mal-Wart where they have no product knowledge, your mistaken. I don't know how many people I've helped figure out their PS3 because the store they bought it from aren't as well tained as we are.

Location, 4000+ stores in the states, 5000+ globally.

Co-worker competence. I don't know how it works at other stores. But we get trained well, and focus on customer service first.

Work environment, again, every store is different. At the stores I've worked at, the environment is great.

Bottom Line. I'm not rich, but I don't loath my job. We've all had bosses that were jerks at times, and been passed over for promotions when we shouldn't have been. That's life.

Out of all the jobs I have worked for, this has been the best... Which isn't saying much, nor is it really an insult.

Pay - The pay is okay, at best. I'm off minimum wage and have actually received a 30 cent raise in the few months I've been there... So why so low on pay? No hours. Period. I'm working a shift a week and as this is currently my main source of income (I'm struggling, badly, to find a secondary job to help increase my income... But the market just doesn't seem to like me and retail in general seems to be comatose at best), it hurts badly. I don't get enough money to survive more than a week off of... I'm just glad I have a place to live where I don't have to pay rent or else I'd be on the street, starving. I understand WHY we don't have the hours, but it still ticks me off to no end.

Respect - Very high where I am. My store managers are all absolutely amazing and consistently give you praise when you do well. If you don't, then they respectfully point out where you're not doing well and will work with you to improve that. So yeah... I would say that on the lower rung of the ladder, that you're respected. Beyond that? I'm not sure. I don't know the DM or RM that well, so I can't pass any judgment.

Benefits - I don't take advantage of them. I've got access to hospital employee level benefits... So I'm leaving this blank.

Job Security - It's up in the air. I left this on the negative side because there have been some physical security issues that I'm aware of at my location. As for keeping your job, it seems to be based, heavily, on your sales numbers. Which should only be an aspect of what keeps you there, instead of the super-major driving force.

Work/Life Balance - I don't have much to say. I gave this one a positive number since, well, working as few hours as I do allows for me to have a lot of free time.

Career Potential/Growth - It seems like you can get promoted fairly easily (and not because managers all over the board quit every ten seconds, either) since it's based on sales numbers. Be a good seller, get more hours and you're more likely to be considered for promotion. At the same time, this hurts it. You're almost exclusively evaluated on how well you can sell the subscriptions and reservations, which I think is a bad thing. You should be considered depending on all sorts of things; dependability, job performance, customer service, sales, etc.

Location - There are a billion locations in my area that are all super easy to get to, even on bus lines. Yeah, they rule in that department in my opinion.

Co-Worker Competence - It seems most people agree; your co-workers rock here. I have no issues with any of them and they work just as hard as I do, which creates an odd situation when management is trying to figure out who is the best out of them all. >.>

Work Environment - We have a fairly clean store that happens to be rather old. It's in a very fast paced area that gets disorganized really quickly. I left it at a 0 because there's some things wrong with it that I can't identify and some things I can't identify that I like about it.

Overall, it's a decent starter job. If you want to make it a career, you can... Just don't think that this is a retail job... As it's more sales intensive than most retail jobs. Oh! The incentives are pretty good, too. You get discounts on things you simply shouldn't. ^_^

Gamestop is an amazing company to work for. I mean, I get to sell video games to make a living! Now, when career potential is concerned, with the recent buy out of EB games, there are more chances for upward movement then ever before. In my experience with the company, hard work and great results are always praised. I love my job!