Upper management at stores can be very corrupt. A GM will go into a store and recruit all of his or her best buddies to be ASMs, thus creating a team of one sided management. If the mangers like you, you'll have a good time. But if just one thinks you're not doing well, all of the upper management will not like you.
Goals are set very high. Best Buy cares more about growth than employees. You are expected to hit notional margin goals and budget daily, even if there are no customers to sell to.
Coverage can be very crappy. If you work in appliances, be prepared to be working in other departments that have too many customers. If you work in digital imaging or personal electronics, you will almost always be understaffed. Same goes with mobile. Being understaffed is not uncommon. Upper management will expect you to contact everyone and work with everyone at once, even if it is just you working. Many of them do not remember their own days as a sales associate.
Promotions and raises are almost unseen or unheard of. At my store, the only promotion I've seen is a computers supervisor being promoted to a (TEMPORARY) assistant store manager. In my department, we have the highest expectations and consistently do well, yet two of my department workers are under 10$ an hour and only one is above 11$ an hour. I've heard it takes close to a year to get a raise.
Very important one - even though upper management may seem to like you, realize that they can be wickedly two faced. What goes on in the SDR (sales development room) is vastly different from what you see on the sales floor. There is yelling, cursing, etc. Be very careful when dealing with management. If they seem very chummy to you, be careful. They either like you or abhor you -- nothing in between.
Always keep the HR phone number handy.
