Home Sales Manager- was over running 9 departments and training and managing up to 45 employees.
Pros
The company and vendor so sorted discounts were fantastic. Bonus structure was great as well, especially when you have a team that works well together and exceed monthly goals. For a Leadership position it was the consistent learning and training we received on management of people to merchandising, inventory, budgets, YOY growth, marketing campaigns and how to effective run one sponsored by corporate or vendors. Upward mobility was decent if you were willing to relocate to a different state in your region or territory. For hourly employees, if they did their assigned tasks (which included e-learnings) the product trainings, induction training, sales training, Best Buy Culture training could make them into a great employee with great chances of upward mobility, or marketable for other jobs after college. 90% of the time hours were very flexible except around the holidays. They ultimately gave us an availability schedule and if that were put into the labor management system they could not be scheduled outside of their availability.
Cons
As a manager, work life balance was horrible. Even on my days off I would have conference calls, or emails that would require immediate attention. I understand being on salary and working 50-70 hours a week, but if you are scheduled off, then that should remain your time, not the company's. The district politics and promotions based on the buddy system instead of the most qualified candidate was out of control. A lot of people in our district were related which made it virtually impossible to get your own store. Plus no matter how hard you worked, how good your numbers were, even if you were #1 there always was a District Manager telling you how bad you're performance is. Never ever any recognition for accomplishments. Lastly, the goals set by corporate vs district expectations were difficult. If your FY budget is set be corporate at 2% over last year then that should be the set expectation, not the district changing the growth from 2% up to 5% YOY which makes the District expectations completely unattainable. Corporate just doesn't come up with these numbers wildly nilly, there are plenty of professionals up there that know what they are doing.
