Pros
this job prepares you for practically any other job out there. I learned how to handle cash, operate a register, become a trainer, perform excellent customer service, and many other key aspects for any job. Many other companies were impressed and respected the fact that I worked there and always kept a smile on my face. the other employees are incredibly fun and respectful people. this makes work a LOT more pleasant. they allow you to take time off quite freely (don't mistake this with the hours you work though (see below))
Cons
oh the many cons of CEC... children, and even the adults can be difficult (and this is amplified when you live in an area of high hispanic population and don't know enough spanish, 90% of my stores guests were of some hispanic origin) the pay was min wage in CA ($8.00) and raises are an absolute joke. I worked there for 6 months, asked for a raise, and was told no. the reason why was because my customer service skills and suggestive selling wasn't good enough. a total joke if you ask me, especially when customers went out of their way to tell my manager what a wonderful employee I was. I also had the top suggestive sales for anyone who wasn't a manager a large majority of the time. they just didn't want to give me anything more. the treatment of the employees was incredibly subpar. I often worked 30+ hours a week and didn't get any sort of benefits. this is understandable in this economy. but here are the things that are not: the break area consisted of a piece of crappy plywood and 2 stools, people hired after me made as much as 1 dollar more starting out with no experience, people hired after me for the same position also got MUCH better hours than me (this peeved me like no other). I often worked from 4pm-1am on weekends when newer employees got hours during the daytime and weekdays and never had to close. At CEC, if you are good at what you do they'll have you working as close to overtime as possible (without going over) on weekends and closing almost every shift (I literally worked 4 non-close shifts in the 6 months I worked there). the good employees with the best work ethic got the worst hours since the store could close earlier. here's an idea: why not hire people with good work ethic to begin with? that way the senior employees (yes, I was a senior employee after only 6 months, that's how high the turnover rate was) could get some decent hours. management was a joke, and incredibly stingy. my general manager was a cool guy and all, but really wasn't suited for this type of demographic. it's embarrassing when I provide customers with better service than all the managers can/do. every employee was required to bring a pen to work. they often got stolen, broken, or lost every day. when this happened I was told it's my responsibility, not the companies' to provide pens when I needed one to borrow after the above happened to me. CEC is the stingiest company ever. I also needed manager approval to give out pizza boxes to customers with pizza left over. most of the time I just gave them the small white styrofoam ones. I looked like an idiot so CEC could save $$$ on cardboard. most of my mangers would have me pick up the slack of other employees (which I absolutely didn't mind doing, because I was always more than happy to help out). this was because I would often finish my work quickly. when it was the other way around, however, they told me to hurry up, rarely made others help me out, or would just sit there and wait for me to finish alone in the store. others also got to leave before I was done. kinda twisted if you ask me.