College job that pays well. - Sports Specialist Scheels Employee Review

4.0
Jul 31, 2012
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

"Sports Specialist" position offers great pay for a college job--base pay + commission. If you work hard and are honest, you will succeed. It's a sales job, but if you are a friendly person who genuinely wants to help people find what they need and are willing to suggest other items, you will be able to make your sales goal. Work with fun people, so you can meet new college friends. If you have a creative eye, they will let you help with displays which is fun. You make a lot of money if you work a lot around Christmas when sales are highest. Awesome employee discount of 50% on most products. Can special order products from the top brands they carry at employee discount rate. Very flexible with scheduling! An overall good employment experience.

Cons

Required to sell their credit card. Emphasis on talking to every customer can end up annoying customers because they get bombarded by employees. Have to work most weekends. Must attend store meetings every Wednesday night at 9 P.M. You must make your sales goal (or get fired). Can't make purchases with employee discount unless product has been in store for a month or more. They keep doing better as a company, so they keep pushing their employees for more and more sales--can make sales people feel disingenuous. If you work in softlines (clothing), you will generally make the least amount of money compared to salespeople in shoes, midlines (equiptment), and hardlines (guns etc.) because the items you sell don't cost as much.

Explore other reviews about Scheels

5.0
Jun 23, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Great work environment Sales metrics tend to be attainable Employees are very nice to work with Team will help you succeed

Cons

Competing with full timers can be close to impossible Sometimes closers are held longer than expected Not much room for growth unless you move to full time

3.0
Jun 23, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

You get to try lots of cool new shoes, there is tons of entertaining retail drama, you can make a decent amount of money if you are good at sales (I could easily double my base salary on weekends), and the discount is quite nice. Management usually seems to care a lot for employees, and many are very flexible with scheduling and make it easy to work around other jobs/classes. There is room for progression, and I was offered a higher position, but the salary growth wasn't ideal for me in this economy.

Cons

You are on your feet A LOT - I often walked 30-40k steps a day during the holiday season or Saturdays (with only a 30 min lunch break), and sometimes you get scheduled for multiple weeks with no days off in between. Getting a good manager for your schedule is also important, because some give only a week's notice before putting out the next couple of weeks, which makes it hard to plan things with friends/family. Part time employees also get no benefits, even when I was consistently working 40-50 hours a week for months at a time. Additionally, there are some unscrupulous characters working there, but most have gotten fired.

See reviews by: Helpful|Rating|Date|All