Tips for getting a job at ebgames (GameStop)?

Hi every one,

im in looking to time things down as far as work goes, my pervious job was working in a mobile telecommunications service centre, doing warranty repairs for Samsung, Nokia, LG, Sony, ZTE and a few others. Now it was a great job but stress mainly was a bit of an issue.. Having to comply to work standards wasn't the issue.. Hmm just the stigma around it. The business I worked for was fully certified by said manufactures but with all the dodgy kiosks appearing claiming to fix stuff (a lot of B.E.R jobs we got came from these places) and telling lies about the people I worked for, sort if made things stressful.. It's hard to explain..
im not complaining about that job, it was by far the best I've ever had!

buut anyway I'm looking to try and get a job more suited to my age, I like games and as bad as it is the only place to get a job here in that industry is ebgames (GameStop).

im assuming there are some people here who have worked for them or have some idea of what they look for in a potential employee.


any ideas welcome

thanks in advance !

 

have no idea about the BLAH, but if you want a job in a gameshop, show em your interests, REALLY display passion for the hobby.
images can help as well as indepth knowledge.
that said, it IS a commercial retailers so maybe the love of money ALONE could do?
SELL YOUR SOUL IF YOU WANT A JOB YOU LIKE, THAT'S AN UNWRITTEN/UNSPOKEN RULE, NO EXCEPTIONS!
eb (or whoever the FK) haven't got a scooby-doo what they're doing, they don't care for passion, just revenue!
(i've seen folks get turned away with overqualifications, they choose the dimwitted/COMPLIANT mostly, as they can get away with paying pittences.
choose carefully for this isn't about games but commerce. (eb was it? used to be in england, til they fucked off, nobody was paying for their extortion. game filled their boots, no change on the premise, just a different face of the same moneygrabbing bs.)
if it was about games, an independent retailer would be the best bet.
small bizzes start out with that passion, and you could be the one to help lift them...til the greed sets in, seen it all too often (isn't that right STAR of games arena? who doesn't have a biz anymore because you was clouded by the revenue$.)
...
why am i even here?! :concern:

 

It really depends as to how your local store functions. Do they go out of their way to assist customer and show passion for the products? Or do they just hawk everything and look bored as fuck at the counter?

If it's the first one, be enthusiastic. If it's the latter, then they're probably only hiring junior staff and won't give a shit about passion or knowledge in general outside of whether or not you can meet sales targets for the store manager to get a bonus, involving percentages for the stupid "Level Up" card, warranties on ANYTHING, pre-orders for ANYTHING - especially the newest, most expensive title that you can shove down someone's throat. That's not including that EB now have to hawk Game Informer like their US counterpart GameStop on top of trying to pre-sell EB Expo tickets and any merchandise not being moved in-store (too expensive for the locals to purchase) will likely make an appearance at said Expo.

My store was initially the first and then it became the latter despite the fact that we were smashing required targets. Regardless, expect shifts like 9-5 and then having to stay back up to 2 hours later in order to clean up the mess that the crotchfruit of the parents that dump their kids in the store and expect the staff to mind.... So you'd be finding leaking slurpees and shit ALL over the place. Failing that, you would end up having to clean ALL the cases and then put them back together in alphabetical order and decide on particular product placement for particular age target groups. Like you'd put the Pokemon games (or whatever else is currently at peak popularity) at eye-level for kids.

You know how when there's a sale on, it's a clusterfuck of red plastic banners and stuff everywhere? Outside of the main table at the front, a lot of the rest are stacked cardboard boxes and maybe one or two tables. Expect to clean rubbish out from there and people attempting to hide games that they want to purchase instead of asking to hold the titles for 24 hours for them.

I haven't worked for EB for few years now but I know a couple of people that still do. I can probably answer any questions you might have but like I said before - it depends on how your local staff behave if the store is quiet or busy as to how they're running it. I can point to two EB Games nearby, one being my old store and the other being a newer store. The older store is still being run by the guy that made it rather unfriendly, to the extent that if I were to mention said manager's name in the newer store - all of the staff will then proceed to tell me of their horror stories. However, the staff in the newer store actually take the time to explain to oblivious elderly folks the difference between things and were genuinely great in customer services terms regardless of the store being smashed/busy or dead/quiet.

(If you can't tell, I dislike kids for the most part. I also dislike staff being dodgy about stuff, which had caused issues with multiple staff at the working newer store after talking with them about the old store. Due to a family member running quite a well known Pizza chain across the entire country, I have a fairly good understanding of retail and can tell you that the whole issue stemmed from a shitty store manager and that my first line of this post seems to be the general thing I've noticed upon doing mystery shopper to other EB stores as to whether or not the manager is good - so I would recommend swinging by early and later on for a couple of days and see if appears to be the same general behavior and atmosphere).

 

^^ HAHA! :witless:
crotchfruit?
now THAT'S a winner.
ever thought of poetry before?! :wink-new:
@ LeHaM.
good luck to getting that 'dream' job. nthego:

 

GameStop (and their differently named branches) is fucking cancer for the games industry. They caused the online passes, promoted store exclusive DLC, rip you off when you trade in your old stuff etc. If you want a retail job that will cater to your love for video games you then your choice would be a locally owned game shop. Too bad people don't support those enough. From what I have heard GameStop is the kind of retail job that chews and spits out employees.

 

^^ they ALL do, regardless of nation.
i suspect 'deus est machina' at play, like the pepsi and coca-cola scam, the same dude..so to speak.
electronics boutique (eb) left because UK was poor to their pocketbooks, they didn't used to be like that, Lamont pretty much nailed em...though i sense discord much deeper than was posted. (probably reading too much into it?!)
...
what we have now is:
GAME and gamestation. (i'm sure there's connections to eb through them in some way, a business name change?)
^^ they charge ridiculous prices, they rob the buybacks insulting customer (as you've stated) and overprice said boughtback item as preowned. staff are absolutely disgraceful DEMANDING cash, not asking politely as bizzes should do. (seriously, UK GAME staff BURNLEY are tools, they expect you to fold, and act shocked if you don't buy into it. not to mention they don't know what they're selling, I.Q. points obviously took a shit on entry, spotty little tykes, run by a dodgy older grumpy $$$-grabbing tyke)
...
asda UK, a food outlet of ALL places does better sales than the retailers, that's why the smarkets branched out into other goods, because they saw an opening.
the shops i used to visit no longer exist (retro to present under one roof) so it won't be a great loss to the UK economy if GAME upped sticks and fucked off like EB did. (well, we have no economy apart from pound shops, supermarkets and pubs)
[edit]
typo.

 

They also buy in significantly larger bulk allowing them to offer much better prices and undercut them.

GAME/Gamestation is a small business compared to ASDA lol.

That and theirs a reason places mark up, generally because they warranty it. CEX for example when I traded my phone in [for vouchers instore, which got me the most cash] they only had a £20 markup, which is peanuts considering they test it thoroughly, clean it and then offered a years warranty on it to whoever bought it.

The complaint about extortunate markups/offers is stupid. If you don't like it, eBay it, sell it locally, to friends, local listings etc. We operate on a market of choice and if you decide to take the time to find a buyer you'll unsurprisingly make more cash.

 

there's a cex down the street from where i live.
it IS better for the 'markup'...but this cex doesn't do retro or anything that ISN'T mainstream. (and buying from there is costly, almost retail new)
i commented on another thread (if you had to sell, what's the best price for collection) and stated i have NO reliable means of online trade...yet!
this instance, was referring to the fact nobody can sell locally at a fair price.
aside online TRUST (which isn't in my nature) the only other way is advertise in the loot/gumtree 'sit on it' til interest in object shows.
asda is a bigger business than game, but still, a FOOD shop selling games? that's a worrying sign.
as i said in that other thread, if it comes to it, i put out my stash onto the street for others to pick up and use, better than binning it.

 

They hire in August, and basically you need to be lucky to get in there for work. If someone else has till experience then you have no chance whatsoever if you have none.

You'll be asked to look at screenshots of games and mention their titles and then the usual jazz of work ethics. How the interview works afaik.

If you ever do get an interview make sure you say the words "I want to work" and then describe your problem solving points. Even if it's at the end or whatever.

 

Cynical answer - kiss arse and be prepared to be a dogsbody for a lousy wage.

Proper answer - sell yourself. What's your CV like? Have you included information on your hobbies on it? Why the hell not?! "I play video games" is good. "I collect video games" is also good. What do you do on here, or other forums? Do you give technical advice? Do you recommend games? PUT THAT DOWN! "Member of a Worldwide video games forum with over 18,000 members and close to 750,000 posts. Contribute technical advice and game reviews" - SUPERB! Sure, it's not what you want on the CV if you're going for another service job, but it's great for a video games shop!

Be enthusiastic! SMILE! Show your knowledge of video games. And yes, retail experience helps. If you wanted to be nerdy, you could find out what ePOS system they use and download the manual... although it's probably custom programmed for them. DO NOT say this is a temporary thing, or that you'd really like to be doing such and such eventually. You want to work with games and you love helping people.

Honestly, though, it is a pretty sucky job!

 

^ to add to that, your CV needs to be different for every job you apply for.

If you get a job in IT it usually talks about the environment. Customize your CV to it! You usually have a passage talking about how what you can do will apply to the company. When I applied for my current one I talked about the knowledge I had and the small business I ran out of my bedroom doing repair work as well as being the family IT person. Talked about how I was beginning to create small domain setups so I could work with active directory and group policy. It obviously peaked my interviewer and now manager's interest as he grilled me pretty thoroughly on how I was applying it and was told I'd got the job the very next day.

I know that's in regards to IT but the same applies. Applying for a place that does primarily used? slip in that you keep up to date on DRM's so you know what is basically going to be dead weight for you and the customer.

Asda also stopped being a food chain years ago and moved into being a Supermarket/Retail instead. Same goes for their US counterpart, Walmart.

 

Welcome to the service and repair industry. You'll often find that you are the lone sane voice in a sea of madmen, who will say or do anything to make money, all the while you stand by your principles and get shouted at for not being 'flexible' because you refuse to tell the client the truth.

I think there's a good reason why I'm self employed now!

 

Considered (& Hexigon may stab me in the brain lol!) Gametraders?

I used to do repair/mod retro consoles (atari 2600 up to xbox/ps2) for the local. Also helped at Christmas as they have 24hr trading (just unpacking boxes, pricing, putting out stock). I admit, I did bitch about it sometimes, the filthy fkn consoles I got to see was horrible. But overall the extra pocket money (was just a hobby job) came in handy.

I just did the first repair free (mega drive 2 with loose power socket) to show I wasn't full of shit.

However, the store I did the work for has taken a slightly new path and the retro scene as well as newer gaming is now a smaller slice. They are heavily into the anime figures, "alternate" boardgames (ie the ones NOT at toyworld, big w etc), plush figures & card games.

 

For real if you where here in Puerto Rico, the less you know about games and that shit, the more they take you in consideration, a manager I know was the one who told me that. I ask why and she told me, they take people like that because of employees who are too fans of games rob the store.

 

One thing, I don't think was mentioned. Make sure you aren't over-qualified. Most managers will not want to hire someone who they feel is worth more to another company in future employment. I ran into this problem years ago when I needed a job and hit up many retail stores such as Gamestop and TRU. They did not want to hire me (aka pay for training, etc) as they felt my previous network engineering experience made me over-qualified for any position in the company. Their fear is that anyone with technical experience won't stick with the company and use it as a stop-gap, before leaving when a real job offer comes along.

 

This will help:

 

Thanks for all the tips guys!
i spoke to the assistant manager, he told me that they start picking Christmas jobs start of September

I am more likely to get the job at apple I applied for ..

 

I applied to work at EB Games throughout the summer once. They put a "WANTED: Sales Associate"-sign in the window, so I dropped my resume. They said they'll get back to me withing 2 weeks.

Two weeks later, I come back and ask what's up. The manager tells me he "is... just really figuring out who's, like, applying... and we really want to find the best, so we wait until many people applied.... and in, like... another 4 or so... weeks, we'll start looking through resumes and invite the absolute best candidates". Also, even better: "At this point we don't even know if we can hire someone, we are still waiting for confirmation from the office"... THEN WHY DO YOU WASTE MY TIME, ASKING ME FOR A RESUME AND CV?

What a moron. The *best* candidates sure will wait 6 weeks during the summer break to get a measly part time job. I told him that his "strategy" is complete bs and left. This is already the second time I had to deal with some imbecile manager in a game shop because I applied for a job there, I should just give it up. Good managers don't work at EB Games, I should've known..

Anyways, this would've only been my 2nd job. Found another job a few days after that and signed... the "Hiring"-sign has vanished for a few weeks now with no new sales associate in the store. Maybe he is just overwhelmed by the 10 resumes he received and needs to go through them first.

 

Don't drink the (apple flavored) koolaid if they hire you for their Apple stores lol. Expect people who don't know much about computers asking dumb questions and make purchase decisions based on how new or shiny it is.

 

The Apple recruitment process is a bitch. I've been through it twice. Very weird experience and takes about a month to go through all 3 of the recruitment interviews, two of which are group based and very strange.