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I recently applied for a job at my local GW and have passed through onto the phone interview stage. I'm very confident as to my ability to get the job, but it struck me today that i have no idea as to either the basic pay or the benefits of being a GW sales assistant.
So i was wondering if anyone could enlighten me?

It's on their website somewhere. IIRC, a 'manager' starts on £14k, or £16k in London, but gets an increase after their training period of a year. There's additional pay in bonuses based on sales. Basically, it's not great, but that's retail.

I do not personally work at a GW store, but I am very good members with the manager and one of the staff of my local GW store. A while back we were chatting an I if I remember correctly, they said that they get a discount on all GW products with the exception of Forgeworld and Black Library. Another benefit is the moral feel of helping people. Lastly, I have no idea bout pay.

Hope that helps a little

Regards, Joshua

 Beast Warrior wrote:
I do not personally work at a GW store, but I am very good members with the manager and one of the staff of my local GW store. A while back we were chatting an I if I remember correctly, they said that they get a discount on all GW products with the exception of Forgeworld and Black Library. Another benefit is the moral feel of helping people. Lastly, I have no idea bout pay.

Hope that helps a little

Regards, Joshua

That's a hilarious response. It's kind of like telling a friend, "Yeah, your blind date will be here in a few mins, she's got a really great personality!"

TBH I've been blowing 75% of my wages on 40K for the past ten years, so the discount will not only encourage me to buy more models, but also to bankrupt myself at a much slower and more painful speed

 Howard A Treesong wrote:
It's on their website somewhere. IIRC, a 'manager' starts on £14k, or £16k in London, but gets an increase after their training period of a year. There's additional pay in bonuses based on sales. Basically, it's not great, but that's retail.

Wow, I wonder what the bonuses come to? 16k GBP, is $25k USD or $14 an hour. Seems a bit low for management, but I've never worked retail management.

The discount on GW is IIRC pretty hefty. Friend of a friend worked for GW (though I think he worked at head office) and his discount was pretty big.

I guess you have to work there x amount of months though.

Well, there's this, but it's from 2008:

http://www.games-workshop.com/MEDIA_CustomProductCatalog/m670075a_Games_Workshop_Benefits.pdf

If you're going to be a shop assistant I'd imagine it would be minimum wage.

Aye Miminum wage no doubt, I reckon its got to be enjoyable though surely?

Not that I've ever worked retail on the account that id constantly be fighting the urge to bludgeon rude people to death, but I would guess a decent discount, and actually working on something you are interested in is the way forward.

I mean, if your going to work minimum wage retail, its got to be better to work in GW and chat about gak you like all day with customers than work in Sainsburys or WH Smiths or anything.

Don't let the naysayers get you down.. It might suck, but you might love it, so suck it and see.

Good luck with your application!

 BryllCream wrote:
The discount on GW is IIRC pretty hefty. Friend of a friend worked for GW (though I think he worked at head office) and his discount was pretty big.

I guess you have to work there x amount of months though.

It's so cute that people still think that their 50% discount is "hefty". Back in the day GW staff could order ANYTHING from mail order by weight, for £3 a kilo IIRC. Crisis Battlesuits for example cost you something in the region of 80p.

I remember when they abolished this and staff were pretty much blowing their entire wage packets on orders just to stock up.

Eilif wrote:

 Howard A Treesong wrote:
It's on their website somewhere. IIRC, a 'manager' starts on £14k, or £16k in London, but gets an increase after their training period of a year. There's additional pay in bonuses based on sales. Basically, it's not great, but that's retail.

Wow, I wonder what the bonuses come to? 16k GBP, is $25k USD or $14 an hour. Seems a bit low for management, but I've never worked retail management.

It's not really management. There's very little decision making, there are many automated systems and you have nobody working for you. But it sounds more flattering than 'sole staff member! '

They're doing you a favour by calling it a managerial position, too; ______ Manager looks far, far better on a CV than ______ Assistant, and more and more places want people with at least some managerial experience.

Given how terribly GW treats its customers and fanbase, I can only shudder at how badly they'd treat their employees (who weren't execs. anyway).

 Grimtuff wrote:

It's so cute that people still think that their 50% discount is "hefty"

The discount for other retail work hovers at 10-15%. So 50% is pretty sweet, expect to be popular with your friends.

 Grimtuff wrote:

 BryllCream wrote:
The discount on GW is IIRC pretty hefty. Friend of a friend worked for GW (though I think he worked at head office) and his discount was pretty big.

I guess you have to work there x amount of months though.

It's so cute that people still think that their 50% discount is "hefty".

50% off is a hefty discount, by any definition of the words discount or hefty.

 Avatar 720 wrote:
They're doing you a favour by calling it a managerial position, too; ______ Manager looks far, far better on a CV than ______ Assistant, and more and more places want people with at least some managerial experience.

It looks better on the CV, but trust me, the very second you were questioned on your role in an interview, the interviewer would see right through it. So it might help you get an interview, but it wouldn't really help you get a 'proper' manager job.

 Harriticus wrote:
Given how terribly GW treats its customers and fanbase, I can only shudder at how badly they'd treat their employees (who weren't execs. anyway).

To be fair, nearly any retail job puts you in a position of being crapped upon by higher-ups with explosive diarrhoea; it's just a case of finding ones with less crap, more Immodium and more benefits. The fact that GW gives you 50% off is a pretty hefty benefit on its own, but combined with what it adds to your CV, it probably makes it one of the better positions, at least for someone who doesn't want to stay there for life.

To list a few things you can add to your CV from it:
Working to tight sales targets.
Working with a wide variety of people, ranging from adults to children, often for hours on end.
Being able to juggle many tasks at once.
Managerial experience in handling money, working to deadlines, and shop-floor work.

And that's only listing a few I can see you being able to at least blag very well from an outside position. How many people try to walk into a job with all those skills? Not only does it make your flexible in the workplace, it also means you can apply for more places.

EDIT: No, I do not work for GW recruitment.

 BryllCream wrote:

 Grimtuff wrote:

It's so cute that people still think that their 50% discount is "hefty"

The discount for other retail work hovers at 10-15%. So 50% is pretty sweet, expect to be popular with your friends.

You do know using your discount for your friends is an instant dismissal right? With GW's Gestapo esq. culture you'll be gone very quickly when you do that.

I remember a friend of mine getting investigated by his area manger for being accused of this. The manager had printed off about 3 years worth of staff order receipts. The staffer's response? Fine go through my *bathtub* (yes, really) full of mail order box and sprues and check it all.

They have a dickish policy of protecting their discount and whilst 50% may look hefty, it's really not compared to what has been stripped away from GW staff benefits. 50% is a pittance. It looks good nowadays, but spend 5 minutes with any person who's been with GW for more than 5 years and they'll tell you otherwise.

Grimtuff wrote:

 BryllCream wrote:

 Grimtuff wrote:

It's so cute that people still think that their 50% discount is "hefty"

The discount for other retail work hovers at 10-15%. So 50% is pretty sweet, expect to be popular with your friends.

You do know using your discount for your friends is an instant dismissal right? With GW's Gestapo esq. culture you'll be gone very quickly when you do that.

Whut? They can't demand to go through your personal belongings. Yes if you take the piss then you'll get fired. But if you buy two or three boxes a month and every now and then pass one on to a friend, they can't prove anything and it's essentially zero risk. My friend's brother in law works for GW and he got a few large boxes a while back.

azreal13 wrote:

 Avatar 720 wrote:
They're doing you a favour by calling it a managerial position, too; ______ Manager looks far, far better on a CV than ______ Assistant, and more and more places want people with at least some managerial experience.

It looks better on the CV, but trust me, the very second you were questioned on your role in an interview, the interviewer would see right through it. So it might help you get an interview, but it wouldn't really help you get a 'proper' manager job.

Managers != managers. Hence why if you say you used to be a ______ manager, they'll ask you to explain exactly what it was you did. It's not being disingenuous to put "Store manager" on your CV.

 BryllCream wrote:

azreal13 wrote:

 Avatar 720 wrote:
They're doing you a favour by calling it a managerial position, too; ______ Manager looks far, far better on a CV than ______ Assistant, and more and more places want people with at least some managerial experience.

It looks better on the CV, but trust me, the very second you were questioned on your role in an interview, the interviewer would see right through it. So it might help you get an interview, but it wouldn't really help you get a 'proper' manager job.

Managers != managers. Hence why if you say you used to be a ______ manager, they'll ask you to explain exactly what it was you did. It's not being disingenuous to put "Store manager" on your CV.

Uh..what?

Your comment makes no sense in the context of mine. You would be totally entitled to put it on your CV.

My point was that as soon as you explained what the job involved, any half competent recruiter would see that it's not really much more responsibility than a keyholder in a larger retail store. At best you could argue it is closer to deputy/assistant manager in a more traditional retail structure.

 Grimtuff wrote:

 BryllCream wrote:

 Grimtuff wrote:

It's so cute that people still think that their 50% discount is "hefty"

The discount for other retail work hovers at 10-15%. So 50% is pretty sweet, expect to be popular with your friends.

You do know using your discount for your friends is an instant dismissal right? With GW's Gestapo esq. culture you'll be gone very quickly when you do that.

I remember a friend of mine getting investigated by his area manger for being accused of this. The manager had printed off about 3 years worth of staff order receipts. The staffer's response? Fine go through my *bathtub* (yes, really) full of mail order box and sprues and check it all.

They have a dickish policy of protecting their discount and whilst 50% may look hefty, it's really not compared to what has been stripped away from GW staff benefits. 50% is a pittance. It looks good nowadays, but spend 5 minutes with any person who's been with GW for more than 5 years and they'll tell you otherwise.

So let me get this straight, because a few years back the discount was bigger, therefore the current one isn't one?

If I get a kilo of free cake of a man in the pub, but the next night he gives 2 kilos of cake to another stranger, he didn't give me "a pittance" he gave me a kilo of cake for nothing.

You are displaying zero logic, and it smacks of the same endless crying we get from a small minority of posters on here.

A 50% discount is a 50% discount, its not "nothing" just because it happened to be larger once upon a time. Its not nothing because you aren't allowed to get loads of stuff for your mates, and its not nothing because you are very very angry with Games Workshop for not letting you squeal like a child and run about the store stuffing your trousers with free things.

A 50% discount off a 30% overpriced product isn't as good as it might be!

I agree with the folks who are saying 50% is pretty great, even if it isn't what it used to be.

I worked sales at Guitar Center about 8 years ago and employees got gear at cost plus "Pack" (shipping plus a couple of percentage points) . Except for a few things that approached 50%, this usually equated to 30-40% off. Less in the case of pro audio gear.

Of course we were also working for a bit over minimum wage until you sold a certain amount at which point you got a bit of commission.

I'd be happy with minimum wage, in exchange for a decent discount rate. Most of my disposable goes on GW product, or WM/Hordes anyway, so that would be a massive help...

I hope it works out for you. Most the GW posters on here have said it sucked all the fun out of it and they didn't need the discount anymore anyway.

 Lake wrote:
I recently applied for a job at my local GW and have passed through onto the phone interview stage. I'm very confident as to my ability to get the job, but it struck me today that i have no idea as to either the basic pay or the benefits of being a GW sales assistant.
So i was wondering if anyone could enlighten me?

From your profile, I see that your 21. Running a store is a big responsibility, and something you can put on your resume later. If your title is store manager, it isn't disingenuous to say so, despite what other posters may have said. If the $25k/year (US) is accurate, what are your plans? Living with the folks for now? Roomates in an apartment? Using this to help pay your way through school?

Make sure you're thinking everything through. Best of luck, either way!

Alrite mate, i used to work in GW truro in 2009 and i gotta be honest. I got paid 800 pounds a month and i was working on a 40 hour full time contract; you will end up doing overtime which you dont get paid for, i was doing opening to close 7 days a week which worked out about 70 hours and i only got paid for my 40 hours. Dont get too attached to the manager, i went through 2 managers in 2 months, rather lovingly my first manager left 2 weeks after i started so i was on my own trying to manage the store with the very basic training. I also found a lack of support from other GWs appalling, one time i called GW plymouth asking for a poster with new released to be posted to me cause Truro didnt recieve one, the guy simply said he cant be bothered and hung up, there were many instances of this. The 50% off products in store is quite nice but i found myself getting bored of my hobby, to be honest warhammer for me has always been somehting i do for fun but when you spend so many hours doing it you can get bored and no longer appreciate it. The only real positive i got out of my time at Gw was the fact i was working with kids and that experience has gotten me on a teaching course in university. the targets set are often ridiculously high and almost impossible to acheive, we had 8 customer on a good day, most of which were experienced hobbyists who did not want to buy another assault on black reach, and most people dont walk around with 200+ pounds to throw away on plastic toys so sales were a problem, this led me to quit before i got sacked as the store often made little money. Sorry if this is negative .

I need a GW near me. If I can sell cars I sure as hell could blow out a fethton of tiny plastic spacemen.

 azreal13 wrote:
A 50% discount off a 30% overpriced product isn't as good as it might be!

That's still a 35% discount on the original price.


Maths.

 Grimtuff wrote:

 BryllCream wrote:

 Grimtuff wrote:

It's so cute that people still think that their 50% discount is "hefty"

The discount for other retail work hovers at 10-15%. So 50% is pretty sweet, expect to be popular with your friends.

You do know using your discount for your friends is an instant dismissal right? With GW's Gestapo esq. culture you'll be gone very quickly when you do that.

So they're going to follow you home, and watch you personally open, build and paint your stuff, then make sure only you use it in games?

As long as you aren't, you know, spending more than your income, and don't do stupid things like, I dunno, tell your boss that you're shopping for a friend, then that extra Land Raider that you bought one week, or that Terminator Assault Squad the week after, 'because you are thinking of starting a Space Marine army', is going to fly right by.