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Just interested to hear what people know about working part-time at a store for gamesworkshop. I've heard quite a few negatives, but a few positives (i.e. about the people they work with). I'm heading off to university in September, and have secretly started collecting again (my secret nerd-pleasure that only a few of my friends now about aha) - turns out about 3 of my friends have started again too Anyways, looking for part-time jobs I'm probably only going to get a retail job - whether it be at a waitrose (or because I'm studying music at King's hopefully) or in a music shop. Simple as. So i thought 'hell why not try for games workshop?' I'm pretty good with the 40k lore and know my stuff quite well and I'm good with people (though some people I've seen in the stores from my old memories.... ABSOLUTE NOBS *cough*). Does anyone have any experiences from the stores? Any 'STAY AWAY!!' or 'sure if part-time why not' advice? Thanks all


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Nothing at all? Alright then! That's either a no problem sign or THINGS ARE VERY BAD sign! wop wop

All retail jobs are ass. Show me someone who works in retail, I will show you someone with a deep-seated loathing for all mankind.

 Psienesis wrote:
All retail jobs are ass. Show me someone who works in retail, I will show you someone with a deep-seated loathing for all mankind.

Amen to that!

 Psienesis wrote:
All retail jobs are ass. Show me someone who works in retail, I will show you someone with a deep-seated loathing for all mankind.

This really

 Psienesis wrote:
All retail jobs are ass. Show me someone who works in retail, I will show you someone with a deep-seated loathing for all mankind.

True. But, having said that, you do develop a deep compassion for those working in retail. My first job was in retail when I was 15. 18 years later and I am still polite and courteous to every retail worker I come into contact with. Was a valuable experience, in my book.

And I just scored a couple free cookies at Subway the other day for it. So it has its perks, too.

I had applied for a store manager position about 2 years ago and had an interview with the regional manager. They ended up picking an internal candidate but offered me the hobby specialist position in the store (I declined this as I wanted something better since I had just graduated university)

However, from my interview experience I can tell you that GW doesn't care if you know the lore/how to paint/rules (I'm sure it helps a bit). The entire interview lasted maybe 1-1.5 hours and it was 100% sales focused.

I had to learn a simple dice game and give a 5 min product demo to the interviewer, roll played a scenario where I was a candy store owner and he was a potential customer, and was shown sales stats from actual stores - the point of which was to make quite clear that passionate hobbyists had poor performing stores and the sales driven store managers had successful stores.

I expected all this going into the interview, but it turned me off from wanting to work for GW.


My recommendation to you: It is a part-time job, it isn't going to be great and you will have to put up with "weird" people and kids. Don't expect to work on your own projects while working there, you will be expected to create an environment in which others are having fun which puts you in a better position to "recommend" and "suggest" products they could use. Go for it and enjoy the discount while you are there.

Thanks for the replies guys! I was only thinking part-time, just thought I might as well go there and get the discount while I'm at it! Thanks again for the responses!

Good luck, hope you get the job and sell lots of SPHESS MARINEZZZ!

I would imagine it would be as exciting as any other part time job out there. Definitely better to ask all afternoon if someone wants to try a demo game or what army they play instead of "Do you want chips with that?"

I worked in a hobby shop for a year or so part time between jobs. Loved the concept though the owners and the regional management were really sucky to work for. Most definitely one of those "we'd pay you much less if the government didn't make us pay minimum wage" type places. I definitely did enjoy answering questions about mini games, RPGs and model trains more than waiting tables in a restaurant, though. Even got to play magic when the store was slow in the evenings. So not all bad.

Skriker

 Xenocidal Maniac wrote:

 Psienesis wrote:
All retail jobs are ass. Show me someone who works in retail, I will show you someone with a deep-seated loathing for all mankind.

True. But, having said that, you do develop a deep compassion for those working in retail. My first job was in retail when I was 15. 18 years later and I am still polite and courteous to every retail worker I come into contact with. Was a valuable experience, in my book.

And I just scored a couple free cookies at Subway the other day for it. So it has its perks, too.

I got a deal at Subway lastnight! Chit-chattin' about fishing and such earned me a 10% discount and an extra 11cents off because he didn't feel like making change.

 DeffDred wrote:

 Xenocidal Maniac wrote:

 Psienesis wrote:
All retail jobs are ass. Show me someone who works in retail, I will show you someone with a deep-seated loathing for all mankind.

True. But, having said that, you do develop a deep compassion for those working in retail. My first job was in retail when I was 15. 18 years later and I am still polite and courteous to every retail worker I come into contact with. Was a valuable experience, in my book.

And I just scored a couple free cookies at Subway the other day for it. So it has its perks, too.

I got a deal at Subway lastnight! Chit-chattin' about fishing and such earned me a 10% discount and an extra 11cents off because he didn't feel like making change.

The 11 cents off is not customer service, that is laziness.

 Xenocidal Maniac wrote:

 Psienesis wrote:
All retail jobs are ass. Show me someone who works in retail, I will show you someone with a deep-seated loathing for all mankind.

True. But, having said that, you do develop a deep compassion for those working in retail. My first job was in retail when I was 15. 18 years later and I am still polite and courteous to every retail worker I come into contact with. Was a valuable experience, in my book.

And I just scored a couple free cookies at Subway the other day for it. So it has its perks, too.

That has nothing to do with working retail (which I did from 15-19).

That has everything to do with being a decent human.

 Psienesis wrote:
All retail jobs are ass. Show me someone who works in retail, I will show you someone with a deep-seated loathing for all mankind.

It goes both ways, whenever I encounter someone in retail, I just assume they will lack the knowledge to be useful to me. It seems rare that the person selling a product will know more about the product than I myself will, and just as rare to find someone who actually knows how to interact with other human beings. Just two recent cases, I've had someone selling DVRs trying to tell me one is digital because it was called a "Digital Video Recorder" on the box and the other wasn't digital because it was only called "Video Recorder" on the box. And another case I've had someone trying to tell me they don't carry a particular adapter in their store even though I had just looked it up online and not only did they carry it, it was in stock.

However, I'm always friendly with retail staff even though I assume they are incompetent. No point being unfriendly even if they are ignorant.

Not all retail staff are like that, though. My sister is a real people-person and got one job in retail for a year or so then moved to another retail job in a major retail chain and within a couple of years worked her way from the floor to management in the national head office earning a healthy sum of money purely by virtue of the fact that she was excellent at dealing with people and also excellent at arranging and managing things to best appeal to customers. BUT, that's never going to happen if you work for GW, so yeah, I think working for GW isn't going to get you too far, but if you want to work there it'll earn you some money and give you something to put on your resume later down the track.

I worked casually at my local GW for 3 years before they decided to make me, and all casual workers, redundant with no warning.

Although I can only assume the British and Australian retail spheres have their differences, feel free to PM me or ask something if you want to know more.

As proof, I can recite the 10 Commandments of Customer Service we were made to commit to memory as part of our employment.

I worked there two days a week several years ago. I was hired mainly to paint (the manager was the only one who could paint well and he was tired of doing it all). I just sat at the paint table unless it got really busy then I chatted with customers. I never even learned to work the register!

I did however enjoy the crap out of %40 off and bit orders at $0.09/lb !!! I got 3 armies worth of bits for a few hundred dollars. I also bought a stack of kits as tall as I was on my last night of work.

I left mainly because they were starting to require employees to have and play a faction of LotR. It was a game I had absolutely no interest in spending any money on. Plus they were training one of the biggest Douchebags I've ever seen to be a manager. I told my boss I was out if he ever became manager of that store. Now he works at Home Depot. Poor, poor Home Depot!

Having a crappy manager is again a legal obligation in retail I believe?

In answer to the OP, I would say by all means go for it, although I'm not sure how many people they are likely to be taking on considering hundreds of staff were laid off of previous years.

If you do get in remember the staff discount is intended for you alone

so if your mates want you to get them stuff arrange it beforehand, and not by them wandering into the shop and handing you the cash while the real manager was watching (I saw somebody do this a while ago & they no longer seem to work in the local store shortly thereafter)

I used to work in a independent game shop that sold GW stuff.
But retail really shows you some of the sillier people we have kicking about.

 Pacific wrote:
Having a crappy manager is again a legal obligation in retail I believe?

Those who can do, do
Those who cannot do, teach
Those that can do neither, manage

Just be very aware that retail as a job is not pleasant. You will have stupid questions, rude customers, incompetent staff and horror stories galore. That is likely to just be your first day. After working for years in retail I never forgot how unpleasant the job can be and I will make an effort to be nice to staff, and give them more leeway if they are unsure of something. If they're suffering from CBA (Can't Be Ars*d), are lying through their teeth and keep giving me the sales talk after I've politely told them I'm not interested my politeness may suffer

I've always said that if we were all required to work retail or in the service industry for a period of time the world would be a nicer place.

I would apply to what you will enjoy the most. Retail jobs are horrendous. I currently work one in a department store, part time, and have been doing so for almost 6 years.

If you can get a retail job that you are passionate in, either the Music store or GW I would go for them first. I'd also apply to Waitrose as they are a secure employer and will be much less likely to get rid of you. So apply to all three, but I wouldn't turn Waitrose down if they get back to you along with GW or the Music Shop.

At the end of the day it's a crappy "needs must" job, so if you can get something you enjoy you are golden. You will encounter self important nobodies by the bucketful that think they can treat you like crap because you work in retail, you get a lot of nice people too but the arseholes really stand out in my mind when I think back about my experience.

 SlaveToDorkness wrote:
I've always said that if we were all required to work retail or in the service industry for a period of time the world would be a nicer place.

Unfortunately not everyone is stupid enough to do that

My point exactly....

Just remember that unless things have changed you will be required to work unpaid overtime which will see you earning beneath minimum wage.

How do you get overtime as part time?!

 SlaveToDorkness wrote:
I've always said that if we were all required to work retail or in the service industry for a period of time the world would be a nicer place.

I think it's the opposite. It's the people who have worked retail that you don't want anywhere near the nuclear weapon launch codes. Those who haven't worked retail still have some of their innocence intact.
I used to work in a video arcade years ago, and the stupidity I saw drained me of all hope for humanity. One example: at least once a week, someone would walk in, put a dollar in the change machine, get four quarters from it, pick up those quarters, look at the quarters in their hand, and then ask me "do the machines take tokens or quarters?"

Anyway, if you can get a part time job at GW, then it could be worth trying. Especially if you get a nice employee discount and want to start a few new armies.

Hell, if the employee discount applied to Forgeworld products, I might try for it, too!

 SlaveToDorkness wrote:
How do you get overtime as part time?!

Saturday morning training always used to be in addition to your contracted hours which you didn't get paid for.

One important caveat that no one seems to have mentioned: If you are looking for a job to raise cash for other things do NOT work in a hobby related store EVER. I worked in a hobby store and at first it was OK, but soon my entire paycheck was spent in the store on magic cards and other gaming items with any left over going to the bar at TGI Friday's on Saturday night after the mall closed. Ouch!

As for the world being a nicer place if more people worked in retail I disagree. There are plenty of really nice people out there to deal with when working in retail. What makes the world a nicer place is people doing their best to actually *be* nice to each other. That can be as a customer or as a salesperson. If there is a delay and the employee apologizes, or jokes with me about it to make me less upset I will be happier. If an employee acts like I am imposing on them by asking them to do their job then they can suck it and get to work. I don't demand a lot from lower wage retail counter workers. I know it sucks to have those jobs, but I've always been one of those people that no matter what job I am doing I make sure to do it the best I can. Worked as "Customer service" in a grocery store while in college. Not as glamourous as it sounds: Mopping/Sweeping aisles, putting items back on the shelves that customers changed their minds about, collecting grocery carts, bagging groceries and helping customers to their cars were involved. Even though I was a no-body making minimum wage within a month or so I could tell you where to find anything in that store down to the aisle, how far down the aisle and what shelf it was on. I just spent so much time in the aisles I just learned it. Eventually moved into the Deli and whenever a customer asked where to find something everyone else in the department would direct them to me. Others can spend years working somewhere and still not know a thing and I just can't understand how that happens. The concept is so completely antithical to my make up.

Skriker

 SlaveToDorkness wrote:
I've always said that if we were all required to work retail or in the service industry for a period of time the world would be a nicer place.

A terrible person is a terrible person regardless of where they work or have worked in the past.

In fact, I'm going to declare the opposite of that statement, as I've watched many people go from nice individuals to completely jaded, worn out husks working retail or service industry, as you're exposed to the most concentrated forms of human idiocy(like asking where the "non-fiction section" is in a book store) and vileness(people really do treat retail employees like crap since no matter what's going on in your life, here's some one you just assume you're superior to because they're serving you) and can't do a thing about it.

Can you tell which I am after 10+ years in retail and service?