Pros
Lower-level managers are great, although the work itself is underappreciated by the majority of the public. It is a retail job, so you can always expect the unexpected to occur at times. Co-workers are definitely the highlight of the position, as they are generally nice and treat you well.
Cons
They tell you there are no sales goals or targets for you to meet and that you aren't paid on commission; but at the same time there are sales goals and targets for you to meet and you aren't paid on commission. After COVID hit, a large part of its long-time staff were laid off but weren't rehired. As a result, Best Buy is going on a hiring spree looking for individuals they can pay and train at a lower cost. As a result, existing long-timers are stretched thin and are now expected to no longer simply be in the phone or computer department, but be a generalist in all the departments. New hires are also expected to become generalists in all the departments per new corporate mandate, and management will become irritated at you if you can't memorize every single deal and product detail in every single department within a month despite them repeatedly saying that "you don't have to master every department." I know of great employees who get great marks but are still harassed by management for not generating enough "leads," which are ten times harder to get than "sales," even if that employee has above and beyond numbers of sales and no leads. Management will frequently lie to you about what is expected of you or what you should be doing, or simply lie by omission. You will hear one thing and a month later in a completely unrelated topic you will hear someone else in management say the complete opposite thing. They believe it is easier to lie to get you to do something now than tell you the truth and trust that you'll do it later. Likewise, the hierarchy is a bit muddled, and often one manager will tell you to do one thing and another will tell you to do something else, and since you can't do two things at once, one manager will get upset at you and tell you that you're supposed to listen to them, not the other manager; who, of course, will tell you the exact same thing if you listened to the other manager instead of them. If you applied to be in computers or phones or home theater, get ready to be a cashier for months before they'll actually let you do what you signed up for, if they even let you at all. They say that as an associate, you go wherever they need you and that you need to "master" the front end. But once you have mastered the front end, they'll quiz you on technical minutiae in random departments you didn't apply for that only experts in those departments even know (by the way, you're a generalist, you're not supposed to know such minutiae, that's what the "specialists" are for!). After you struggle, they'll use it as proof of why you aren't ready to go into the department you signed up for and keep you on front end. They may occasionally give you a day or two in your chosen department, but only after you ask them repeatedly and after a lot of excuses are made about why they can't do that. It is depressing being a cashier for eight hours straight every day for a week! I wanted to work here for longer, but it is obvious that Best Buy is looking for cashiers and front-end staff and mislead their employees when they hire them.