Torn Between Two Jobs
 

So here's the situation. I have a choice between a possible job at Best Buy, which will probably be crazy fun, (I hear they have cool parties and often rent out movie theaters for new releases and such) and starts out paying around $7.50 an hour, and a boring job at a place called WEST, where I sit at a desk all day and answer a phone for credit card activations and sell insurance for around $10 an hour. I have my 2nd interview with WEST on tuesday, and the General Manager for Best Buy won't know if he can even hire me until the same tuesday. Assuming I do get the opportunity to work at Best Buy...

...which job would you take? The fun, less-paying job, or the not as fun, higher-paying job?

Go for the fun job. It's worth it, and you'll be glad you did.

Yup, I agree with Free.User. Go for the fun job - there's nothing worse than dreading going to work every day.

I always hear Best Buy employees bitching about how much they hate it there. Management is terrible, huge pressure to scam customers into buying product warrantees, etc. I'd probably go for the $10 personally.

In general, money can't buy happiness, and there's something magical about having a job you enjoy (I've got one right now, and it even pays well, which is great). That being said, I'm with Tube - all the Best Buy employees I know hate it. If it truly would be a great, fun experience, go for it. Otherwise, if you can stand the boredom, I'd go where the money's at.

I used to work at Staples, which is a direct competitor to BB, and I liked it only sometimes. I liked 90% of the people I worked with. Cool nerds only. The pay is alright for the job, but is totally piss poor to a graduated college student. I was never a salesman but I did the job anyways. I ended up quitting because I couldn't stand the lack of technical knowledge held by our computer tech and management. Not to mention, I'm selling completely sub-standard computers with expertise knowledge of them. Also, that extended warrant shit. GOD. When I first started working there, they told me it was a no pressure environment. BS. It was no stress to the customer but to the employee, they made you feel worthless if you didn't sell it. I couldn't take that anymore.

This is a first about a Best Buy job being crazy fun. The additional money for the boring job might be better, considering the crap I've heard about BB.

I don't mean to sidetrack... but I've got an interview at Staples on sunday. Any specific pointers?

Well, I don't know how the work is, but the fun part about working at BB would be the people I would work with. They seem pretty cool. Also, the discounts would be really nice, and they apparently do things like lockins where they hold lan parties and stuff, as well as renting out theaters. Don't know about the others but this one supposedly does.

If the deskjob payed $20 or something, I would go for it. But since it's only $10, go for the fun job at Best Buy.

I'd go for the $10 job myself. It sounds easy enough and Best Buy?

Wasn't their an entire website set up with stories about how bad that place was? I've never been fond of the store to begin with.

I had a similiar problem back in September. I had to choose between accepting a job at a bakery or await an interview at a restaurant. I choose the bakery since it was a guaranteed job. However! It soon blowed harder than a hurricane and I quit at the end of March of this year. Now I work at Subway for $8/hr and I get tips.

You could do what my husband did.... Take the first offer and then drop it the very second something better comes up... He was going to work as a busser at a new restaurant but a chance interview at the Olive Garden landed him with a server job (He hates the BS and uniform, but loves the tips so he's willing to put up with it)

Haha.. another person torn between jobs. I'm torn between a [career] with the government or with TI. I put that stuff in my journal though.

As for you, if I were you, I'd probably go with Best Buy. Sitting at a desk all day is alright, but having to deal with people (on the phone, or in general) just sucks, because people suck. At least at Best Buy, as you said, you'd be having fun.

Depends on the duration that you're going to work and if you rather make some more dough than play around. If it's more than just a summer job, I'd take the 10$ job cuz at least for 2-3 months it will be tolerable but if this is a job that is for 4+ months, dude, you might as well have some fun in there before the boardom drive you nuts.

*puts down two pennies and leaves*

I work at one of those desk jobs you speak of. I've also done customer service jobs before... I got to say sitting on my ass for 8 hours is way fucking better than walking around for 6. Go for the $10/hr job, if you are a good worker it is easy to get raises and promotions there... bestbuy is fucking shit. Beside the experience you gain at the desk job could help you land a better paying job. Who the fuck hires someone from bestbuy for more than min wage?

I loved working at Bed, Bath, and Beyond. Loved helping the customers, loved learning about the products, basically, I felt like I was quite good at non-commissioned retail sales and I'd love to do it again.

In the end, though, when offered, I still took the crappier, better paying job.

How many hours would you get at the two places? I mean, if you were getting 40 hours a week (and I know Best Buy doesn't do that), you would make over $400 a month more. There's a shitload you can do with $400 a month more, consider how much fun you want to have when you aren't at work too.

At WEST I'm guaranteed 40 hours. My girlfriend works at BB now, and she says that while she's only working part time, they told her they'd give her as many hours as she needs. I'm not sure how that works out, since most places like that have a certain number of hours they can give out, from what I learned over at Rhino Video Games.

I'd personally take the $10 desk job. Both jobs will require you to deal with customers, but I would rather sit all day than stand/walk around. Also, like someone else mentioned, if you only plan to keep a job for a short period of time, it may be better to accept the desk job.

http://www.bestbuysux.org/

Personally, I'd avoid both and look into maybe getting a job as a delivery driver (especially for a pizza delivery service). I love my job, because when I go on deliveries, I can pop my MP3 player, jack it up, and drive around giving stuff out and getting kick-ass tips (I made ~40 bucks in tips alone last night =D). The desk job... I dunno. Are you calling, or answering? If you're answering, then you can basically fuck around and do more or less whatever in between calls. If you're calling, though, you can't.

Best Buy, though... well, that site I posted basically scared me away from BUYING from them, much less trying to get a job there. >_<

A delivery job would be okay, but I'm driving a cadillac, which is absolute shit with gas. And with gas prices as high as they are right now, that's out of the question. Unless they provide you with a car, which I'm pretty sure most places don't. Also, you have to have a pretty good knowledge of the area, and while I mostly know my way around, I have no idea where to find most streets I'm not familiar with.

Fuck yeah! Er, sorry.

Seriously though, take the full time job. Working part time, for less money is not a good idea unless you absolutely have to. Whatever it is that you are working for, tuition, rent, luxuries, you'll be better off with the full time job. You'll be able to have as much fun as you want when you aren't at work, and it's good to be in practice for 'real life' sooner than later.

Neither job will 'kick ass', despite what you may have heard. So you might as well take the one that can be made to look better on the resume, and land you better experience/money in the meantime.

I actually might have the same problem, I just got hired at the bank for $9 an hour, but I also MIGHT get hired by the TSA (airport screener) for like 25,000 a year.....but it might happen in 2 months and the bank told me that just because something better comes along that wouldn't look good on me.

Second job. You'll earn more money, it will be less stressful (you won't have to deal with people in person) and it sounds like you'll access to a computer with internet. So you'll have plenty of time to space out and browse the internet. Most desk jockies do a fair amount of that. While only doing about three-four hours of real work every single day.

What wouldn't look good on you? The bank is warning you against taking a better job? What's the worse that can happen? That the bank no longer likes you? It won't reach any further than that. Though I don't know which is the better place to work in the long run.

Eh.

With my job, I was lucky enough to be driving a Civic, which is <3 with gas (although lately it's been getting worse; need to replace the oxygen sensor in it. :(). As for area knowledge... well, I'm not sure about other delivery services, but with Pizza Hut, there's a map of the area we deliver to in the store, gridded so that we can easily find the address, and plot our route. Granted, when I started I practically had to call the manager for directions almost every delivery, but I got better with time. :tpg:

But what some of the employees here do is get a shit-ass fuel-efficient car like a Geo Metro on the cheap, and drive that for work while keeping their other car for personal use.

I doubt, however, that it's a viable decision for you.

Ha ha ha! Man, you have no idea how relieved that makes me feel :p There are seriously some days when I go to work that I just can't get up the motivation to do work, so I browse like crazy :p Luckily I only have to work casually, and I have huge flexibility with my hours (i.e. I come in whenever I feel like it, and get paid for the hours I work :p ).

Anyway, back to the initial dilemma. WolfDemon, I would say that it really depends on what your perspective is on this job. If it's something to help you pay for expenses during uni, etc, then I would suggest going for a part-time job that you would enjoy. However, if this is something more long-term, I would suggest going for the job with better pay and better stability (i.e. full-time).

All that being said, I believe that it's also important to consider the long-term benefit of a job... By saying that I mean not only the experience you might gain through the job, but also how it'll look on you resume/CV, and how it'll improve your future career prospects.

To give an example, the job I currently work at pays $16 AUD (~$8.00 USD, I think). To me it's something to get me by while I study Medicine at uni, and furthermore it's of massive benefit to my future career (i.e. medical research) both in terms of experience and building a bit of rep. The downside is that I could probably get paid better in other jobs. I mean, just over the past 3 months I've turned jobs that would've paid between $18-20 AUD (~$10 USD, I think)... And why? Because those jobs involved either mindless answering of telephones or being at the cashier of a pharmacy (both utterly useless in terms of long term benefits :p ).

Anyway, choosing between two jobs is always a tough call, and there's rarely a clear-cut answer ^^; I really hope that whatever you decide on, it works out to be the best call for you ^__^

Don't even worry about it. Here's the kicker though...

Most bosses don't even mind that their employees are doing that on work time. In the old days before the internet, employees would just sneak out of work to not do their job and space out. They much prefer an activity like internet browsing that keeps their employees in the workplace.

Uhh I don't recommend you go up to your boss and say "Hey, I was browsing internet PORN while I was supposed to be working!" though. :)

While it's true that many organizations don't crack down on browsing the 'net, they often have flags set for questionable websites. So visiting .torrent sites or porn is not a good idea.

Also, they will often let it go that you surf, but only if you sort of hide it.

Keep gunning for both jobs, but if you get accepted for both, then take the job at Best Buy.

Normally I would agree with the more fun job, but I can't see how BB would be fun. Feels like high pressure to me. Your breaks and outings would be really fun I guess, but on the job, you'd have to be pressured to sell to employees and stand and walk about all day, all the time.

Since WEST isn't so much centered on dealing with people in person, I would definitely take that because of the kind of person that I am. An extra 2.50 per hour and more hours is definitely better money-wise.

What are the hours that you were offered..thats the big dealmaker right there.

WEST is a guaranteed 40 hours a week. BB is part-time, but from what I heard from my girlfriend, if I ask them for more hours, they'll usually give it to me.

As for the standing and walking around, my last jobs were as a waiter at Ruby Tuesday, working the mailroom at my local newspaper, a CSR at Rhino Video Games, and a cart pusher at Wal Mart. Being on my feet all day is the least of my worries. :) And anyone who works at a game store knows the pressure of having to sell stuff all the time. "Push those pre-books! Sell accessories and your soul!"

Unless you'd be miserable at a desk, you should so go for the higher-paying job. Keep in mind too that you won't be working this job forever. Consider which job would open more doors in the future.