Walmart

I applied here because I knew getting hired would be a piece of cake. The application took about an hour, and the interview took 5 minutes. So far, it's been a pretty easy job. They have plenty of positions for all different types of employees. I work Front End, so it's your typical retail job. You'll make plenty of friends while working here; plus, it's great experience to have.

There are plenty of cons about working at Walmart, but luckily there are also plenty of ways to see or get around them. I'll phrase these in the form of some helpful advice:

1. Customers will get fussy and irritated; it's inevitable. I don't get a ton of customers like that at my store, but when it happens, my only goal is to calm them down as much as possible and get them out of the store as quickly as I can. If you can't seem to keep them calm, call a supervisor; they should be more than willing to help. Otherwise, I just tell them I'm doing my job how I was trained to do it.

2. WARNING IN ADVANCE (from my own mistake): TAKE DAYS OFF!! Change your availability to have at least 2 days off a week if you can, preferably at least 2 days apart from each other. This will prevent you from working 5-6 days in a row without a break, which will burn you out completely (speaking from experience). I recommend taking Wednesdays and Saturdays off to give you the optimal productive work week.

3. Use your points wisely. Walmart has a 5-point system. If you call in sick to work, you'll get one point. If you don't call in and don't show up, that's two points. If you do either of these around a major holiday, it counts as double points. So a no-call, no-show for just one day around a major holiday will cost you 4 points. (I believe Black Friday is triple points too, so then you're screwed.) If you get a point, it will take 6 months from the date you got it for it to go away. If you end up with 5 points, you're looking at a discussion with your manager or coach, or termination. I've been working for almost 3 months, and I haven't had to use any points (I understand I may be in a different situation than others). If you need a day off, MAKE SURE TO CALL IN OR REQUEST THAT DAY OFF AT LEAST THREE WEEKS PRIOR IF POSSIBLE.

4. Sometimes your managers or coworkers will suck a little. In my opinion, this is the make or break for me. I want to at least enjoy being at work, despite how terrible it may be, and the people I'm working with heavily influence that. If I didn't like the people I work with, I would have quit that job immediately. Make sure you surround yourself with people you know you can count on (in other words, make friends, not enemies). It could help you later when you really need it.