Work hard and move up quickly.
Pros
I enjoyed the Associates I worked with, made a lot of life-long friends. The Health/Vision/Dental Benefits for me, were affordable. Many prescriptions $4-8. They started Insuring your unmarried Spouse or Domestic Partner with reasonable rates. The employee discount 10% off, 20% off Eyeglasses/Contacts was awesome. If worked Thanksgiving/Black Friday got 25% off 1 whole purchase. Raises every year $.40-$.60. Management was availible to talk to. Fast paced store. You control your future. There is a MyShare Bonus for meeting quarterly goals but I only saw it 2 times in 3.5 yrs. I was promoted 5 times with raises.
Cons
You have to be very self-motivated. You are not provided much training for any job given at any level, you have to jump in and get hands on. Management had an Open Door Policy to discuss issues but rarely fixed them. In order to get promoted you needed to work hard and be noticed for the hard work, they needed to know your name good or bad (I was known for being too demanding and loud, It got me propmoted quickly but I didn't have many friends, I never kissed any tail and just spoke up/worked hard) I worked both Part Time and Full Time as an Associate and Dept Manager there was a great work-life balance. However as a Zone Merchandise Supervisor there was little to no balance. In the ZMS role you worked either 8-5 or 11-8 which seemed pretty balanced but sicne you are the middleman between a dept manager and an assistant you had to change your hours to meet the needs of the business which could mean overnights or 12 hr shifts or split shifts to ensure coverage of your Zones. Dept Managers have the best hours 7-4 no weekends...but it depends which store you work at as I've heard that varies. I felt I was underpaid in my position for the work I had to do and how much of my life I commited to Walmart. But I'm sure a lot of people feel they were under paid. There's no raise but once a year unless you move up in position, I was promoted 5 times and I went from $7.45 to $12.60 in 3.5 yrs.
