Pros
I enjoyed selling consumer electronics; I enjoyed the competitive atmosphere and I enjoyed managing my "own" business with some autonomy. I actually loved what I did... selling electronics, running a small store, managing a staff. I enjoyed looking at our numbers and figuring out (with my employees) how we could increased profits, boost dollar-per-ticket; things like that. It's was a good challenge and it was satisfying.
Kontras
Salary is absolutely horrible for most managers. Store managers are expected to work 55-60 hours a week. At smaller stores, managers wind up making about 10 bucks an hour. Bonuses amount to 200-300 bucks a month.. if you qualify for them. Most don't. Manager pay for larger stores isn't quite that bad... up to 60-70K.. but there are few stores that large and those managers tend to hang around. Salaries, bonuses, and commissions of managers and sales associates have fallen dramatically over the years. As a sales associate back in the late early 00's, I was making 35-45K. In my last year as a Senior store manager, I was making 45K when I reached 65k at one point. And I kept working those 60 hour weeks. As a whole, upper management and district/regional managers are either incompetent or simply running scared. They don't know what to do with this company and what kind of direction to give it. They pay more attention to the position of a stapler in the desk than the really important parts of the bussiness. I'm talking about 572 and the rest of the region. Sales plan numbers often make no sense, and it's hard to see very good managers struggling to make unrealistic numbers.