Best Buy

[14049752]

Originally Posted by coffee

Well, There is always McDonald's for those GS employees. I mean really, Would you hire one?

Sure, I'd hire a former Geek Squad employee. Like anyone else I would interview, I'd weigh them on their merits... It's not like every GS employee is terrible...in fact, I'm sure there are lots that do a good job but have to work within how Geek Squad operates.

Basically, in my opinion, the Geek Squad brand is the problem... They may have a number of employees that are problems, too...but I think that's just because of the way the company operates and hires.

[callthatgirl]

I would hire a past BB/GS employee if they fit my needs and I could un-train them. lol

I'm looking to steal a genius bar tech here soon too.

[dgast]

Originally Posted by coffee

Well, There is always McDonald's for those GS employees. I mean really, Would you hire one?

I really wanted to short the BB stock but dont have the money right now. Darn!

coffee

It might develop a whole bunch of pizza techs though, that would not be a good thing for us that have a business developed.

[coffee]

Originally Posted by dgast

It might develop a whole bunch of pizza techs though, that would not be a good thing for us that have a business developed.

Yes, There is always that worry that with the economy the way it is that there would become a glut of repair techs starting a business. I hope not but you never know.

I just dont have alot of faith in techs that come from BB. They dont have the proper training most likely and would have to be retrained all over again to provide good work. It would take a lot IMHO.

Nice to see you posting Dgast. Seems like its been awhile

[aggieg33k]

As a former Geek Squad employee, I can honestly say that the majority of Geek Squad employees know very little about repairing computers. The geek squad agents are just glorified sales reps who have to meet quotas by overcharging for crap that most clients don't need. I actually started my business because I was tired of seeing people getting ripped off by them. If I were ever in the position to hire, I probably would avoid most former geek squad employees.

[coffee]

In my life I have seen alot of poorly trained techs. Its not really the techs fault. Its more of how the company trains them and what they expect out of them. Poorly trained but able to do basic things - following a printed out handout that doesnt make much sense except to follow the steps.

These companies dont want to pay alot and I think they just figure that they are "throw away techs". So the young techs looking for experience dont get the proper experience or training. I think GS fits the definition here. Its sad because when these techs finally get an opportunity to work for a real company they find they lack alot of the training that a real tech would already have under his belt.

There is the flip side of the coin also where you have people that consider themselfs to be techs but would think nothing of showing up to a service call in shorts and sandles, Not returning phone calls, Doing the least to get the job done and basically lazy.

They all need the proper guildence to become a real tech and they are not getting it. Sooner or later they drop out of the tech field and move on.


You know, At this stage of my life I do feel a wanting to help the younger set out by providing some training but in todays world alot of people just dont want to work or feel that they dont earn enough and put no value with on the job learning.

Pretty sad.
Best Regards,

coffee

[dweebsonduty]

I worked for Best Buy for 10 years and helped roll out Geek Squad.

Best Buy restructures very often so I am not surprised.

As far as talking bad about GS people, me and all of my best friends started out there and while I do agree they moved to hiring people with more sales skills than technical skills. It doesn't mean that they are crappy techs just because they worked for Geek Squad.

When I worked for Best Buy, I worked on more computers in 1 year than I have probably worked on in the 10 years since and that made me a much better technician. I also installed new products days after they came out and that helped me keep up with the latest and greatest.

To be honest, when I worked at Best Buy I used to think that people who run small shops were lacking experience because they could not possibly do the volume that we could. Please don't take offense to this, I am not sure I still feel the same way.

[aggieg33k]

I'm speaking from my experience only and I'm sure technical skill varies from store to store; however, anyone with a minute amount of technical knowledge can work for Geek Squad and be successful. Those actually wanting to learn hardware repair/software troubleshooting should look elsewhere. I came in with an extensive knowledge, and was highly disappointing to find out that the majority of the work is outsourced. Our main job as Agents was to nickel and dime customers to maintain sales quotas.

[PCX]

A few years ago, before I started my business, I knew maybe 20% of what I know now, which was not a whole lot. 6 months into running my business and after working on a couple hundred computers, I realized how inexperienced I really was. Before starting my business I applied for GS. I was told after my interview that I was "way over qualified" and that all they were only looking for techs that could install Windows and maybe a hard drive every once in a while. After that interview, I lost all confidence in the GS.

BTW, Just had another customer come in from a BB referral yesterday.