Five reasons to work at GAME

Since the dawn of the high school work experience programme, it’s been drummed into us students that there’s only one thing that matches, or even beats academic brilliance in the violent scramble to get that perfect job. In today’s climate, work experience is as vital as any set of outstanding grades, and we’re all aware of that infuriatingly vicious circle that begins with one dreaded question asked by a suited figure sat across the desk from us, our CV spread out before him:

“This is all well and good, but what experience do you have?”

His eyes bore into our souls until it’s impossible to sink any lower into our cushioned chairs, and we must admit that we have none. GAME OVER.

In many cases, you cannot bag a job without experience, but you cannot get experience without a job. It’s crushing, infuriating. It makes you want to slam your head against a brick wall. So then, where are students supposed to start their climb up the ladder? Where can we gain some of the most vital fragments of experience needed for a wide range of positions, without fear that in our attempt the gavel of ‘previous experience’ will fall down upon us?

Generally, we’re told to start small. High street shops, therefore, become the target for the vast majority of us: flexible part-time working hours, standard pay and relatively simple job descriptions. Before university, I worked in a variety of consumer environments, and I do agree – a Saturday job in Topshop is adequate enough to tick most of the required boxes – but I maintain that I learned more in the three short months I spent as a Christmas temp in my town’s GAME store than I ever did elsewhere. Here are five reasons why, if you are a student just in need of that first slither of experience under your belt, you should be lobbing your CVs at every games store manager you see:

1) You are Always Engaged in Independent Stock Research…
…Because in this kind of job, you actually have to have a clue what you’re talking about. No standing around giving customers weak advice on the clothes they’ve tried on, you have to know your stuff about the games you’re selling. If the new 3DS doesn’t come with its own charger, the doting father who has stepped in to buy one for his little girl won’t know that, so knowing your stock back-to-front becomes a necessity.

This is surprisingly easy if you love games (you applied to work in GAME, of course you do!) and you will soak up information like a sponge on the job, but external research never harmed anyone. Rejoice! Checking out the latest IGN and N4G news when you should be doing homework can now be justified! And wherever your life takes you, your future job will almost certainly require you to live and breathe your product, so why not get in some practice?

2) …And Independent Market Research
Knowing your customers can be as important as knowing your stock, and in a games store, this will certainly bump up your sales and cause your manager to bake you keyblade-shaped cookies! Customers may know what they like, but not necessarily what they want. Understanding the genres and target markets of games allows you to suggest titles they may enjoy. The avid computer gamer may love Age of Empires, but yearns for more visually impressive graphics – then you might suggest Rome: Total War or even Starcraft. The parents who wander in tentatively may not know what is new and cool for a ten-year-old boy, but if their son masquerades as Frodo Baggins to go to sleep, LEGO Lord of the Rings will surely keep him entertained. It’s a downright shame you’re not on commission, but just imagine if you were…

3) Customer Service, Customer Service, Customer Service
It goes without saying that customer service is a crucial skill. Your ability to communicate cheerfully and respectfully with the customer (and with your colleagues) is perhaps the first thing to fall under the scrutinising eye of your interviewer; like it or not, they’ll be analysing how easily you communicate with them to find this out. The best thing about a games store is that it provides you with a ridiculously wide customer base, all with different levels of experience and knowledge. So sure, spend ten minutes chatting to a guy about the Special Edition COD Black Ops II box (because, hey, you’re having fun and selling it to him at the same time!), then move on to carefully explain how the Wii U works to a customer who has never once owned a games console. All customers need to be treated differently, and you become their friendly face and their agony aunt. It leads you to forgetting your prejudices based on a customer’s appearance – when I worked in GAME, one of our most regular customers was a super cool 70-year-old grandmother who lived and breathed World of Warcraft!

4) You Become ‘He-Man, Master of the Electronic Tills’
Never before nor since have I come across a till system as complex as was in GAME; yet, though it becomes a bane to come to grips with, the blood, sweat and tears poured into the mighty effort do pay off. It requires some significant days of training, but if you can conquer a GAME store’s till system, you can conquer ANYTHING. Perhaps I was simply slow to the task, and others, surely, have picked up the basics faster than I have, yet it remains that, through the till, you expose yourself to the inner workings of the shop – always a good thing, right? Game disks, which are never on display, must be searched for, found, and placed in their boxes, codes must be scanned, loyalty cards must be requested, new loyalty accounts must be recorded, points must be added to cards and returns must be processed. Moreover, if stock goes missing, you must consult the magnificent database. All these instructions come with their own finicky little coloured buttons, but if you can get it right, not only do you finally have the ultimate shop selling experience, you feel like A BOSS.

5) You Develop the Restraint of a Saint
…Because, let’s face it, it becomes very hard on your bank account when walking into a games store, let alone working in one. Moreover, if you’re on a shift prior to the release of the next Halo, you can bet you’ll be asked to price tens of hundreds of stacks of that game. And the more you love the products you’re selling, the more you’ll love your job and care for the business. All employers relish the idea of owning a hard-working web of employees, devoted to the success of their company, and the sooner you can catch on to how rewarding your dedication to your job, your co-workers and your customers can be, the sooner your mind will fall into the state that all employers want!

There you have it, five outstanding reasons to try your hand at a part-time job in GAME next summer (oh and, did I mention you get free t-shirts?). Admittedly, this kind of work will not be for everyone, however, if you have even the slightest interest in video games or a job in that industry, and you’re contemplating fattening your CV a little this year, this will be your crème de la crème – this is the Ben & Jerry’s of game consumerism.

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