Any experience working in Walmart's IT department?

Are they a good empoyer? I know they dont always treat their store employees right, but im sure the IT guys are treated a little better.

I was thinking about looking into some of their open positions at their headquarters and just wanted a little input from anyone with any first hand experience.

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Ye Gum Noki

They are a horrible employer. Why in the world do you think they treat IT employees better?

seuss_ssues

I apolagize for not having researched this further. The majority of the complaints that I know of seem to revolve around the store employees (cashier, stock boy, etc). They schedule them as many hours possible without having to give benefits and so forth.

I was just under the assumption (yea i know) that being full time at their headquarters under a different management structure than the store employees would be a totally different environment and atmosphere.

But that is why im here asking others for advice and input.

I appreciate your response Ye Gum Noki, however there was absolutely no substance in your message that might help inform me on the matter.

Plantwiz

I wouldn't work for them for the way they drive retail prices to unrealistic lows. They are destroying fair product value for the sake of their profit.

If it's a company you want to associate with, by all means go ahead. I won't shop there, nor would I recommend anyone consider them for employment.

I don't think they treat their employees unfairly or any more so then any other large retail business. The complaints I've heard were unjustified IMNSHO ..... (it's low level retail).

As far as working in some support department? Depends on your motivation. What will you gain by working there? Money? Experience? I would find it difficult to believe they have one rule book for Retail Sales Associate employees and one rule book for 'white color' employees. If it looks like a duck, quacks like a duck....IT's A Duck

Your choice. best you can do is apply and interview and see what you think. I wouldn't work there myself.

Ye Gum Noki

Well, Dr. Seuss, you certainly have no need to apoligize to me as I did NOT offer much of an explanation as you very aptly put it.

But as you may or may not know, in most corporations, IT staff are looked upon as being, to be polite, "different", by the other revenue producing departments. I can't imagine that Wal-mart who are notorious for treating folks (who actucally work in their stores and who are in fact ARE their revunue producers) like $hit, would treat those of our ilk any better.

So as a gesture of good will I offer you these links, in hopes that you may find an employer worthy of your skills and good nature:

http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/bestcompanies/2007/

http://jobstar.org/hidden/bestcos.php

http://www.quintcareers.com/best_places_to_work.html

Good luck, sir!

Mr. Ye

blargoe

It's a foot in the door.

JDMurray

Walmart gets most of its merchandise from China and I'm surprised that they haven't found a way to get below-market IT support from there as well.

Daniel333

Dude, walmart is a dog.

If they can find a way to get rid of you or get you for cheaper, they will. So you can never be secure in that job. If you take job from them, remember that.

plettner

From what I've read in this thread, I dread the day the first Wal*Mart opens in Australia. They sound like an awful mob to work for and buy from.

I've heard Wal*Mart's being eyeing off Australia so it's prbably a matter of time before they open up.

Just a quick question, what sort of store is it? Hardware, department, grocery store?

sthomas

It can't hurt to apply and see what happens. If you get an interview ask them questions about the job and working conditions. Maybe even ask how much job security there is in working there in the IT dept.

I was just under the assumption (yea i know) that being full time at their headquarters under a different management structure than the store employees would be a totally different environment and atmosphere.

I would assume the same thing. At most places I have seen the corporate employee have better pay/benefits and better working conditions than working in the store.

From what I've read in this thread, I dread the day the first Wal*Mart opens in Australia. They sound like an awful mob to work for and buy from.

I've heard Wal*Mart's being eyeing off Australia so it's prbably a matter of time before they open up.

Just a quick question, what sort of store is it? Hardware, department, grocery store

Walmart is a department store, then there is Super Walmart that pretty much has everything. I don't really understand why there is so much hate for Wally World. I mean most people are going to shop where the prices are lower. There is a reason why they keep opening up stores everywhere and they drive smaller companies out of business but it is survival of the fittest.

JDMurray

plettner wrote:

Just a quick question, what sort of store is it? Hardware, department, grocery store?

Yes. And including drug store (pharmacy), notions, and a garden shop too.

http://www.walmart.com/

Plantwiz

plettner wrote:

From what I've read in this thread, I dread the day the first Wal*Mart opens in Australia. They sound like an awful mob to work for and buy from.

I've heard Wal*Mart's being eyeing off Australia so it's prbably a matter of time before they open up.

Just a quick question, what sort of store is it? Hardware, department, grocery store?

Well, Germany (if I recall the documentary on CNBC??? several months back) managed to fend them off (or forced them to pull out of the country). However, they are growing like the plague in China.

Trouble with them in the Midwest is that we HAD several discount/mass retailers long before they infiltrated our area. KMart and Meijer, Target, Hills (briefly before they went bancrupt....that was a junky store), plus all the malls and specialty stores.

There wasn't room for them, and now they artificially drop pricing for up to 3 years to kill all their competition locally and once other stores leave and hook locals, they begin to re-inflate pricing. I'll drive, bike, walk or crawl to a different store IF I need something so I don't have to give them my dollars.

****

Getting back on topic, why would you work there? Aren't there other businesses in your area? Or have they monopolized everything else? Seriously, take a job at a car wash or something rather then accept a job with them....once you work there, you'll put it on your resume and I just cannot imagine that's a PLUS with future employers.

plettner

jdmurray wrote:

plettner wrote:

Just a quick question, what sort of store is it? Hardware, department, grocery store?

Yes. And including drug store (pharmacy), notions, and a garden shop too.

http://www.walmart.com/

I should rephrase my question - what kind of store is it not?

seraphus

Really.

Seriously...

Sometimes you need to gain experience where you can get it.
Walmart makes products in China. So does Cisco, and a whole lot
of other "respected" companies. That's globalism for ya'.

Don't pass up a chance to get good experience.

That being said, I'm off to get light bulbs and toilet paper...

from Walmart!

moss12

avoid wall-mart and go to k-mart heheh that rhymes

Pash

In london there are many jobs to be found I think for any budding young IT engineer/admin.

However, there is a good reason why experience is worth so much more than certifications:

It doesnt matter if you pass certs and understand in "theroy" why things work etc etc. Many problems in IT involve quick and prescise troubleshooting whether it be for helpdesk support or engineers who spend time in server rooms checking routers and switches through cli's or whatever. Its the speed of troubleshooting that matters and thats something that comes with experience.

I have only been working in IT for less than 3 months and already this is clear to me....on many occasions i have gone to my seniors with questions about troubleshooting problems....and on more than one occasion they have given me suggestions i wouldnt of thought of doing early on in my troubleshooting...no matter how simple.

garv221

What is the problem with Walmart? Anytime they decide to build it seems malls, restaurants and other stores follow them in that area, stimulating growth and creating jobs. They employ hundreds of thousands of employees who are NOT forced to work there and have an option to work else where if it is really that bad.

Plantwiz wrote:

I wouldn't work for them for the way they drive retail prices to unrealistic lows. They are destroying fair product value for the sake of their profit.

Whats the problem with that? I save money, I am not forced to pay extra at another store thus putting extra cash in my pocket that I can spend else where, like in my friendly neighborhood, helping boost the economy. There is no law on how low prices can be..lol... The same people who gripe about them being able to afford these low prices because they buy from China are the same people rocking way over priced sneakers and clothes from China..Nike, Reebok,ect..

I remember reading an article a few years ago that was bashing Walmart for building a store outside of their city's limits. He said "Walmart dodged our higher taxes and does not have to pay city water, how cheap they are." I thought about all the people who refused to buy a home where there is high taxes. When people complain about Walmart, I go their more often and make a reminder in my Treo to renew my Sam's Club membership.

drakhan2002

I remember reading this article back in 2004...it is about RFID, but it does give a little insight into the IT culture of the company.

http://www.informationweek.com/story/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=55300976

I say "go for it." Having a Fortune 500 organization on your resume would speak volumes when it comes time to move on. Work there for a couple of years and quit...use 'em for all their worth...get some experience. The nice thing about larger companies is the ability to be exposed to so many different kinds of technology...you might find a niche in IT you never thought you'd like...

bmauro

I also don't know why there is all this hate towards Wal-mart. This is a capitalist economy. It's Wal-mart's job to post big profit numbers, they do this by buying cheap products (usually from china) and selling lower than the compeition. Yes, one of the downsides to this is that mom and pop stores might close down due to compitetion, but in the end its the consumers that decide this.

Walmart also gets bad press for low wages, lack of healthcare, etc etc... but again, it's the employees decision to work there. In a free market if people started shopping elsewhere and employees left for other corporations/companies, then walmart would change. It's the same when you shop at any "mega store" whether it be a BestBuy - Costco - IKEA - Barnes and Noble. They come into areas and put smaller companies out of business because they cannot match the prices they offer. Same thing when you buy something from online from amazon or newegg. Now I all those companies might treat their employees differently.

I personally don't shop there, but that is mostly because its out of the way. Also its important to note that Walmart has done more than their fair share to be environmentally friendly. Two items that come to mind is that they are planning on pushing CFLs and also something with Alaskan fishing (two that I can remember)

Personally I would not believe that the Corporate office would be run the same way that the retail stores are. A company as large as Walmart needs to have a top-notch corporate office to manage the huge amounts of retail locations they have. They did make Fortune's "World's most admired companies 2007" - 13th of 50

And a quick google of Walmart and IT I came up with:

http://www.informationweek.com/industries/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=47902662&pgno=1&queryText=

So while I really can't say how good their IT staff is treated from that article, it does sound like Walmart likes to embrace technology to increase their bottom line.

Unless they lock you into some sort of indentured servant contract, why not try them out. Like it was already mentioned, having a Fortune 500 company on your resume can't hurt and if they do turn out to be a bad employeer you always have that option to quit.

seuss_ssues

I want to thank everyone for their input so far. Lots of different views when it comes to walmart. The only reason i even considered walmart in the first place was due to a possibiliy of getting directly into their security division. Its very difficult in my area to find any type of security work that is not 5-9 years of dedicated security experience.

However, i recently spoke with a consulting friend of mine who lives in NW AR (walmart headquarters are there) and he indicated that alot of the IT employees like the company. However once youve worked there you are not formers are not rehireable by any Wal Mart vendors. Now with walmart being the worlds largest retailer they have ALOT of vendors. (I do not have any source to back this up, it was word of mouth from an IT consultant in their area)

So anyone that may think of working for walmart it *may* hurt your abilitiy to work other places later on (HP, cisco, any walmart vendor)

With that being said it would have to be a great opportunity for me to look into it further.

Ye Gum Noki

No. I don't think it will hurt you in that respect at all.

Mr. Ye

Plantwiz

garv221 wrote:

Plantwiz wrote:

I wouldn't work for them for the way they drive retail prices to unrealistic lows. They are destroying fair product value for the sake of their profit.

Whats the problem with that? I save money, .

Without going into an Economics discussion and taking this further off track.....You may save money today, but it's hurting the economy long-term. And while it may not be w@lmart's fault they can charge whatever they want, it hurts you and I each time someone votes for w@lmart with their dollar.

When your business model is to sell things at the 'lowest' cost and sell volumes of it, you eliminate a lot of quality. This COSTS us in resources. The US is shipping TONS of rare materials to China to have things mfg and sold back to us. There are costs in shipping that cannot be reduced and are rising with very few ways to power vehicles other then petroleum. So the easiest thing to cut is labor costs.

When our country permits a 'widget' to enter the country and be sold for less then it costs to be manufacturered IN THIS COUNTRY (due to not enforcing tariffs) you slowly and sometimes very quickly DRIVE businesses out of the country because they no longer can pay $40 p/h to manufacture bowling balls (Bruinswick pulled out of Muskegon, MI to mfg product in Mexico....really, how much brain power does it take to operate equipment that manufactures bowling balls...the initial design is labor intensive, but after that...how is it line guys earn that sort of money??). Back to widgets.

So pretty soon your neighbor who used to work in 'x' now is left to taking a service job because that's very likely our biggest industry (at least in this area). Once the money stops coming in from MFG all you are doing is trading money. You pay me to paint your home. I pay you to cut my lawn. We go to Jim to tun the car etc... These are all skills people can just 'do' for themselves and even today many are paying for others to 'service' them because they just don't like the work. That's ok short-term. Long-term though where's the money coming from????

Everyone doesn't need a DVD player and a large LCD screen to watch movies on. However, w@lmart allows people who don't have the means the ability to purchase these items.

Quality of products SUCKS in many cases. In 2006 I cannot think of how many poorly crafted items we worked with stores to replace. Trek Bike trailer with a non-centered weld - went through 7 trailers before one was found that would track behind the bike almost centered....the others all dragged from a 10degree or larger angle. High-end fishing reel where the fell apart after 2 casts. A zenith DVD and a Kodak portable that both died within a week of their MFG warranty. Finally went with a Magnavox.

*****

Here's how I look at it. Back in high school the whole junior class was to go an protest an abortion clinic (school field trip

). I was the only junior who wouldn't go. Several of the kids said "go, at least you get out of school, we think it's dumb, but who cares...it's an excused absence). I refuse to go. I had 3-4 mixed grade classes and the rest of the day I spent in the Library doing homework.

If you want to support them...nothing I say will stop you nor change your mind. Just remember, it's not about 'cheap prices'.....many things suffer, you may not see the damage today, but it is happening. There is little logic in trading services and calling that making a living...someone has to produce.

So if the original poster WANTS this 'opportunity', it's up to him/her.

plettner

Plantwiz wrote:

garv221 wrote:

Plantwiz wrote:

I wouldn't work for them for the way they drive retail prices to unrealistic lows. They are destroying fair product value for the sake of their profit.

Whats the problem with that? I save money, .

Without going into an Economics discussion and taking this further off track.....You may save money today, but it's hurting the economy long-term. And while it may not be w@lmart's fault they can charge whatever they want, it hurts you and I each time someone votes for w@lmart with their dollar.

When your business model is to sell things at the 'lowest' cost and sell volumes of it, you eliminate a lot of quality. This COSTS us in resources. The US is shipping TONS of rare materials to China to have things mfg and sold back to us. There are costs in shipping that cannot be reduced and are rising with very few ways to power vehicles other then petroleum. So the easiest thing to cut is labor costs.

When our country permits a 'widget' to enter the country and be sold for less then it costs to be manufacturered IN THIS COUNTRY (due to not enforcing tariffs) you slowly and sometimes very quickly DRIVE businesses out of the country because they no longer can pay $40 p/h to manufacture bowling balls (Bruinswick pulled out of Muskegon, MI to mfg product in Mexico....really, how much brain power does it take to operate equipment that manufactures bowling balls...the initial design is labor intensive, but after that...how is it line guys earn that sort of money??). Back to widgets.

So pretty soon your neighbor who used to work in 'x' now is left to taking a service job because that's very likely our biggest industry (at least in this area). Once the money stops coming in from MFG all you are doing is trading money. You pay me to paint your home. I pay you to cut my lawn. We go to Jim to tun the car etc... These are all skills people can just 'do' for themselves and even today many are paying for others to 'service' them because they just don't like the work. That's ok short-term. Long-term though where's the money coming from????

Everyone doesn't need a DVD player and a large LCD screen to watch movies on. However, w@lmart allows people who don't have the means the ability to purchase these items.

Quality of products SUCKS in many cases. In 2006 I cannot think of how many poorly crafted items we worked with stores to replace. Trek Bike trailer with a non-centered weld - went through 7 trailers before one was found that would track behind the bike almost centered....the others all dragged from a 10degree or larger angle. High-end fishing reel where the fell apart after 2 casts. A zenith DVD and a Kodak portable that both died within a week of their MFG warranty. Finally went with a Magnavox.

*****

Here's how I look at it. Back in high school the whole junior class was to go an protest an abortion clinic (school field trip ). I was the only junior who wouldn't go. Several of the kids said "go, at least you get out of school, we think it's dumb, but who cares...it's an excused absence). I refuse to go. I had 3-4 mixed grade classes and the rest of the day I spent in the Library doing homework.

If you want to support them...nothing I say will stop you nor change your mind. Just remember, it's not about 'cheap prices'.....many things suffer, you may not see the damage today, but it is happening. There is little logic in trading services and calling that making a living...someone has to produce.

So if the original poster WANTS this 'opportunity', it's up to him/her.

Absolutely spot-on. The way manufacturers are off-shoring is a short-sighted venture. In the end, it's a race to the bottom. Who can sell stuff cheaper than the next guy and who can under-cut that guy. Eventually, with no manufacturing, the proverbial falls out of the economy.

I always buy Australian where I can but it's a shame so much comes out of China.

Back to original question... maybe later.

Ed Rooney

I never worked for Walmart, but I have "Big Retail" (1000+ stores) experience with 2 companies. It tends to be very compartmentalized and political. The managers who rise to the top are the ones that can manage projects, regardless of their technical skills. One day you might show up and the head guys decided to outsource all of IT to Accenture. Well, now you work for Accenture, unless you are one of the unlucky few they want to clean out.

Yes, all of this happened at Best Buy. They basically drove all of their IT talent out the door in 2004.

garv221

Heres a catch22 -All these low prices that are supposedly bad for the economy are thanks to globalization, which of course is the foundation of IT. No Globalization/internet, no IT/jobs.

Darthn3ss

I work for walmart (as a stockboy). Politics/economics/morals asides, in my experience, its not that bad of a company. I havn't ran into any of the apparently evil sexist management who force you to work off the clock, and they are very strict in enforcing lunch breaks, as well as making sure associates clock in and out at the proper time. I feel mildly secure with my job. Maybe its because that alot of people who work there seem to be slack are just trying to find a reason to sue? I do work with a good number of people who i'd would not want to have work under me... fortunently they don't. Its like the people i work with who get a minor scrape or cut and go to the doctor for that, and make walmart pay.

Anyway, could you please give more info on the IT jobs at walmart. I'm not trying to get it or anything but since i already work here i may be able to possibly move around when i get my certs. (One plus is i see that we use cisco equipment. yay)

rydindurrty

well I just recently accepted an offer from Wal-Mart to intern at their ISD. Kinda skeptical as well but is the only internship offer that I received for the summer. Anyone who here who ACTUALLY has worked at their ISD or knows of anyone who has? Please let's refrain opinions from users who have any type of bias against them. Also, Bentonville, AK, I dunno about that place...is pretty much a boring town?

seraphus

Congrats on the position!

rydindurrty

thanks...any insight into my questions?

seraphus

I never knew anyone that worked for Wal-mart's ISD. I've also never been to Arkansas. However, it's only for one summer right? How bad can it be?

If it's going to give you experience, I'd probably take it. Next summer you can apply for an internship/position that requires a more experienced person (as in 3-12months). If your graduating soon, then you'll have a head start on the competition. Experience is the key. And I think that those who are willing to take the extra step, like relocate/travel to pick up extra experience will benefit much more than those who don't.