Pros
-Great Pay for Retail -Flexible hours depending on manager -Tuition Reimbursement -Free voice, text, and data cell service -Free phone -Great sales experience US Cellular was an amazing college job. I really could not ask for more. It gave me great sales experience while paying way more than most retail jobs. They also paid for a good amount of my college. When I started the managers were incredible and morale was so high that it outweighed any other con. I was truly proud to work for this company and could not imagine working anywhere else. The atmosphere and working conditions are truly better than other cell phone companies. Sales staff is given much more "empowerment" than most companies. We could credit accounts, adjust prices on accessories without direct manager approval, lower price on used phones if we felt the situation called for it, and bring our managers into situations because we feel it was "the right thing" to credit someone overage because they went over once and they were nice about it. Due to the high volume of interactions with customers and different departments I was able to really hone my professional appearance and demeanor. US Cellular helped me develop a calm yet confident tone with a way to get things without sounding demanding. It is great experience that is hard to get in other college jobs. Towards the end after several manager changes going over 7 levels up the working conditions decreased but overall I would still recommend this job for young people who just graduated from high school or in college. If you can land a part time position it pays very well for retail and you will get great experience. I was there for almost 4 years and while there were big ups and big downs I would say check US Cellular out if you are looking for a job.
Cons
-You can make a lot more at Verizon Wireless and AT&T -The phones are generally phones Verizon either rejected or released 6 months ago -Retail hours -Lack of training in certain areas -Retail customers, especially in cell phones, can get really upset -Hard to move anywhere within the company While I believe that US Cellular is a better working environment than Verizon Wireless and AT&T they treat their sales staff like they are idiots. They are constantly talking down to sales staff and are surprised when there is push back. No real answers are given when there is push back other than "trust us." In meetings and communication we are constantly reminded that we worked for a "great company." A lot of the managers are there because of their dedication to the company instead of actual sales experience. In my region the Director of Sales got the position at 26, the Area Sales Manager transferred from HR, my Store Manager transferred from Operations, and my Sales Manager transferred from Inventory Management. While I understand you cannot promote based solely on numbers it should be a mix of dedication and good experience. Good, constructive feedback was rarely given. Several people wanted to move up in the company but they were not given strong reasons why they could not. I am not saying they should have moved up but they were not given actual tangible reasons why they could not move up and whether they could improve or not. Instead they would go on "action plans" that would never lead anywhere. Keep in mind this was my retail experience. At the business offices everyone seemed to love their job and worked in a relaxed atmosphere. On the flip side the call center employees were itching to get into retail because their working conditions were worse than retail. Also FYI I may sound bitter because I probably am. I graduated from college and tried to get into the professional Monday through Friday side of things. I was told they typically do not hire from the retail side because they are looking for people with experience. I totally understand that rationale, and I would even be OK if really they thought I wasn't a good fit (although I would have preferred they told me that) but I was still unhappy with the result and feeling like I was stuck in a retail job after college.