How to get a job in… Entertainment retail

HMV has been expanding into games over the past few years, which means we’ve also been recruiting more staff who can support our games offer.

To sustain a specialist service you need specialist knowledge underpinned by a real passion for the product – so that’s our starting point for any recruitment. If your staff don’t have that, how can you expect to communicate the virtue of games and gaming to your customers?

People can still call in at stores to see if there are positions available, but, where at all possible, we encourage applicants for all situations: store permanent roles and fixed term seasonal work, as well as head office positions to apply online via our dedicated recruitment website which is found at www.hmvcareers.com.

This is partly so we can manage the whole process more effectively in a consistent and standardised way. However, this uniform approach is also intended to be of potential benefit for prospective employees, as the site lays out all the information they may need to make a decision and complete their application.

Crucially it lists all the positions that may be available around the country at any given time, and it also outlines what we are looking for in terms of job requirements, skills and expectations.

‘Net gains
In this way it can save everyone’s time in the process: the prospective candidate’s, who can gauge if they have the relevant attributes, and our own, as we don’t have to sift through hundreds of unrealistic applications. It also means you can cut down on unnecessary advertising, although prospective candidates should also check out specialist publications, where we do occasionally run job advertisements for head office position.

Once an application has been lodged, our Human Resources team will discuss candidates with the relevant store or head office manager, and candidates may be given an initial feature by phone, followed by a face to face engagement – usually with the store manager or assistant manager.
Again, the beauty of the online process is that much of the initial communication can be continued using this channel.

‘Tis the season
A potentially good route ‘in’ to retail is often via the seasonal fixed term positions. HMV generally takes on some 1,000 seasonal colleagues in the run up to Christmas. There’s bound to be some natural turnover in store positions, as some permanent staff choose to move on, so any seasonal staff that have excelled, and wish to remain with the business, may be invited to apply to stay full-time – so it’s worth thinking about this approach.

You can get started applying for your career in games retail on the MCV Jobs Board.