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A day in the life of a Walmart manager

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Re: A day in the life of a Walmart manager

#31

Post by amelius »

unclebucknasty wrote: post #19
doytch wrote: post #9

She runs a shop that employs 300 people; needs to worry about short-term and long-term logistics and planning; works cross-functionally with the trades; probably frequently needs to manage upwards; interacts directly with customers; etc etc... Damn, she deserves that $240k more than a lot of us software developers. This is a hard job.

No doubt she earns it. But, we're probably all doing some form of the above in one way or another. A few minor edits may make the list a little more familiar to more software folks: > worry about short-term and long-term [...] planning; works cross-functionally...;... manage upwards; interacts directly with customers

Salaries are awkward. I personally believe someone who collects the municipal garbage should make more than someone who sits in an office all day and solves logic puzzles. Because I wouldn't want to do it.

Re: A day in the life of a Walmart manager

#32

Post by prh8 »

varispeed wrote: post #13
doytch wrote: post #9

She runs a shop that employs 300 people; needs to worry about short-term and long-term logistics and planning; works cross-functionally with the trades; probably frequently needs to manage upwards; interacts directly with customers; etc etc... Damn, she deserves that $240k more than a lot of us software developers. This is a hard job.

> Damn, she deserves that $240k more than a lot of us software developers. This is a hard job. Wow, this is such a nonsense view. Software development may seem easy to you, because you know how to do it and probably have been doing it for a long time. But I can assure you, software development is a hard job. If it was easy, everyone and their dog could do it. Have some respect to your profession!

If both options paid you 240k a year, would you rather be a software engineer or do the exact job the Walmart manager does? I'm guessing you'd rather do SWE

Re: A day in the life of a Walmart manager

#33

Post by blackhawkC17 »

999900000999 wrote: post #3

>Hart has seen that change firsthand. About 20 years ago, then 19 years old and a mother of two, she started part-time at the same Walmart she now runs. Her first job was cooking live lobsters pulled from a tank in the deli. Was definitely expecting this to be a story about someone who graduated college and walked into management. I have respect for anyone who could rise though the ranks of retail. She deserves every…

Walmart’s current CEO, Doug McMillon, also began working there as a high schooler unloading trucks (before completing college and returning to a corporate role).

https://www.businessinsider.com/walmart-ceo-doug-mcmillon-pr...

Re: A day in the life of a Walmart manager

#35

Post by nfriedly »

devdiary wrote: post #20

How come a paywalled content gets to the top of the HN front-page?

Presumably because the paywall is very porus.

And, I suppose, there are a few HN people who have subscriptions.

And probably a few who just upvote based on the title.

(I think it only takes 4 up votes to hit the front page if they happen quickly enough.)

Re: A day in the life of a Walmart manager

#36

Post by breck »

doytch wrote: post #9

She runs a shop that employs 300 people; needs to worry about short-term and long-term logistics and planning; works cross-functionally with the trades; probably frequently needs to manage upwards; interacts directly with customers; etc etc... Damn, she deserves that $240k more than a lot of us software developers. This is a hard job.

> more than a lot of us software developers.

A big question I've tried to answer in my life is whether the high pay in the software world has an intelligent economic explanation, or maybe a more sinister explanation involving false models encoded in the law.

Re: A day in the life of a Walmart manager

#37

Post by blinkingled »

doytch wrote: post #9

She runs a shop that employs 300 people; needs to worry about short-term and long-term logistics and planning; works cross-functionally with the trades; probably frequently needs to manage upwards; interacts directly with customers; etc etc... Damn, she deserves that $240k more than a lot of us software developers. This is a hard job.

I don't about others but based on past experience if one really attempts to do their $240k software / IT job well they ought to encounter similar if not in some ways worse challenges - some just realities of the tech industry/stack/complexity and some injected by bureaucracy, incompetence, mismanagement and not to mention the ever hanging sword of change in technology and possibility of layoff for no fault of yours. It adds up.

When you are signing up for a job it's not just the money and the physical things you do - it's also the intangibles, the time spent in unproductive meetings, time spent afterwards feeling unproductive and worried, the resulting stress you have to manage etc, it all adds up and takes away something more than the money. I would argue that well managed jobs with some semblance of stability, human connection and predictability/routine are quite pleasant and easier to do compared to Software/IT.

Re: A day in the life of a Walmart manager

#38

Post by pavlov »

heisenbit wrote: post #24
varispeed wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Damn, she deserves that $240k more than a lot of us software developers. This is a hard job. Wow, this is such a nonsense view. Software development may seem easy to you, because you know how to do it and probably have been doing it for a long time. But I can assure you, software development is a hard job. If it was easy, everyone and their dog could do it. Have some respect to your profession!

Yes SW development is a hard job but she is doing a lot more than one job and the skill set required (not just knowledge but also behavior) to cover so many roles is a lot broader than most developers and also many managers in the software industry require to do their job.

On the other hand, there are a lot of Walmarts and similar stores, and a lot of people who have managed these in the past. There are many people who she can turn to for reliable advice. I'm assuming one Walmart is not fundamentally different from another. It's hard work, but it's essentially predictable.

Software developers are often called to do work that's not predictable. At the top of the pay grade we're generally asked to design something novel, because it's obviously not worth paying $240k / year for a developer whose work could be replaced by off-the-shelf software. (Sure, there are many exceptions and cushy jobs where people are raking in the cash with few risks. I'm thinking there are probably less of these around than a few years ago, though.)

Re: A day in the life of a Walmart manager

#39

Post by threatofrain »

doytch wrote: post #9

She runs a shop that employs 300 people; needs to worry about short-term and long-term logistics and planning; works cross-functionally with the trades; probably frequently needs to manage upwards; interacts directly with customers; etc etc... Damn, she deserves that $240k more than a lot of us software developers. This is a hard job.

It's easier to find revenue streams that scale horizontally by the number of programmers and servers. It's hard to open new Walmarts. This won't always be true for either case, so make well of your situation regardless of whether you think there's some kind of difficulty or effort moat.

Re: A day in the life of a Walmart manager

#40

Post by unclebucknasty »

amelius wrote: post #31
unclebucknasty wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No doubt she earns it. But, we're probably all doing some form of the above in one way or another. A few minor edits may make the list a little more familiar to more software folks: > worry about short-term and long-term [...] planning; works cross-functionally...;... manage upwards; interacts directly with customers

Salaries are awkward. I personally believe someone who collects the municipal garbage should make more than someone who sits in an office all day and solves logic puzzles. Because I wouldn't want to do it.

Yeah, anyone who is paid well enough for something they enjoy is certainly fortunate.

OTOH, there are people who would be driven crazy by sitting in an office all day and wouldn't do it, even for more pay.

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