7 Useful Tips:

• Like any retail job, kissing your department supervisor/manager's butt helps.
• Buy light weight steel toed shoes. Walking/standing for 8 hour shifts on the concrete floor is hell on your knees. (I recommend kodiak brand)
• If you have the option to get machine training, just know that you take on extra responsibility and no extra benefits (e.x. no raise in pay) unless free machine teaching is valuable to you. (When I say machines I mean reach truck/forklift and order picker, however, licence in the Home Depot cannot be used outside the home depot.)
• If you need time off around a holiday, book it off months in advance (6 months would be better if you know where you're gonna be that early)
• Departments that you should NOT work in: (pay's not worth it)
• Lumber and building materials
• Lot
• Hardware
• Order picker
• Seasonal (try to avoid during summer)
• Learn about the product in the store. Don't be an associate that sends customers on a goose chase because you're too lazy to familiarize yourself with the product we sell. Don't need to be an expert, but don't be ignorant.
• **IMPORTANT** if you like getting bonuses on your paycheck, try hard to get “leads” → leads are when customers come in and want someone to come do something in their home (home depot installation services) and you have take down their information for the contractor to get a hold of them to give customer a few quote on how much the job will cost. So enter in as many leads as you can and if customers decide that they want our contractors to do the work, you get the recognition. Get enough recognition and you can get a “Homer award” which is 50 bucks added to your paycheck. (They are not liberal with giving them out) in my store, they also give you a $10 Tim Horton's gift card for every last that follows through.