Pros
The benefits are reasonably priced. After 15 years you can get four weeks vacation. The sky is the limit, my regional manager started out as an hourly associate in a store and many high ranking walmart managers have done the same. I was never an hourly associate but it always seemed like they had a fairly sweet gig if they could ever get full time and stick around. Knew of several associates making over $20 an hour. The annual salary for an assistant manager would be ok if the managers were only actually required to work their schedule, but there's plenty of weeks where I didn't even make minimum wage for hours put in
Cons
Horrible work/life balance as a manager. More than once I went in for my shift at 8am and was told to go home and come back to work overnights for a week. Days off will be taken away for all managers if work is not getting done. You get to spend one of those days cutting 1000 hours out of the schedules, knowing you will be making up the difference. The company is not consistent with their own policies so some people will get fired for one thing while others don't even get written up for the same thing. As a manager I often had to follow direction that I felt was wrong in order to keep my job. While there is plenty of room for growth you pretty much have to dedicate your life to the company if you want to get anywhere. When I worked overnights I was scheduled from 7:30pm-8am and my store manager wouldn't even walk the store until 8am, a 45 minute process for which I had to be present. 80% of the time I was told I couldn't leave until an additional list of things were completed and wouldn't get out until 11am or noon, only to have to be back at 7:30. I am amazed I never got in a wreck driving home
