Experience - Retail
How can one adequately describe their work experiences on a one page resume? Especially after a long career spanning considerable time in mutliple disciplines. That was the frustrating part of writing my resume again after a really long time. So here I am, giving a real deep dive into what I have really done.
I'm going to assume that if you are reading this, that you already have my resume. So that's a good starting point, but really, you only know such a small fraction of what I have really done. I'm hoping to give a really clear picture here, so you can have a better idea as to whether or not I would be a good fit for what you are looking for.
A brief dive into the beginning, where it all started. Blockbuster Video. We all loved it, so did I, and it was a pretty fun job for a 17 year old at the time. Little did I know that it would be a launching point into my career. At age 18, I was promoted to Assistant Manager. The store had a need, I was the top performer, it was an easy fit. At age 19, I was promoted to Store Manager. I did not pursue a Store Manager position, it just came to me naturally. And when the opening was there, I took the job, and began my career in managing people and a store. Despite my age, I ran a top performing store in nearly all metrics nearly right away. Weekly sales, promotional contests, inventory shrinkage, expense controls, and many other categories were always strengths of my store. It was a great introduction to managing people and the rigors of managing a store.
From there, I continued in small store retail, working as a Store Manager for a small game retailer, named Wizards of the Coast. I managed a few different locations, gradually working my way to the highest volume location in the region. Wizards of the Coast was my first introduction to the sales process. It was here that I learned to diagnose a customer's needs, recommend products that met that need, and close the sale. And what better product to learn how to sell than board games?
I began to think more career minded at this point, and the big box retailer Target was my next stop. Despite the fact that Target was a much different retailer than my previous two, many of the skills I learned from previous employment transitioned very well to my position at Target, and I was a top performer from the start. I was fortunate enough that the store I worked at was a brand new store, and I was able to work through the whole new store opening process, which was an experience that is hard to duplicate. The scale of such an operation requires immense planning, extreme organization, and plenty of hard work. It was here that I refined my organizational and employee management skills, now managing a staff of over 125 employees. Target, more than any other employer for me to this point, was very focused on metrics and standards, and I learned not only how to meet those standards, but what went into creating standards in the first place, and why they were so important.
The final stop on my retail career (so far) was New York & Company, a women's fashion retailer. Not the typical retail store for me for sure, but the opportunity was a good one, and in retrospect, I'm very glad I took it. But not for the reasons one would expect. I didn't really learn much in the way of new skills here. But this store came with two unusual challenges. First off, it was the district and regional home store. In other words, the district and regional management had their offices in my back room. So the standards for the store were always much higher than any other location. The second major challenge was that the company was trying to go public at the time, and not only was perfection expected, but there was a special focus on financials. Labor budgets were tightened, profit margins were heavily scrutinized, and store performance was fiercely evaluated. While all of the above made the work environment extremely challenging, it provided me the chance to put all of the tools I have learned in retail to use, and really run a successful store, despite those challenges. And during my time there, we were continually a top 2 store in sales volume in the region, and always had successful customer service scores from our surveys and mystery shoppers. Success did not come easy here, but that made it that much more rewarding.
Retail management teaches far more than I think people give it credit for. Organization is paramount when dealing with inventory flow, product placement, in store marketing, and customer flow, all of which are constantly changing from week to week. In addition, many of the employees working in retail are true entry level employees, and as such hiring and training become extremely important. A good, well trained staff requires a lot of work, but also a lot of skill in both selecting the right employees and tailoring a training program to the needs of a group of people that typically have little to no work experience. A good Retail Store Manager also has to become an expert in the world of HR, as there are numerous employee situations that occur, some potentially delicate, that require a manager to act appropriately to ensure no labor laws are violated. Then of course, using good service skills when you have an unhappy customer, and knowing how to diffuse and resolve situations that may have escalated beyond the control of the employees. As many people have likely experienced themselves, it's not a skill every Manager in retail masters. But an absolute requirement to be good at the job. I can definitely say that I mastered many of these skills, and retail management gave me the skills I needed for the next phase of my career.
