You know what has helped me?
You know what has helped me the most in my career? More than my degrees, more than my corporate experience, trainings?
Retail. Working on the frontlines on the floor running stores from associate to having my own territory. Hands down. (Also bartending a little in college, all bartenders should have a side hustle in mediation and recruiting, they are the absolute best).
I remember recruiting for executives and other strategic roles for years post frontlines and having some of the most amazing conversations about businesses people worked for, the business I was working for, retail and the greater market and landscape, it could be marketing or supply chain or HR, merchandising, public, private, B corps, fair trade PE, VC, bankruptcies, international expansions, you name it. And why was I able to truly keep up and inform in those conversations?
Running stores was the foundation. Business objectives, packaging your information for visiting executives, running your p&l, knowing who was in your market space, your mall, the people taking your market share that just opened 30 new stores for your competition, keeping up on what new supply chain problem was keeping your product from your customers, creatively staffing knowing your company was struggling and money was tight, client experience tactics for in your face in the moment solutions when something went south, understanding the skill sets that people from other retailers had strengths and weaknesses in when hiring, and managing people, lots of people and team dynamics.
You know who doesn’t usually have that management skill set? Early career corporate employees.
Do not sleep on retail leaders. If I hear “they only have retail management experience” one more time, well I’m going to casually and kindly explain for the millionth time why they are amazing multifunctional kickass business leaders.
Retail leaders trying to make a transition to corporate, I’m excited to help y’all make the transition if you need some additional support on how to frame or communicate your experiences through Resume, LinkedIn, but especially in Interviews!
#retail #leaders #transition #multifunctional
