Advancement in Retail Careers

When you are working in retail, the tiers of responsibility (and therefore of pay) are wide-ranging. The great thing about this industry is that there is a ton of room for advancement. Today, you may start as a part-time sales clerk, but in thirty years you may have worked your way up that corporate ladder to be the president of that very company. How can you ensure that you advance in your career?

Here are some great tips to get noticed by your superiors:

• Make sure that you are always on your best behavior when you are at work. This means no personal calls on your cell phone, no goofing off even when the other employees are goofing off, and no wasting company time. This does not just mean when your managers are looking, but all the time. Trust in the fact that they will realize if you’re only being a good employee when they’re around.
• Do not ask for a promotion right away, but make sure that your immediate boss knows your career goals and understands that you’re going to work to reach these goals. This shows that you’re ambitious, and at the same time reminds them to consider you for promotions.
• Do any extra work that you can when it is available to you, whether that means cleaning up someone else’s section after you have finished your own or offering to stay late when someone is needed to work overtime. Be sure that you take credit for your accomplishments, or you will potentially be overlooked by your bosses.
• Have a flexible schedule. If you cover people’s shifts for them all the time, they’ll begin to take advantage of your kindness, but by keeping your schedule as clear as possible you can be open to trading days when necessary or being “on-call” on very busy days, like Black Friday.

You may need to sit down with your manager at some point to ask them how you can get yourself promoted, or what they would like to see from you before they consider a pay increase or a move to a new position. Listen carefully and take what they have to say seriously, and you could wind up with a much better position within the retail industry.