#CareerChange #Retail #Administration #Upskilling
Hey everyone! 👋 Let’s talk about a common dilemma – transitioning from retail to administration without a traditional educational background.
So, here’s the scoop – my girlfriend has been rocking it in the retail world for a decade now, but she’s looking to make a change. She’s aiming for a desk job in admin or customer service, but she’s feeling a bit unsure about how to go about it.
Now, she may not have a fancy degree, but that doesn’t mean she can’t make a successful transition! Here are a few tips and tricks that might help her upskill and land that entry-level admin role:
– Look into short courses: There are plenty of online or community college courses that can help her sharpen her skills in areas like Excel, customer service, or basic office procedures. It’s a great way to boost her resume without a huge time commitment.
– Gain experience through volunteering or internships: This can be a great way for her to get her foot in the door and show off her skills, even without a traditional education background.
– Network like a pro: Attend industry events, job fairs, or even reach out to professionals in the field for advice and mentorship. Networking can open up doors she never thought possible.
Remember, the key is to showcase her skills, work ethic, and willingness to learn. With a bit of determination and the right resources, she can definitely make that career switch! 🚀
Do you have any other suggestions or success stories to share? Let’s help each other out! #CareerAdvice #SkillsDevelopment
> She won’t mind me saying this but she isn’t an amazing intellect
Lmao very general administration-ey. Nah, she’ll be ayt. Plenty of people with half a brain in there anyway.
> any advice on how she can upskill herself
Fastest way is a diploma in management. Will be extremely useful and helpful and employers DO look at education.
Fee free tafe. I can’t say it enough on this forum apparently. Admin you need a bot that states this every time
TAFE then public servant job. She’ll be a manager in a year with that background.
No experience needed to find a basic entry level admin job. I’d suggest looking for a receptionist role first, the gravitating to an administration assistant or personal assistant role.
Temp agency isn’t a bad place to start, they often have short roles for entry level to gain experience
You don’t need any diploma for entry level admin roles when you have experience that is relatable like she does. Apply for admin jobs and highlight on the resume that she has been a retail store manager for (x) years. Duties include (typical admin stuff). You will land a role without having to go through training because of the store management experience.
And uh, girls going for admin roles can help their chances by looking good. People may not like that but it’s a reality. Getting fit/appearance can help in that regard moreso than tafe would depending on the hiring manager.
Just keep applying, the experience she has will be relevant
Best way to break in is agency work in my experience. At least half of the admin support people I’ve worked with have been converts from contract work. Being reliable and well presented is 99% of it.
Has she attempted to apply for those roles with her current experience? It’s common for retail store managers to progress to customer service admin roles quite easily because they have transferable skills: rostering = data entry, POS systems = software experience etc.
I had a store manager with very similar experience who moved into real estate admin without needing any extra certifications. If she doesn’t have Microsoft 365 experience that’s the area she should look at while applying for jobs.
She’s somewhat overskilled for basic admin. Running a shop and a team take some fair people skills. She might like a sales role, maybe purchasing or inventory control. I’d expect any retail manager to have a basic grasp on all these things.
Intelligence isn’t only measured in tests and essays, it’s a reflection on how we navigate the world with humour and subtlety.
I had a very similar situation.
She should notify her regional manager that she is interested in admin work if the clothing stores head office is in the same area.
Otherwise consider looking for wholesale admin roles in small fashion offices (not going to lie, the companies can be dodgy AF but you can leverage it to get a much nicer admin role within a year).
Alternatively look for receptionist roles (office all rounders) or even volunteer positions working admin for charities.
Another option is a call centre, it leverages her customer service skills and gets her basic admin skills. Agaib, not a great place to be but you do it for a year and you can jump to other roles from there.
Once she has 1 role she will be fine getting another.
Also she should tweak her resume to highlight the administrative side of retail management- scheduling, budget management, stock take management, process improvement, whs, procedure implementation, customer service.
I was previously an admin manager in a medical setting. The best contributions to the team were from retail world. She needs to high light her people skills. Her experience in dealing with the public is a fantastic resource to tap into.
She doesn’t need to up skill.
Go to one of those office temp agencies. They sit you down and make you take typing tests etc so you can say ‘tested at 70wpm at so-and-so’
Put down specific programs on my cv she knows she would be able to use. Word, Excel, Outlook, myob or whatever, she can prob learn before she gets the job it’s not hard to google. She has to learn that people often get the job first then work out how to do the job after.
She has so much experience working, she can say that she has the appropriate skills in – team management, client liaison, scheduling, inventory management, communication skills, leadership, organisation, achieving kpis, juggling competing priorities etc etc etc
She should apply for an aps3 job in the public service, they would take her in a heartbeat but the job application process takes quite a few months.
I was in a similar position – working retail/customer service for almost a decade.
I got an entry level call centre role at a large company and worked my way up. Currently in a tech role. I learned everything as I went. Maybe look at financial institutions (banking, insurance etc) or even govt? From there you can start applying for other internal roles. So many people I work with started off in the call centre.
Tell her not to doubt herself.
I dropped out halfway through year 10 and became pregnant at 16. Could have gone either way, but at 18, I went and did a trainseeship as a Legal Admin, and 18 years later, now an Office Manager at the same company for 10+ yrs with a great salary.
Maybe start off on one of the online tafe courses while she is working, and then once she completes that, she starts looking into not an entry-level role (she does have some experience).
Government Admin Officer.
I’ve job hopped a lot, I managed to go from cooking in kitchens to research and coordinator roles. I found the easiest way to change industries was getting another similar role first with a similar environment and skills if possible. You can easily go from hospo roles to call-centre or client facing entry-level office roles if you can get to the city CBD. Universities, ATO, Public transport are all much more bearable (although still not amazing) entry-level employers. Having that on a resume can then be enough to get into front desk work, assistant/admin work, and more complex roles later.
Also re-writing your resume to include any relevant skills to the new role is a big one. You are allowed to include hobbies and volunteer info if it shows useful skills (I include my years of experience DMing D&D when applying for research roles now for example, because it shows time management and social skills). If you don’t have any, get some!
Finally, it’s not hard to find small things that might also sweeten the deal to a potential employer. Have a look for roles first, find the dream role, have a look at their selection criteria in the job posting, and see if you can’t do a short-course or self-teach over 6 months to tick off one of those boxes on the side.
Tell her to apply for the APS 4 bill EA rounds. Good way to get her foot in the door in the PS, and then she can move up from there!
A very easy pathway for someone in retail that nobody ever talks about is going into category management.
With store manager experience she should be able to get a job as a category buyer, which is about $80k-$90k something like that, and then from there category manager at a national retailer would be $120k-$140k and then from there there are lots of options
Look at entry level job specs – what can she loosely relate her current role to? It can be very loose as long as she preps strong examples for an interview (even if it’s exaggerated, it’s the principles of how she would act in the scenario that they’re looking to see)
Then the things she can’t relate to her current role, e.g. using Office 365, Word, Excel etc. Find any way to link that to her current role – rostering in excel? Ask to take on tasks or see how things are done that require computer and compliment this with basic self learning on YouTube / Udemy courses.
Don’t underestimate the power of the course she already did, link this into above examples as well.
Tip with recruiters:
Submit a resume for any admin role on their website. Her CV is in the system now. The next day call the recruiter and say she’s interested in that role or similar – usually they will register her there and then. She should have an elevator pitch of 3 selling points/experience + what she’s looking for + salary expectations before she calls.
If she doesn’t call, it’s likely she will be lost in the sea of resumes.
EDIT:
Avoid call centre work — it’s NOT a stepping stone into office work and it’s a similar type cast as retail.
She could try through a recruiter.
Sounds like she would be great for an operational role in government, potentially working up to managing a team.
Can eventually try and branch out in gov from ops from there.
Is the retail store a big corporation? Retail staff are usually a shoe in for head office roles especially in operations as they generally understand the business and processes.
I went from retail to a head office roles then moved internally a few times till I found a career path. I’m now in a senior role making mid 6 figures and it’s not really a role that needs a degree imo.
She’d be qualified to become a buyer at a retailer. It’s a role at head office and wouldn’t require any upskilling. If it’s in the same vertical she’d be very qualified.
Just going to point out that throughout my career I’ve met plenty of successful and great workers who aren’t exactly brilliant. The best thing you can have is a good attitude and follow instruction and that will get you most of the way there.
Plenty of “smart” people overthink things or think their job is beneath them.
Women walk in to desk jobs where they do nothing all day, should be easy