Millions of people work retail jobs. Everyone from high school students, GED graduates and college students seeking part time work, to adults working full time are working at retail stores.
The question is, does working at a retail store look good on a resume? Is listing retail job experience something that will impress a future boss? Does working at a retail store convince a future employer that you have any qualifications for roles beyond minimum wage work?
The question is important and one that anyone who works in a retail business needs to ask themselves when they are writing up a resume.
Sometimes you are best served leaving retail work off of your resume. Other times you are going to have to include the information on your resume because there is very little choice.
Do Recruiters Care For Retail Experience?
If you’re trying to work with a recruiter, then it’s important to know that recruiters aren’t impressed with retail work.
Companies that use recruiters to hire people are not staffing for customer service roles or entry level positions that are suitable for retail workers.
In most cases recruiters are only working on tough to fill positions. These roles require people who are highly trained, skilled, and educated. In most cases, working at a retail store doesn’t impressive anyone.
It’s not that working at a retail store makes someone ineligible, it’s simply that there are low standards in certain roles such as retail work, government roles, and hospital positions.
People who work in these roles tend to not perform highly. Retail work pays very little. It doesn’t matter what the type of retail work—be it Home Depot or Walmart or Starbucks, or a local mom and pop store. The roles don’t pay more than minimum wage in many cases.
Other types of retail positions—such as car dealerships and mobile phone shops—often employ felons and other people who are criminals. It’s no secret that these businesses are constantly rated as the worst places to work. There is high turnover and most people have terrible work histories (or criminal history) and have to take what they can get.
In most cases, recruiters look poorly on people who only have retail work experience. The only exceptions is when the person is a recent graduate who is just out of school. In that case, working retail might not be seen as a negative. It’s not seen as a positive, but it does not have as much negative conation as when an adult only has retail work on their resume.
Retail Work Does Not Equate To Professional Experience
The cold hard truth is that most people who run companies and hire people do not consider retail workers professionals. While that might sound like a blind spot, it’s the truth.
It is true that retail workers have to deal with the public, and tend to have good customer service skills. But it’s also true that most employers think of retail workers as low paid, low skilled, disposable employees.
It doesn’t help matters when you consider that many retail workers have skimpy work records and in many cases they do not have college degrees or professional office experience. So, a resume that is filled with retail work experience does not translate to a candidate that can work in an office.
Retail work does not involve the same sort of skill set that office work does. So, just listing retail work on a resume is not going to get you past the gate keepers who review resumes for office work. Simply said, retail work only will lead to more retail work. It in no way suggests that you can work in a professional office setting.
That doesn’t mean that it’s a bad thing to have on your resume. As we will discuss, there are times when you need to include retail work. These reasons include not having a career gap and also for instances of promotion.
If you have worked your way up in retail—moving from cashier or clerk to something like a manager or assistant manager, than that will certainly be something that is impressive.
Retail Work vs Resume Gaps: Sometimes You Need To List It
So, when is it important and necessary to list retail work on your resume? Well, there are several situations that require that you list your retail work experience. We can review them each one by one
- You Don’t Have Any Other Work Experience
The most common reason that you’d have to list retail experience on your resume is that you don’t have any other work experience. If you only have work experience in the retail sector, then that is what you have to list on your resume. Working at a Car Dealership, or a Home Depot will not impress corporate employers who are seeking professional employees, but that doesn’t mean you can impress them with a resume without work experience. Retail work is better than no work. If you don't have anything on your resume, then it could be one of the reasons you're not getting an interview.
- You Want To Avoid A Resume Gap
The worst thing to have on a resume is a resume gap. When employers see that you haven’t worked steadily, they immediately think that you’re an unreliable person who can’t be trusted. There are many reasons why people have resume gaps, but in truth employers don’t care about special circumstances. They believe that most people have work gaps because they are not able to hold a job, or worse, they simply quit after working a few weeks because they don’t want to work.
- You Don’t Have Internships (College Graduates)
If you are a recent college graduate and you do not have internships to list on your resume, then you will have to fudge your resume a bit and add other work experience. While some people have no work experience, they have extensive internships to list.
If you are someone who doesn’t have extensive internships experience, then it is important to fill your resume with some things. These things might be anything from retail work to volunteer work. However, some people were not able to get an internship or simply choose not to do an internship.
People who don’t have internships on their resumes need to handle the situation with some other sort of filler. If you did work a retail job during college, it can be helpful to list it on your resume. There are cases where you would not want to: prestigious employers will look poorly upon retail work.
But for most cases, what you are going to have on a college resume is a listing of internships, fraternities and sororities, scholarships and volunteer work.
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