If watching ‘The Devil Wears Prada’ at a formative age shaped your career ambitions and pointed you towards a career in fashion, we have the perfect entry-level opportunity for you!
Get Familiar with the Fashion Industry
Those who have looked into the fashion industry as a potential career path know that it’s super competitive. So, while bursting onto the scene as a clothing designer prodigy is every fashion fanatic’s dream, it’s not entirely realistic. Instead, you’ll likely need to form a specific career plan to get you where you want to go, and if you ask us, the best place to start is with a retail role.
The retail industry covers the sale of all kinds of exciting goods to the general public. However, for the purpose of this article, we’ll be focusing on fashion retail and how you can parlay an entry level retail role into a rewarding career in couture!
What Will a Retail Job Entail?
When working in a retail environment, there are a tonne of different responsibilities that make up your role. While these vary slightly depending on your level, it’s safe to assume that they’ll include:
- Customer Service
- Styling
- Stock Management
- Sales
And much, much more!
Why Choose a Fashion Retail Career?
The wide variety of tasks assigned to retail employees ensures that no two days are the same, which means your day-to-day will feel exciting and dynamic. It’s hard work, but it’s also a lot of fun!
What’s more, retail roles also come with a lot of enticing work perks, such as:
Flexibility
Many students pick up a retail role as their first job, and thus, most employers in the industry have great policies around flexible work and shifts. This means you’ll be able to tailor your work schedule around your studies without overcommitting to too many hours.
Working in a Team-Based Workplace
Most retail stores have big teams, so you’ll never be left alone (unless it’s a small business and you’re totally ready)! So, when you’re starting out in the retail industry, you’ll never be thrown into the deep end, and there will always be people to learn from!
Opportunities for Advancement
There’s a pretty clear hierarchy in retail workplaces, so it’s easy to plan for how you want your career to progress. After starting out as a sales assistant, you could work your way up to a management position (and then all the way to head office)! All you need to do is work hard, make a great impression, and always be willing to learn.
Ability to Socialise While on the Clock
Let’s be clear: when we say socialise, we don’t mean constantly chatting to your work bestie. However, the people-facing nature of retail roles gives you the opportunity to bond with your team and your customers! Trust us, the more effort you put into forming positive connections, the more fun the role will be.
Opportunities to Learn Transferrable Skills
So many of the skills you’ll pick up in a retail role will serve you well in a vast array of industries! For instance, the communication skills, organisation skills, sales skills, and people skills that you’ll pick up from retail environments are highly desirable in upper-level positions too. Essentially, your retail experience could set you up for the rest of your career!
Employee Discounts (If You’re Lucky)
This is one of our favourite perks of working in the retail industry, and there are tonnes of employers that offer super generous discounts to their staff. However, a top tip for retail newbies is to make sure you’re taking home at least some of your income (even though it’s tempting to spend it all at your place of work).
What Your Fashion-Forward Future Could Hold
When you lock down your first retail job, a world of chic new opportunities opens up! However, to make the most of these possibilities, you must be aware of what they are and figure out what role you’re aiming for.
According to the Fashion Retail Academy, some of the most popular retail positions are:
- Sales Assistant Roles
- Retail Buyer Roles
- Retail Management Roles
- Merchandising Roles
For those of you wanting to go even further by taking your career to the catwalk, retail is great for you too! The styling and clothing-related knowledge that you’ll pick up in a fashion retail environment can absolutely help you in your quest to be the next winner of Project Runway.
How to Land a Retail Job with No Experience
Luckily for you, we’ve already partnered up with the retail superstars behind The Just Group (a.k.a. home to some of your favourite brands, such as Just Jeans, Peter Alexander, Dotti, and many more), to share our top tips for landing your first retail job.
However, we also have a few more (less-specialised) pieces of advice for those of you embarking on your career journey, including to:
- Write a cover letter that’s tailored to the job listing
- Do your research (you can even find YouTube videos about what retail roles entail), and make sure to check out the employer’s website
- Work on developing relevant skills in your own time
- Brush up on ways to ace your interview
If you take all this advice on board, you’ll be kickstarting your fashion career in no time!
Start a Rewarding Retail Career Today!
With your newfound understanding of the retail industry, there’s nothing stopping you from going out and starting your stylish career journey! All you need to do is find some job listings!
To check out the offerings of our fantastic employers, head over to our retail and customer service industry page for all the resources you’ll need!
