Moving away from Retail work

Nowherefast

Hello everyone,

I'm trying to help a good friend who has been working in retail for over 15 years, primarily in supermarket chains. Their experience includes shop floor duties, working at tills, and optical assistance. Unfortunately, the pay and work hours in retail aren't the best.

We're looking for ideas on what other fields of work might be an option for them, considering they don't have many qualifications in a specific area. My friend is based in the West Midlands, Birmingham.

Emmia

Nowherefast said:

Hello everyone,

I'm trying to help a good friend who has been working in retail for over 15 years, primarily in supermarket chains. Their experience includes shop floor duties, working at tills, and optical assistance. Unfortunately, the pay and work hours in retail aren't the best.

We're looking for ideas on what other fields of work might be an option for them, considering they don't have many qualifications in a specific area. My friend is based in the West Midlands, Birmingham.

If they want to move out of that area of work then they'll need to apply for other things. 

The Civil Service for example is moving jobs out of London and into the regions including Birmingham so they could try applying for those jobs - I'd suggest probably Administrative Assistant, Administrative Officer or maybe Executive Officer grades to get started with limited formal qualifications.

There are also apprenticeships available, which have formal training built in that can be applied for, and they're not just for the young.

https://www.civilservicejobs.service.gov.uk

FlorayG

I work for a large retailer as 'back office' staff and I work from home. A lot of my team came up from the shop floor and this does give them an advantage over me as they understand store processes and can fix easily difficulties that I have to research before I even understand the problem. So your friend could look for admin jobs in retail; their shop floor experience would be a plus ( and the pay is better)
Holland and Barratt (not my company) are currently expanding and would be worth contacting if this sort of work would suit your friend

josephine82

All of these skills from their current role will be so transferable into other areas: even without qualifications. 

Worth looking at local councils, hospitals and universities and seeing what roles are on offer and what is of interest. Look at job descriptions and essential criteria and see how to use the current skills and experience to fit other roles. 

It might be worth looking at doing some basic online training in Microsoft packages if not already familiar- local adult education might be able to help with this too or lots of online material for self study. 

I recruit a lot of people who often come from different backgrounds and for me, evidence of transferable skills and a great attitude to using them in a new environment is so valuable- often more than qualifications as long as the basic skills are there. 

elsien

 What do they enjoy doing? Is it just the pay that’s an issue or do they not really like the job?

ButterCheese

I would recommend the NHS - look at the NHS agenda for change website for details of pay.  There are lots of admin type roles and portering (if your friend is reasonably fit and mobile).  Also some NHS jobs are not in the hospital itself, but in ancillary buildings like records, HR etc.  Most jobs now start at band 3 which starts at £24k/year with 27 days holiday and an acceptable pension scheme (used to be excellent but now only average).

You will get lots of training and there are always opportuities to apply for other jobs; it's generally accepted that you stand a good chance of getting a job at the next band up if you've spent 3-4 years in your current role. 

Nowherefast

elsien said:

 What do they enjoy doing? Is it just the pay that’s an issue or do they not really like the job?

I think its a bit of both Pay is one but also I find they could do better as in mid thirties and been in retail for some time now could really do with a change out of Retail but Working from home is good option but i guess even if it is Retail but with More pay and more flexible holidays with possible weekends off would be beneficial too.

DullGreyGuy

Nowherefast said:
I'm trying to help a good friend who has been working in retail for over 15 years, primarily in supermarket chains. Their experience includes shop floor duties, working at tills, and optical assistance. Unfortunately, the pay and work hours in retail aren't the best.

We're looking for ideas on what other fields of work might be an option for them, considering they don't have many qualifications in a specific area. My friend is based in the West Midlands, Birmingham.

Skills are often much more transferable than people think but at the same time people get pigeonholed and so if you approach a job agency with X years of experience in one industry you know thats where they are going to push you because they're there to get you a job not necessarily the best job and they only get paid for those taken on and not for candidates that arent hired so maximise the chances. 

I did contact centre work for 8 years, I knew when I moved to be with my g/friend at the time that I would end up back in a contact centre but looked for one where there was an ability to progress on a technical rather than line management basis so was aiming at Financial Services and ended up in Insurance Claims which then took me on a very different path. 

Option 1 is just apply for entry level roles outside of retail and have a thick skin for all the rejections. 

Option 2 is to stick with retail but look to move internally into a different role within the company than being on the shop floor. 

Did they enjoy the "optical assistant" role? Is that an avenue they may want to explore more? Imagine hours will be better than a large supermarket. 

elsien

Nowherefast said:

elsien said:

 What do they enjoy doing? Is it just the pay that’s an issue or do they not really like the job?

I think its a bit of both Pay is one but also I find they could do better as in mid thirties and been in retail for some time now could really do with a change out of Retail but Working from home is good option but i guess even if it is Retail but with More pay and more flexible holidays with possible weekends off would be beneficial too.

They don’t need to move out of retail to get a better deal. They could move upwards, for example.