Getting a Retail Job After 50 | Career Advice
Retail job for 50 year old’s with no experience
Are you in your 50s or 60s and considering working in retail as a part-time job or a full-time income?
Maybe you lost your job and can’t find anything in your field, maybe you don’t have experience, or you need to supplement your income in retirement.
‘End up in retail.’
If so, let me encourage you to give it a try.
I look at jobs for 50+ year old’s against these criteria’s
- How long do you have to stand/sit?
- Work hour’s flexibility
- Work /Life balance.
- Health benefits?
- Pay?
- Do you need an experience?
- The responsibilities
On the positive side, a retail job is a great way to stay engaged with public life, expand your social circle and earn extra money. But it’s not an easy job.
Let’s look at the retail jobs for 50-year old’s in more detail.
Retail Job: PAY
In general, retail pays minimum wage or just above it. It is hard to make a living working in retail.
Realistically you may expect to earn $200 – $600 per paycheque.
In a management full-time position, you can earn anywhere between $30,000 – $50,000 per year.
You will have little connection between your performance and your pay.
Everyone expects a raise every year whether they’ve done a good job or not. In many retail companies, tenure is the primary driver of pay increases. If there is a connection, like a commission, the incentives probably drive you to do things that.
Expectation to use their products wear their clothes and that takes big chank of your pay.
Retail Job: DO YOU NEED EXPERIENCE?
No, you don’t need the experience to work in retail. No, you don’t need the experience to work in retail. However, experience in a customer service environment will help you to stand out from the competition.
The retail sales associate is among the most numerous of jobs, making them easy to get.
PRO TIP: It’s much easier to get a part-time than a full-time job with no experience. Your best selling point should be working hours flexibility.
Retail job: HEALTH BENEFITS
In many corporate retail chains, full-time positions will have health coverage and benefits. In small privately-owned stores no.
Retail job: WORK-LIFE BALANCE
Work-life balance will be SOOOO unfair.
Full-time in retail can range from 28 to 40 hours. Yes, 28 hours for a full-time position is very common.
Part-time positions range from 5 hours a week to up to 40 hours in December.
Some places have “On-call shift”. It means that you don’t have an actual shift but have to be available during certain hours in case someone calls in sick.
You will be expected to work on the weekend, and it makes it hard to see friends, family, or to date.
Many of the people you will work with don’t care about their job, you will have to fill in for them.
Working in retail is physically challenging, especially for older people. You will come home exhausted and unable to do anything. ☹
“I worked hard and was always given difficult and long shifts, to the point of where I had no social life. On weekends, they would make me work late on Saturdays (1 pm to 10 pm) and then (7 am until 1 pm) of where I had to wake at 5 am to get the bus to work.”
Retail Job: WORKING HOURS FLEXIBILITY
The biggest misconception about working in retail is that you can arrange working hours around your needs.
You will have NO control over your work hours!!!
Your shifts and hours are subject to change with little or no notice. A great manager will minimize the pain of this, but even great managers are shackled to the realities of the business and will have to sometimes deny your request for Saturday off, etc.
And you will work weekends and holidays because it’s retail.
This ever-changing schedule not only has implications for your time management
but your income as well. When you are paid by the hour, if your schedule drops from 28 to 10 hours one week, you just made 60% less money.
Retail Job: THE RESPONSIBILITY
I couldn’t say better myself.
BEING AN EMOTIONAL AND VERBAL PUNCHING BAG FOR CUSTOMERS.
You are the front line of the company, the company knows it, and the company will make sure you know it by dictating every interaction with the customer.
HAVING NO CONTROL OVER YOUR WORK.
Somebody way better paid… err, smarter… than you are going to determine how you do your job, communicated to you indirectly through a memo to management.
SURRENDERING IN EVERY CONFLICT.
The customer is always right. Some businesses treat this with nuance to protect their employees from abusive assholes, but many don’t. If you interact with the public, you are expected to suppress or even override any negative emotion you might be feeling, whether or not it’s related to work. Your performance had better not suffer, though, because you’re being measured.
VERY REPETITIVE WORK.
Retail is nothing but cycles, some shorter or longer than others. The monotony is broken up by the occasional saintly customer. But your life is routine.
OTHER RESPONSIBILITIES
- Badger everyone you see browsing, sell an extended warranty or store credit card, etc.
- You will be measured by your performance in this area daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly.
- Replanish sold product
- Clean the store, washroom, and take out garbage.
- Come up with ideas to sell more product, or attract customers into the store.
Retail Job: Interview
The most common mistakes I see.
- Not dressing up for an interview
- Don’t learn about company or products
- Telling that job is not important to them
- Demending sertain working hours
Getting your first retail job after 50
To get a first retail job, show that you have flexible availability, will come to shift on time, and are interested in-store performance.
A team player is also an important factor. You will be working in a small team and the manager will consider if you will fit in.
None of this is unique to retail of course, and not all retail jobs are bad, and not all retailers are terrible. But I don’t think it’s unfair to say that in-store retail jobs are not conducive to long-term happiness or health.