Limited Brands ACES ETM Employee

There are certain skills that you need to have, in order to get an IT job in the retail industry. Those include:

1. Good technical skills: For instance, if you are seeking a network administration role in the retail industry, you need to be someone who genuinely has good network administration skills. If you are seeking a database administration role in the retail industry, you better be someone who really has a solid grasp of database administration. If you are seeking a data entry role in the retail industry, you need to be someone who really understands data entry… and so on. You see, chances are that you will be subjected to a practical technical test in the course of your interview. And if your skills are not solid, you will be exposed. In any event, you have to understand that if you clinch the IT job you are seeking in the retail industry, you will be expected to hit the ground running. Therefore if your skills are not good, you will be exposed (and you may not go past the first three months trial period). The most important thing is for you to have a practical, as opposed to a theoretical understanding of the roles you will be expected to perform. And if you are preparing for a retail industry IT job interview, you may consider refreshing your knowledge. That you can do by way of reading books and performing sample tasks practically. Like, for instance, if you are preparing for a database administration interview in the retail industry, you may consider reading books on the subject and performing various tasks on a real database in order to be truly ready. It is also important to ensure that you are skills are up to date (and not obsolete). Like, for instance, if you are looking for a web administrator job in the retail industry, you need to ensure that you have some understanding of the web development tools that are currently in use. That is as opposed to those that you learnt in school, which may have become obsolete with time. Like for instance, you may have a scenario where in school, you learnt how to create websites using HTML and CSS directly. Yet current best practice is to use frameworks like Bootstrap. It would mean that, in the interview, you are at a disadvantage if you are competing against someone who for instance has the Bootstrap framework skills in question. So the take home point here is that you need to have solid skills in the specific IT field you are interested in, but also equally critically, your skills have to be up-to-date.
2. Good communication skills: As an IT professional working within the retail industry, you will probably be expected to attend meetings (and make contributions in the meetings). You will also be probably expected to listen to problems posed by folks who don’t have an IT background. Further still, you may be expected to explain solutions to individuals who don’t have an IT background. All this means that you need to have good communication skills: otherwise you won’t be effective at your role. In fact, if your poor communication skills are detected during the interview stage, you may not get the role at all.
3. Good analytical skills: As an IT professional working in the retail industry, you will often be required to analyze complex issues, in order to come up with solutions. In most cases, you will have to do your analysis fast/to think on your feet, with people waiting for an instant solution. You may therefore be required to demonstrate that you have good analytical skills, before you can land the retail industry IT role.
4. Good problem solving skills: Most of the employers in the retail industry tend to demand these ‘problem solving skills’ in their adverts for IT jobs. This is mostly a question of being able to apply your technical skills in real-life situations. Again, you need to be aware of the fact that you may need to demonstrate that you indeed have good problem-solving skills in your interview, before being given the job.
5. Good time management skills: Majority of the employers in the retail industry tend to make it clear that ‘good time management skills’ are a must for people who are seeking IT jobs in their companies. This is understandable, because most of the tasks you will have to perform, if you land the retail industry IT role are time-bound. Things like being able to create to do lists, being able to prioritize tasks, being able to complete projects on time… and so on are very critical. There are strategies you can use to improve your time management skills, even as you prepare for a retail industry job interview. Otherwise, even if you somehow manage to scrap through the interview (in spite of having questionable time management skills), you may still face difficulties in handling your work effectively.

After getting a job in the retail industry, the next step (for most people) will be that of seeking promotions. Otherwise you will have hit a career dead-end: where you keep on working, year after year, without any sort of career advancement. Yet as many individuals who work in the retail industry will tell you, getting promotions is not always easy. You find too many people competing for the few managerial jobs that are available – meaning that in the final analysis, some have to miss out on promotions. Take, for instance, a scenario where a retail company hires some 500 store clerks, yet it has only 30 store floor supervisor roles. This would mean that only 30 out of the 500 store clerks who were originally hired would have a chance of being promoted to supervisory roles (meaning that the other 470 would have to get stuck in a dead-end or quit). Given that sort of reality, the question that arises for the average retail industry work is on what they can do, in order to earn promotions. And that is the question we will be attempting to answer in this article.

Without further ado, if you wish to earn promotions while working in the retail industry, you need to:

1. Improve your skills continually: To earn a promotion, you have to demonstrate that you can add more value. And one way of doing so is by improving your skills. Take, for instance, a scenario where you were hired as a store clerk on the strength of your associate degree. Then you acquire a masters degree after 5 years. Wouldn’t it perhaps qualify you for a mid-level managerial role? Acquiring additional qualifications can really help you move from one level to the other in the food chain. Sometimes though, it is not even about acquiring papers, but rather just about getting better at what you do. As you become better at your role, your employer may eventually get persuaded that you would be more useful watching over others performing the role – which would translate into a promotion. But you also have to be aware of the fact that being promoted doesn’t always necessarily mean being put in charge of others. At times, being promoted may just mean being given additional responsibility (and hopefully a bigger paycheck to go with it). Either way, improving your skills enhances your chances of being promoted considerably. While at it, we need to mention that if it is a new qualification you have acquired, you need to get your employer to officially know about it. Like for instance, if you have just acquired a higher degree, you need to get your employer to know about it – perhaps by submitting an updated resume, with the new qualification listed on it. Otherwise it will be of no use when it comes to promotion considerations.
2. Exhibit leadership qualities: When an employer is looking for an employee to be promoted, they are likely to go for one who exhibits leadership qualities. You exhibit leadership qualities (mostly) by way of being responsible. Just by consistently acting in a responsible manner, you considerably increase your chances of being promoted.
3. Network extensively: This is a different way of saying that you need to play office politics effectively. People are usually advised to keep off office politics. But when you come to think of it, there is really no way of keeping off office politics completely. Offices/workplaces (including those in the retail industry) are made up of human beings, and human beings are political animals. The best you can do is ensure that you don’t engage in negative office politics and practices like backstabbing or rumor-mongering.  If factions arise, you need to ensure that you align yourself with the faction that is likely to aid you in your pursuit of a promotion, without antagonizing the other factions or without burning bridges.
4. Apply for higher positions (when they fall vacant): This is really the only way in which you can demonstrate that you are interested in a promotion! Otherwise if you don’t make an effort to apply for the higher positions when they fall vacant, your employer may get the impression that you are perfectly contented with the ‘lowly’ position you are currently occupying. Then you may start wondering why you are being bypassed for promotions – but how do you expect to be promoted if you don’t show interest in higher positions?
5. Think outside the box: You don’t necessarily have to earn all your promotions within one company. It is possible to start as a store clerk at company X, then become a store floor supervisor at company Y before eventually becoming a line manager at company Z. So you would be banking on the experience/skills acquired as a store clerk in company X while applying for a store floor supervisory role at company Y. And you would be similarly banking on the experience/skills acquired as a store floor supervisor at company Y while applying for a line manager role at company Z. But if you stay at company X all along, you may never move beyond the store clerk level. What we are saying here is this: if you are looking for a promotion in the retail industry, and a higher position (that you feel qualified for) arises at another company, consider applying for it. Otherwise the managers at the company you started at may have difficulties in visualizing you as anything else other than a clerk — or whatever other ‘lowly’ position you started out at…