Retail Management Jobs Without A College Degree? (employed, interview, paycheck)

[shopinchic]

I'm just curious if there are any retail management jobs out there that don't require a two or four year college degree? It seems like most people who start out in retail never advance because most stores tend to hire fresh-out-of-college kids to manage their stores instead of people who have been there for years. I used to work at a big box store years ago, and there were two women that worked there as cashiers. I left the company after working there for nearly a year but I still shop at the store occassionally(sp?). Last time I went to the store, about a month ago, one of the women I used to work with is still a cashier. I'm really glad she's still got the job, but I wonder why they haven't advanced her up to management or something.

What do you think?

[DubbleT]

My guess would be she either isn't capable or she's not interested. Not everyone is cut out for managing other people.
At our company it's still possible, although less likely, to move up to assistant manager without a degree. Store manager and up pretty much requires a degree anymore.

[LeisureMan]

The red and khaki retail company doesn't come out and say it, but the only real job you will start out with in management without a degree is overnight, and you will stay there until you quit, get fired, prove you are going to college, or spend so many years overnight that you start playing games with senior management and talk about the company preventing your growth and how it's not "fair", so long as you maintain a solid workcenter for all of those years.

[UnemployedRage]

It is not a paradise even with a bachelor's degree. I recently applied to store management positions via my school career site to:

Kohl's
Ross
Target
Aldi
Save-A-Lot (that one was distribution leadership program)

Ross/Kohl are pending, I got an invite to interview for a district manager at Aldi but NOT invited to be an an executive team leader a.k.a assistant manager a Target. I never heard anything from the Save-A-Lot woman I talked to during the career fair.

[joe from dayton]

Originally Posted by shopinchic

I'm just curious if there are any retail management jobs out there that don't require a two or four year college degree? It seems like most people who start out in retail never advance because most stores tend to hire fresh-out-of-college kids to manage their stores instead of people who have been there for years. I used to work at a big box store years ago, and there were two women that worked there as cashiers. I left the company after working there for nearly a year but I still shop at the store occassionally(sp?). Last time I went to the store, about a month ago, one of the women I used to work with is still a cashier. I'm really glad she's still got the job, but I wonder why they haven't advanced her up to management or something.

What do you think?

Why should a cashier be made a manager after a year? A lot of cashiers have trouble simply being cashiers.

[joe from dayton]

Just because someone has been employed for a long time doesn't mean they are capable of being a manager or a supervisor.

[Spaten_Drinker]

Originally Posted by joe from dayton

Just because someone has been employed for a long time doesn't mean they are capable of being a manager or a supervisor.

Managers are expected to SOLVE PROBLEMS and have CRITICAL THINKING skills. An apathetic cashier who is only there for a paycheck may not have the goals of the store in mind when they open their mouth to deal with a complaining customer.

[Tekkie]

Originally Posted by shopinchic

I'm just curious if there are any retail management jobs out there that don't require a two or four year college degree? It seems like most people who start out in retail never advance because most stores tend to hire fresh-out-of-college kids to manage their stores instead of people who have been there for years. I used to work at a big box store years ago, and there were two women that worked there as cashiers. I left the company after working there for nearly a year but I still shop at the store occassionally(sp?). Last time I went to the store, about a month ago, one of the women I used to work with is still a cashier. I'm really glad she's still got the job, but I wonder why they haven't advanced her up to management or something.

What do you think?

Do you know that she has actually tried to get a promotion? Maybe she is content where she's at.

[ggumbo]

One of my old store managers didn't have a college degree, but he had worked in retail for at least 15 years before he was a store manager. I had a ton of respect for that guy because staying in retail for 15 years in lower management positions had to royally suck, especially when the company would hire fresh college grads for management/supervisory positions.

[NARFALICIOUS]

Originally Posted by shopinchic

I'm just curious if there are any retail management jobs out there that don't require a two or four year college degree? It seems like most people who start out in retail never advance because most stores tend to hire fresh-out-of-college kids to manage their stores instead of people who have been there for years. I used to work at a big box store years ago, and there were two women that worked there as cashiers. I left the company after working there for nearly a year but I still shop at the store occassionally(sp?). Last time I went to the store, about a month ago, one of the women I used to work with is still a cashier. I'm really glad she's still got the job, but I wonder why they haven't advanced her up to management or something.

What do you think?

Are you just curious or are you interested in going into retail?


Moving up in a store, in my opinion is very easy for those that understand retail and customer service.

The bigger the store, it may take longer or there may be more obstacles to overcome, but you do not necessarily need a degree, unless perhaps you look to move past or away from the store level.

There are various aspects that one needs to be good at to be a good store manager.
- Stock / Freight / Inventory / Merchandising
- Sales / Customer Service / #s
- Human Resources / Training / Retention
- Time management/ scheduling / payroll
- Budgeting
- Cleanliness
- And just good work ethic.

If you're looking to move UP from store manager, you're looking at this career path. And literally the toughest part would probably be jumping from a Store Manager to a District Manager. Or from Store Manager to something at the corporate office. I would definitely recommend a degree. Although I've met some District Managers and Regional Managers without a Bachelors who just worked their way up, I would say most have some sort of degree and the ones who do have a bachelors as well as store experience would do the best.
->Store Manager
-> Training Store Manager (or something similar, not all companies have this position. And you don't necessarily need to go through this step to get to District manager. It's sort of a model store manager with a model store in terms of well managed staff, good sales, cost control. Utilized as a trainer for new managers, associates in the district. Also seen as a leader if the district manager is out.
"To conclude our conference call, I'll be on vacation next week, if anyone has any questions, ask Bill [TSM] at store 666"
->District Manager/Area Director (usually oversees 4-20 stores)
-> Regional Manager/Regional Director (usually oversees 2-10 districts)
-> Regional VP? Director of store operations? (depends on the company)
-> Up, up, up


Then there are other positions that can either be considered lateral or a promotion:
HQ/Store support center/"Corporate":
- merchandising/planning/buying
-accounting
-human resources
-marketing
-IT
-Some of the above management positions, district mgr, regional mgr, etc usually work mostly traveling to different stores, sometimes calling one of the stores their "home store", but the higher level positions, V.Ps, etc have an office at HQ
Distribution Center/Warehouse positions