Five CV-friendly skills you can gain through retail work

Working in a shop can give you some great skills that will be highly transferable to a graduate job. Make sure you show future employers that you know what they want and that you can offer it.

When you’re under pressure to submit a graduate CV or application form it can be easy to overlook the highly transferable skills you’ve gained from part-time jobs. Retail is an area that offers ‘soft’ skills – such as good communication and personal initiative – a-plenty.

Talking shop work experience

As a retail worker you’re likely to deal with customers regularly and check stock within the shop. You may have a security role as well, keeping an eye on shoppers and checking that the stock isn’t disappearing into their pockets. These responsibilities are easy to translate into CV-speak: working with customers gives you good communication and problem-solving skills, while managing stock shows organisational ability and initiative. Make sure you include these points on your graduate CV.

The words graduate recruiters want to see

Commercial awareness, gained by first-hand observation of how business decisions are made – this could include decisions on which brands are stocked, or whether a new line of products is introduced.
Personal initiative, which you can gain through making sure there’s enough cash and maintaining stock levels.
Dealing with difficult people (not too often, we hope) and helping resolve their queries.
An understanding of IT systems thanks to shops’ computerised tills and stock ordering systems.
Responsibility – whether it’s for managing a section of a store or cashing up, recruiters will like to know that you can be trusted.

Target your retail work experience to get a graduate job

The words and phrases we’ve included here aren’t exhaustive. It’s up to you to target your application each time you apply for a graduate job – that means looking at what recruiters are asking for and showing that you can offer it. Illustrate your points with examples from your own experiences. We have plenty of advice on writing graduate CVs and filling in application forms if you need more ideas.