What job did you move to after working in retail?

[FindingANewLifePlan]

I've worked in retail for over 15 years, and I'm done!

I'm not entirely sure what area to move into next, although I do feel like I should have plenty of transferable skills.

If you worked in retail and then went in to something totally different, what was it?

No-one managed to escape the claws of retail?

I haven’t OP but I’d have thought you’d have lots of transferable skills into any role needing good customer service skills, good luck!!

I was a trainee retail manager & then went into teaching

I started as a Retail manager (grad programme) then moved into a project management role and switched sectors. I’m now a director in a management consultancy. You have loads of transferable skills, and an understanding of the value of Customer Experience which is an area of growth in infrastructure organisations - good luck!

An office job doing following the shortest stint ever at a call centre. Am back in retail which I adore! Best of luck op!!!

Warehouse Team Leader, followed by Warehouse management.

I leveraged my customer service skills and went to a call centre. Which was shit, but paid a lot more. Then completed a business degree and went into marketing.

DD2 went from retail to kennel hand, loves it.

I went from team leader (20yrs in retail so did nearly every role going!) into the civil service, its a job I never knew existed, just wanted to do something completely different so kept checking civil service jobs website. Been in new role 6 momths and its the best decision I ever made.

I worked my way up in retail from part time staff to manager of a large store in a multi national company. I then became a police officer! Loads of transferable skills. Talking to people, managing people, dealing with lots of diversity of people at different levels etc. never looked back! Policing is a whole different ball game, can be dangerous and challenging but glad I made the move, get so much more job satisfaction. I did have to take a pay drop for a few years though.

Customer service assistant on London Underground. They were looking for people who had customer facing jobs because that was the direction they were headed. It's all about the customer even if at times it doesn't seem so.

A lot of train operating companies recruit from the retail sector.

I moved from shop floor to supply chain.

Some really interesting posts here, thanks all for taking the time!

I have worked in retail for 16 years and am 7 days into a secondment in supply chain. Currently working as a training coordinator in distribution and loving it. PLus sooooo much better paid and weekends off. You will have so many transferable skills from retail, not least the ability to work under pressure, work with less people than needed and the ability to adapt to ever changing circumstances. I beat myself up for the many years i spent in retail -thinking I should have done more, then realised that I'll probably never work anywhere as challenging!

I've worked in retail for about the same amount of time and am now hoping to move into software development. Obviously retail has not prepared me for the technical side of it, but I think that skills mentioned in this thread - team work, working under pressure, etc. will hopefully be relevant!