Be Inspired: Eight of the best career tips for women in retail

Be Inspired, Retail Week’s new campaign, was launched to inspire and promote the careers of successful female retail leaders. It is an opportunity to demonstrate the value to business of having a balanced boardroom, particularly in retail, which has a largely female customer profile. There are a series of conferences and networking events to look forward to and there is a great team of ambassadors on board.

Retail Week was joined at yesterday’s breakfast networking meeting by a group of hugely successful women: Olive Aubrey shoes founder, Susan Aubrey-Cound; Debenhams group HR director, Nikki Zamblera; Pets Pyjamas chief executive, Gracia Amico; and Jaeger chief information officer, Cathy McCabe.

As each businesswoman guided the audience of aspiring female talent through her unique retail journey, a few clear topics emerged.

Tips for success

Firstly, retail is a great space within which to progress your career as there are plenty of opportunities for those willing to put in the hard work, to learn and to take a bit of a risk. It is a meritocratic industry in which success and achievements are rewarded with promotions.

Secondly there are some not-so-fun aspects to the job in tasks that may be initially unattractive, but these are managable if you knuckle down and learn, so don’t let them put you off.

Here’s eight of the best career tips for women in retail:

1. Always take a risk. No one has all the skills required for a job straightaway. You can learn all of this as you go along. If it feels like a good fit, go for it.
2. A career is a journey and you continue to learn every day.
3. You have to make sacrifices to get to where you are but it’s worth it if you enjoy it.
4. Every woman will look back on her career and say I’ve had a bit of good luck; that’s realistic.
5. One of the most important things you can do is network. Meet people in your industry and in your position at other retail companies. Surround yourself with mentors through campaigns such as this one.
6. Raise your profile within your company by taking some of the jobs that others may not want to get involved in. Important people will notice it and they’ll appreciate it.
7. When people ask you something above your pay grade or out of your comfort zone always take the opportunity to do it. They’re asking you to do it because they think you are capable of it.
8. No one was hatched at birth ready to become a chief executive but these women achieved that goal, so you can too.