Just What's Wrong with Retail?

On the front page of Yahoo! today sits an article about a survey that was conducted across several countries that gauged the respect people have for different professions. Not surprisingly doctors rank right at the top. It's not just respect that the survey polled people on though, it was also which profession people would prefer to marry a practitioner of; doctors again ranking at the apex of the mountain. What's disturbing, though, is that retail employees join Mack at the bottom of the stack (study up on your Dr. Seuss if you don't get that reference).

The study itself is laced with ironies such as actors and musicians also ranking low when their daily antics clog up hours of gossip TV "news" time -- methinks some respondents were less than truthful with their answers. But I really think I'm going to have to call shenanigans on this whole disrespect for retail employees business.

I know many, many people who work in retail at a store level. There's some absolutely fascinating people in that bunch with expertise in a wide variety of subjects. Many of those people are college educated and could be working in fields that this misguided survey would consider respectable. Why are they not doing it? Many reasons.

Since retail offers a very flexible schedule it's a fantastic industry to return to school while continuing to support yourself. Many of these employees work there while pursuing an advanced degree to change careers. And a great many more are kids in college for the first time earning the extra money they need to complete that first degree.

Although beyond that I think a very good reason people stay in the retail sector is that it's uncomplicated. Although a clear majority of people would prefer to marry a person in the health field -- nurses and other health care technicians were included, not just doctors -- they don't seem to realize how much free time these people don't have. These are the professions that seem to get in the way of having a family and generally living life. Retail is very simple, and although it doesn't pay as well, leaves plenty of time for people to live life and love their families. Not to mention nursing didn't pay all that great last time I checked.

That's not to say that people in the health care field aren't living fulfilling lives with their families. It's just disheartening to think that people are judging a career choice without fully understanding it. Different personalities mesh better with different professions.

And by the way, I met my wife, got married, and purchased our first home while working in retail. We're blissfully happy twelve years later.

Keyword Stuffing

Let me tell you a little trick marketing people use when they are marketing a new product that they want to pop up high in the search engine results: they keyword stuff. One of the most basic ways that search engines organize their results are by the types of words that appear on Web sites. For instance, if you're marketing a mop, you want your Web site to have words like "clean floors," "mopping," and "wash floors" included in the site's content. You want to think of as many combinations that a person would type into a search engine and use those phrases in your Web site copy to flag their attention.

Now, would it surprise you to hear that employers use keyword searches when scanning the resumes they receive? Since most of the job applying happens via the Internet or through e-mail, companies get hundreds, if not thousands, of replies to one single job posting. Instead of wasting precious man hours manually reading each one, they use a modified search to scan the documents for keywords that will help cut the stack.

For instance, there are far too many people that apply to jobs out of their area. It's not uncommon to post a job in St. Louis and get responses from Seattle. One of the initial qualifiers the company would therefore run the resumes through is a keyword search for St. Louis to weed the out-of-towners from the stack. Then, to make sure the rest of the stack is actually qualified for the position, they will run a search of the keywords from the job ad.

This is where you come in. If you feel you are qualified for the position, modify the language of your resume or cover letter to include some of the language from the ad itself. So, if the ad calls for someone with "network marketing experience," and your resume says that you have a "distinguished history with network marketing," modify the language to mirror the former. It's likely to get you launched to the top of the search results.

The key to successfully landing an interview is to think like the people actually doing the hiring. It's the surest way to get your resume to the top of the stack.

Recession Proof Jobs

I'm sure most have you have been hearing the horror stories about the unemployment rate. It's hard to avoid as it's seemingly been the lead story on every evening newscast for the past few weeks. These guys are throwing up some incredibly frightening numbers. Ten percent of Americans are projected to be out of work by next year. Yikes!

Similarly, there has been plenty of ink devoted to the concept of which jobs are recession proof and which are not. When you start comparing the lists from publication to publication, you'll see some similarities and some glaring contradictions. However, the overall theme of the lists is perfectly clear -- a recession proof job is one that sells services or goods that people need. Luxuries they can do without.

That's why health care workers appear on just about every list. People will spend money on their health. However, within that group there are jobs that are not safe because they are still luxuries. Adults, for instance, will forgo dental care in lieu of their children. Plastic surgery is similarly something that will begin to falter as the bad economy trickles up to the rich and famous.

Auto repair can similarly score pretty high on the list because people can't earn a living if they can't get to work. Grocery stores are seeing an uptick in business as more people abandon restaurants to save a few bucks by eating at home. As more and more people face unemployment, job recruiters are being asked to work overtime.

If you're one of those people spending an entire day online browsing the job boards, and you want to shore up your employment for what could be the next year and a half of dismal economic times, examine the roots of the job and ask this question: Is this selling something people need, or is it something they can live without?