No Stupid Questions

I worked retail and retail adjacent for almost 20 years. I just started a corporate job for a very big electronics company. The answer?

Know people.

I know it sucks to hear, but it really truly is who you know. I got lucky once but it’s seriously all about the connections you make. Your best bets are from informal friends. People who know you well enough to say you’d be good for a job, but they’re not invested in you either being there or not.

The only reason I am where I am now is because I made connections. Read the book “How to Win Friends and Influence People” if you’re an introvert. It helped me understand how people view each other’s interactions better.

There’s a lot of remote jobs too that you can start looking into. Use your retail planning and selling experience for remote sales roles or remote account management.

If you like working with your hands, look into education for the trades. People that do trade jobs are only getting more and more rare these days so theres a good chance you can get a job that way and it pays waaay better than retail in a lot of cases.

Also like others said, knowing someone is also ideal.

What about customer support?

That can be a launching point as long as it's within the company. I know several people who started in those sorts of positions and moved up quickly to non-customer facing roles.

Get on as a construction helper. Zero experience required, just show up on time with some basic tools every day.

Emphasis added.

You need education. Either a college degree or a licensed trade skill. You also need experience in a related field.

You also need to know what you want to do. You can't just magically walk into a high paying job with good pay without paying your dues, unless you're a nepo-baby who has a parental/family hook up.

Nepotism. Who's your daddy and what does he do?

Another thing to consider: learning a trade.

I don't know what the trades are like in the USA but here in the UK, once you have a tradesperson you like and who does an above-average job, you go back to that same person until they retire.

It could be anything people need. Electrics or plumbing are high-skill trades and really well paid. Cleaning is a good low-skill trade, it's hard work but it's a job for life. Buy some tools, get good at it. Start with windows, they're easy and basically everyone needs it, and all you need is a squeegee, a clean towel, and a bucket. Get a dedicated business phone number and email address. Print up some flyers with fixed prices (find out what other local businesses are charging and undercut them slightly until you get on your feet) and your business phone number on, and distribute them as far as your legs will carry you.

Try a temp agency. Many have temp to perm positions in offices and factories, some staff trades and labour. Is it ideal? No. But my current job pays me $26/h and I started as a temp 10 years ago.

If you're reasonably good at using computers (you probably are if you're posting here?), you should be able to find office jobs where your job is to enter information into computers or do similar "secretary"-like tasks. But I don't know what it's like in your area.

Try some sort of construction or electrical installations.

Then you learn useful skills, AND youll likely be one of the smarter people there (Lotta folks are the kind who drink a 30 pack of Busch and go to the strip club daily. Not exactly geniuses). so eventually you can get into designing drafting or management.

Or just look into drafting. Read up on how factories work. We need smart engineer type people.

Otherwise , movie theater or bowling alley? Arcade? Those jobs are hell of a lot better than Walmart. Pays shit tho.

Or, janitor. We always need people to clean. Hell, even with my full time job, I cleaned offices on weekends because it was so easy and gave me extra cash. In my case I did it alone which was great, headphones in and just clean.

Know people.

It's literally the only way.

Go to job fairs, talk loudly about your skills when out and about and with anyone who'll listen (I know a literal expert that does this. He works in multiple sectors including a couple different governments, has like 8 jobs making an absolute killing), meet people online, go back to school, attend a church, anything that let's you get in front of people and talk about what you (can) do.

And if something is in your ability, but not your professional experience lie a little.

Landscaper, tree worker, construction.

I see "hiring" signs for these jobs all over the place.

Go to EMT school. It's a fairly short program. Shouldn't be terribly expensive.

It’s been decades now, but when I was still in school I worked for a temporary employment agency for a couple summers. I had an interview with them so they could get a feel for my qualifications, then they would line me up with random office jobs that could last anywhere from one or two days to a month or more. For most of one summer I worked in the mailroom of a law office.

If you can find an employment agency like that near you it might be a good way to get your foot in the door. Keep your eyes open wherever they send you and see if there might be chances for longer term jobs. The experience of being a temp with a good work ethic can also look good on a resume.

Find what sector you want to work in and start educating yourself about it. Even online certificates help. Most jobs work on a consistent schedule.

If you are dead set on going at this with no education and nothing of value on your CV, look into factory and warehouse work. It's boring and repetitive though. Another option is municipal work, they sometimes have good paying jobs with little experience needed.

In country out-sourcing, i.e., Quest Global, Cyient, Belcan. Bigger Companies use outsource labor for certain work, and doesnt pick the resources (people) the outsourcer uses to accomplish the work. if you can do Excel and are reliable, theres hope.

All happens locally often having you work on site at Bigger Company with a different color badge. Less resistance to hiring underqualified people this way. Typically small contained scope tasks not worth having a company man do, but excellent industry exposure. Once youre there you could see if its viable to apply to Bigger Company later, or what you need to be able to. Worth a look if you have something like that nearby.

Retail will take anyone and train them which is why it is so easy.

Every other job needs someone with special skills and so they are selective and hard to get in. Even though most people don't work retails, there is much more competition for these jobs, and a lot less job in any given specialty. The better the job the less competition there is - but there still is plenty of competition.

Which means you need to not ask for "a job", but select the specific job and then set yourself up to be good at that on your own time. The more specialized you get, the better a chance you have a job in that specialty - but the worse chance you get at any other job! Which means choosing the right specialty is critically important. Good luck (usually it too bad though as most things have enough demand).

The worst part: once you get a job they start teaching you the skill for that. It is really hard to change latter because you go from an expert to beginner.

Remember what others have said though: who you know is more important that what you know! So figure out who you know! Figure out what they can maybe get you into, and apply the above in consideration of that. Sometimes people will tell you what they can help you with, sometimes they won't know but you can guess.

Don't know where you are. But look at the directories for business parks and office buildings around you.

What are your interests and skills? Like someone else said, who you know matters more than anything else, but depending on what your interests and skills are, you can go out of your way to connect with people in that space.

And get used to finding ways of talking about yourself as a good fit for that kind of job. Brag on yourself.

Also, volunteering is a great way to build up a resume of skills in areas where you have no prior experience. There are jobs at food banks, homeless shelters, etc., but there are also often places like art museums and zoos that need volunteers. Basically, any non-profit you can think of probably runs largely on volunteers. Sometimes it's in a warehouse or doing trash cleanup, but often they're in office tasks like filing, misc office work, answering customer service emails, etc., that would be a great stepping stone to getting paid to do those things somewhere.

You could look into a government job. It’s kinda fraught with the current administration, but there are lots of entry level government jobs with regular schedules and decent benefits.

Another possibility is care work or whatever it’s called. I have a few friends who work in housing for the developmentally disabled and I’ve seen listings for jobs in psych wards/mental health type places that don’t have any degree requirements. There’s probably similar jobs in elder care too that don’t have any degree requirements.

Spend a few months in Vocational school > massage therapist > pass all the licensure tests > earn around $500/day working at a spa.