Which Would You Hire? The Clerk with 3 Years or 25 Years of Retail Experience  |
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 The less experienced clerk is 24 years of age, the other is 60.
If you were to decide which candidate to hire, which one would you choose?
Both applicants would need to be trained on store procedures and product
knowledge but are equally capable of handling day to day retail duties.
What reasons can you give for your decision to choose one over the other?
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1.  maezee (4708) | 6 months ago |  Probably the one with 25 years of retail experience, because it's RELEVANT experience. But it depends on the job description and what the employed person's duties would be. There are also a lot of different factors that come in to play; such as how they do in the interview, what kind of hours they said they could work, and so on.
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 unclestan (123) | 6 months ago | Hi maezee,
Thanks for your input! Just curious to see if extensive experience in retail is generally viewed as an asset or a detriment to a retail operation. For example if your store sold new technology i.e. cellphones,Ipod's and video games ... would you be more likely to hire the less experienced (younger) candidate ... all other factors being equal? | |
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| zoey7879 (1250) | 5 months ago |  I was thinking the same thing that Mazee is.
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2.  astonysh (1886) | 6 months ago |  If you were talking about IT personnel, I could from recent personal experience understand the question entirely - and I realise that the 24-year-olds also need jobs. Part of the problem is that there are too many good people available, and not enough good jobs to go around at the moment (actually I cannot recall a situation in the last 20-odd years when the job market has been that good, with the possible exception of the late 1990s, but at the moment it is really dreadful).
My answer to your question: Both applicants should provide references, the more the better. The choice should then be based upon the quality of the references. If the two end up equal, then you go with the person with more experience (given your comment that both "are equally capable of handling day to day retail duties"), as they will have encountered the difficulties that are likely to occur more often, and so should (not "will" incidentally) have better knowledge of how to deal with the situation.
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| unclestan (123) | 6 months ago | Hello astonysh,
You bring up a good point about the "more experienced" candidate having encountered difficulties that occur most frequently. One that comes to mind for me, is awareness to shoplifters. Over the years there have several occasions when I have had to direct the attention of "less experienced" clerks to potential shoplifting scenarios. Much of retail is on the job training. Unfortunately this can be costly to retailers who appear to value speed of service over alertness to theft and credit card fraud. | |
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| 3. homeshoppers (1136) | 5 months ago |  it doesnt matter of what age... what matter is if they are hard working people, loyal and can be trusted.. and as long as they can handle work loads without any complaining... as long as they have good attitude and know how to respect their boss.. u might be with 25 yrs of experience but what if ur boastful... u might have 3 yrs of experience but what if u keep on complaining... so it really doesnt matter at all.. just look for the attitude... and ur business will go a long way with them..
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4.  EliteUser (3956) | 3 months ago |  Hey,
Well I would probably hire the one that has the 25 years of retail experience. This would be because he would actually know how to deal with customers properly, and things like that. He has more experience. Make sure you have a good day, God bless and Happy Lotting!!
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