Interview with a retail manager

Retail is a high-turnover industry whose workers are known for cycling through jobs quickly. Not Rob Corbett, who has spent the last 13 years working at Scheels All Sports, an anchor of the huge and bustling Coralville Mall in Coralville, Iowa.

Like most of the 24 Scheels stores that are scattered across 10 states, the Coralville location sells clothing, shoes, skis, team sports paraphernalia, fishing tackle and hunting gear. It also does brisk business in just about anything bearing the logo of the Hawkeyes, the mascot of the nearby University of Iowa.

For Corbett, the company has provided a stable and growing career, as he explains in an interview with CareerBuilder.

CareerBuilder: How did you start out at Scheels, and what do you do for the company today?

Rob Corbett: I started in 1998, working part time while I went to the university. I was a salesman in our "soft lines" area (all the clothing and shoes, that type of stuff). Eventually I went to full time, and I was responsible for running a shop -- that's what we call the 70 or so departments within the store. And then after about a year of that I got promoted into our management team. Now I'm one of 18 assistant store leaders. We each supervise a certain number of shops. At the moment I supervise just one shop, but I'm also in charge of all the cashiers.

CB: What's a typical day like for you?

RC: We spend anywhere from three to four hours walking the floor, making sure our customers are being helped and our employees are staying busy. We also spend a few hours off the floor doing paperwork. I write the schedule for the 46 cashiers, for example.

I'm also in charge of the shop that has all the novelty-type stuff: keychains, pennants, prints, blankets ... anything that's not clothing that has some kind of logo on it, basically. So I do the ordering, the markdowns, etc. And I'm constantly writing employee reviews and meeting with the people I'm in charge of, making sure they're progressing like we need them to progress, and all that good stuff.

CB: What are the biggest challenges in your job?

RC: I think the biggest challenge and the best thing about my job is dealing with people. I love working with people. I love the employees, and I love our customers. But there are times when you have to make tough decisions with your employees. And sometimes you have to work with customers to make sure that all their needs are met, and that they leave the store happy.

CB: Are the holidays stressful?

RC: Obviously, we're definitely a lot busier and we work longer hours, and they are more stressful, but I'm 13 years into it, and at this point I've kind of got an idea of what's going to happen. That doesn't mean that I never get stressed, but I think I can handle it fairly well nowadays and hopefully help some of the other employees get through it if it's their first Christmas.

CB: Do you have to deal with shoplifters?

RC: We have a loss prevention team that is taking care of all of that for us now, and they are catching a lot of people. But every once in a while they need an extra hand or just somebody to stand in the back of the room as a witness, or to make sure things are going as planned.

CB: What's the best part of what you do?

RC: After 13 years, I've had contact with so many people. I've made lifelong friends working there. And I've also gotten to know customers that have been coming in for years, who I know on a first-name basis. They walk in and it's, "Hi Gail, how are you doing today?" Another part of it is helping people develop. I have people who started as 16-year-old cashiers and now they're in college. It's great to watch their progress, whether they're still working for us or not.