Area Manager

Previous experience in a managerial role is essential if you want this role. Employers will also look for candidates educated to at least Level 3 (A Level or equivalent). Vocational qualifications that will give you an advantage are:

☛ Level 4/5 foundation degree in retailing

☛ Degree in retail management, business or marketing

If you are a chatterbox, this is ideal for you as great communicators with creative flair and finely-honed time management skills will be at an advantage in this job.

Great leadership skills are also a bonus as you will need to be able to inspire and motivate lots of people. Other skills that will be to your advantage are:

☛ The ability to work under pressure

☛ Confidence, drive and enthusiasm

☛ Decision-making ability and a sense of responsibility

☛ Planning and organisational skills

☛ Commercial acumen

This is a stimulating job where you act as a role model, take full operational responsibility for your specific product lines and the credit for a job well done. When you have cracked that, you can look forward to becoming a retail director.

In terms of career development you could not work for a better sector, as retail is the fastest growing industry in the country and there are plenty of opportunities for ambitious area managers who are looking to step up to a retail director job or move into senior management.

Branch managers should be allowed to get on with the job, so empower them and give them some flexibility in how they achieve their objectives. Improve your systems and cut out unnecessary admin to free up their time. Let them use their initiative to adapt to local conditions.

Coaching and mentoring will play an important part in their role when providing support and development to each individual branch manager. They to walk the talk and demonstrate what good look like. Whilst many area managers are trained in coaching, they might not yet be experts and will themselves need regular practice, to fine-tune their skills.

A manager who is responsible for a company's work in a specific area of the city is called an area manager.

To judge a technical ability of programmer ask about his past technical work, ask some general tech questions and If you can, try to give him/her a little challenge where he/she can prove some of the skills he/she have enumerated on his/her CV and that he/she will need for the job. In a further interview you may ask him/her how he/she solved some problems. If it is the case, ask him/her how he/she did certain aspects of items listed in his/her portfolio.

Here are some skills needed to be an area manager:

☛ Great communication skills

☛ Financial acumen

☛ Customer service expertise

☛ Ability to motivate and develop branch managers

☛ Coaching and mentoring expertise

☛ Adopting a flexible approach

As there is lots of travelling in this job, you could be spending plenty of time away from home. Plus if you are not great under pressure, you might want to consider another career.

Naturally, a successful area depends on high performing branches. It is clear that an Individual branch not hitting target can drag down the overall performance of the area. So, your area managers will need the training and, of course, the will to enter into frank and open conversations with any under-performing branch managers.

Try to include improvement activities that relate to the job. A wide variety of activities can be mentioned as positive self-improvement. Have some good ones handy to mention. Employers look for applicants who are goal-oriented.

Your area managers need to lead from the front, promoting a positive culture where everybody supports and learns from each other, generating success and great results. They will need great self awareness and personal resilience - as at times it can be lonely and difficult out there.