Best Jobs For Former Sales Associates [2023]

It’s tough to be a sales associate nowadays, and more and more of them are losing confidence in their own profession.

While the amount of people majoring in courses preparing people for a job as a sales associate isn’t necessarily dropping, fewer and fewer people are applying to become sales associates in the first place and the workforce itself is looking grim.

With so many sales associates no longer sticking around, this begs the question:

What are they all doing now?

We were curious, so we looked through the resumes of former sales associates to see what kind of jobs they were moving into after leaving the field. There were thousands of answers, so we made the cutoff at the top 100 jobs.

But given that there are some very surprising and interesting items on this list, we’ve decided to highlight a few of those instead.

Best Jobs For Former SALES ASSOCIATES

Some of these items are admittedly more attractive than one another as far as actually working the job goes, but one way or another, you’ve got to admit they’re eye-catching.

The full list of those jobs can be found below.

Detailed Ranking of the Most Common Jobs of Former SALES ASSOCIATES

Rank	Job Title	%
1	Customer Service Representative	3.64%
2	Cashier	2.98%
3	Assistant Manager	1.92%
4	Internship	1.59%
5	Administrative Assistant	1.55%
6	Server	1.53%
7	Sales Representative	1.04%
8	Store Manager	0.84%
9	Manager	0.83%
10	Teller	0.79%
11	Receptionist	0.76%
12	Office Assistant	0.65%
13	Volunteer	0.64%
14	Associate	0.57%
15	Office Manager	0.55%
16	Substitute Teacher	0.54%
17	Teacher	0.53%
18	Security Officer	0.52%
19	Crew Member	0.45%
20	Supervisor	0.45%
21	Pharmacist Technician	0.45%
22	Customer Service Trainer	0.44%
23	Certified Nursing Assistant	0.44%
24	Assistant Store Manager	0.42%
25	Sales Consultant	0.42%
26	Specialist	0.41%
27	Hostess	0.4%
28	Warehouse Associate	0.39%
29	Customer Service Associate	0.39%
30	Teacher Assistant	0.37%
31	Account Executive	0.36%
32	Team Leader	0.35%
33	Sales Manager	0.35%
34	Marketing Internship	0.34%
35	Sales Associate And Cashier	0.32%
36	Front Desk Receptionist	0.32%
37	Medical Assistant	0.31%
38	Barista	0.31%
39	Waitress	0.31%
40	Account Manager	0.29%
41	Technician	0.28%
42	Assistant	0.27%
43	Key Holder	0.27%
44	Sales Associate And Customer Service	0.26%
45	Research Assistant	0.26%
46	Home Health Aid	0.26%
47	Owner	0.25%
48	Bank Teller	0.25%
49	Nanny	0.24%
50	Operations Manager	0.24%
51	Manufacturing Team Member	0.23%
52	Warehouse Worker	0.22%
53	Graphic Designer	0.22%
54	Machine Operator	0.22%
55	Merchandiser	0.21%
56	Driver	0.21%
57	Sales Leader	0.2%
58	Delivery Driver	0.2%
59	General Manager	0.2%
60	Clerk	0.19%
61	Shift Supervisor	0.19%
62	Shift Leader	0.19%
63	Student Assistant	0.19%
64	Agent	0.19%
65	Department Manager	0.18%
66	Material Handler	0.18%
67	Server And Hostess	0.18%
68	Preschool Teacher	0.17%
69	Package Handler	0.17%
70	Call Center Representative	0.17%
71	Bartender Server	0.17%
72	Shift Manager	0.17%
73	Service Representative	0.17%
74	Registered Nurse	0.16%
75	Project Manager	0.16%
76	Retail Sales Consultant	0.16%
77	Tutor	0.16%
78	Consultant	0.16%
79	Cook	0.16%
80	Photographer	0.15%
81	Customer Service Specialist	0.15%
82	Coordinator	0.15%
83	Legal Assistant	0.15%
84	Secretary	0.15%
85	Sales Specialist	0.15%
86	Housekeeper	0.15%
87	Bartender	0.15%
88	Security Guard	0.15%
89	Personal Assistant	0.15%
90	Technical Support Technician	0.15%
91	Billing Specialist	0.14%
92	Owner/operator	0.14%
93	Beauty Advisor	0.14%
94	Human Resources Coordinator	0.14%
95	Customer Service Agent	0.14%
96	Executive Assistant	0.13%
97	Representative	0.13%
98	Direct Support Professional	0.13%
99	Sales Person	0.13%
100	Customer Care Representative	0.13%

Most Common Jobs For Former SALES ASSOCIATES

These are all good jobs, all of them either utilizing some skill that a sales associate would have or being a stepping stone to a different career.

Here’s the thing about these jobs though — they’re pretty much exactly what you’d expect a lot of former sales associates to do.

How We Determined the Best Jobs of Former SALES ASSOCIATES

Using resume information from our database of over 7 million resumes, we looked at all resumes that listed sales associate under their work history. Then we looked at which jobs showed up on their work histories following their stints as a sales associate, sorting them by their most frequent.

That’s how we made the initial ranked list.

To make our list of most interesting jobs, we looked through the ranked list to see if any positions:

Showed up in fewer than 1% of all new jobs
And, were not part of the 100 most common jobs in our database

Author

Chris Kolmar

Chris Kolmar is a co-founder of Zippia and the editor-in-chief of the Zippia career advice blog. He has hired over 50 people in his career, been hired five times, and wants to help you land your next job. His research has been featured on the New York Times, Thrillist, VOX, The Atlantic, and a host of local news. More recently, he's been quoted on USA Today, BusinessInsider, and CNBC.

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