How To Become A Holiday Sales Associate: What It Is and Career Path

What is a holiday sales associate and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

2 min read

Quoted expert

Joseph Hancock

There is more than meets the eye when it comes to being a holiday sales associate. For example, did you know that they make an average of $11.56 an hour? That's $24,038 a year! Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow 0% and produce 1,900 job opportunities across the U.S.

What's a day at work look like for a holiday sales associate?

Joseph Hancock

Research Professor, Program Director, Former Retail Operations Manager, Drexel University, Antoinette Westphal College of Media Arts & Design

New graduates will need to be self-disciplined and self-motivated. No one is going to hold your hand and tell you "get to work" or you will soon be looking for a new job. The new world may be one where you don't go to an office, but instead work right from home, scheduling appointments and doing your own calendar. My last years working for Target in a regional field position taught me that no one was going to motivate me each day, I had to motivate myself. Also, it can be lonely working from home as a new graduate, so find outside interests and ways to make friends. I am from the old fashion ideologies that getting a hobby is extremely important, and that hobby is not going to the gym or watching television. It includes something that enriches your life to be a better person in society.

ScoreHoliday Sales AssociateUS Average

Salary

1.9

Avg. Salary $24,038

Avg. Salary $59,228

Diversity

7.0

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 0.72%

Asian 7.39%

Black or African American 9.04%

Hispanic or Latino 17.63%

Unknown 5.58%

White 59.64%

Gender

female 71.84%

male 28.16%

Age - 39

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 3.00%

Asian 7.00%

Black or African American 14.00%

Hispanic or Latino 19.00%

White 57.00%

Gender

female 47.00%

male 53.00%

Age - 39

Stress level

6.2

Stress level is manageable

7.1 - high

Complexity level

4.5

Complexity level is intermediate

7 - challenging

Work life balance

8.5

Work life balance is excellent

6.4 - fair

Key steps to become a holiday sales associate

Explore holiday sales associate education requirements

Most common holiday sales associate degrees

Bachelor's

39.7 %

High School Diploma

29.7 %

Associate

18.2 %

Start to develop specific holiday sales associate skills

Skills	Percentages
Sales Floor	26.54%
Cash Handling	18.70%
Sales Associates	18.05%
Stock Room	14.26%
Customer Service	7.31%

Complete relevant holiday sales associate training and internships

Accountants spend an average of 1-3 months on post-employment, on-the-job training. New holiday sales associates learn the skills and techniques required for their job and employer during this time. The chart below shows how long it takes to gain competency as a holiday sales associate based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real holiday sales associate resumes.

Research holiday sales associate duties and responsibilities

Stock the shelves work a POS register, and manage orders for future titles.
Supervise women's department, manage jewelry department, assist customers on finalizing purchases
Operate POS system and register new/potential customers into the e-mail subscription database.
Prepare quality food products, process accurate register transactions, maintain general appearance and cleanliness of store premises.

Prepare your holiday sales associate resume

When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your holiday sales associate resume.

You can use Zippia's AI resume builder to make the resume writing process easier while also making sure that you include key information that hiring managers expect to see on a holiday sales associate resume. You'll find resume tips and examples of skills, responsibilities, and summaries, all provided by Zippi, your career sidekick.

Choose from 10+ customizable holiday sales associate resume templates

Build a professional holiday sales associate resume in minutes. Browse through our resume examples to identify the best way to word your resume. Then choose from 10+ resume templates to create your holiday sales associate resume.

Apply for holiday sales associate jobs

Now it's time to start searching for a holiday sales associate job. Consider the tips below for a successful job search:

Browse job boards for relevant postings
Consult your professional network
Reach out to companies you're interested in working for directly
Watch out for job scams

How do holiday sales associates rate their job?

-/5

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1 star

Holiday sales associate reviews

A zippia user wrote a review on Jun 2021

Pros

I like mostly that I work with team oriented people. Some people that care and will help and that help others whether it's work related or not. That have good employee morale amongst each other not necessarily management but amongst each other.

Cons

Double standards extra work extra tasks that aren't in the job description you're doing assumptions that you know everything you're doing and you know the right way of everything that you're doing even though no one's ever trained you to do what you're doing and what you're doing isn't necessarily in the jobs description for the title for lack of a better word that you actually have