I have worked in retail for over seven months now and absolutely love the fast paced environment. I really do not want a nine to five desk job, even with a decent pay. I have been looking on Payscale and have seen that Retail District Managers get paid lots. Do you think my idea of going into retail management as a career is a good idea or a bad one? Should I listen to Payscale or should I listen to most of society who thinks retail is not a ‘real’ career.
Thank you for your commentary. Anything helps! 
Retail can certainly be a fulfilling job. I am an HR manager for a retail company. I’m paid very well, have good benefits, and career advancement opportunities.
To become a district manager you would need to work your way up, primarily at one company (it is harder to get promotions by jumping companies in retail, but not unheard of). You would go through the middle management ranks and be a store manager first. This can take quite a few years depending on your performance and company culture. I won’t lie - some retail chains are notorious for playing favorites and having shady practices. Find a good company with fair and consistent practices.
Retail management is very stressful. The customers can be wonderful or awful on a given day. You may be under extreme pressure for sales or department standards. Employees don’t always care about their jobs, which impacts yours. But none of this is all that different from being a manager in another industry. It’s just that retail is not healthy right now, which is making things worse. A lot of store closings. Downsizing staff and working with skeleton crews. My company is doing really well, but even they let go of quite a few district managers and restructured a few years ago.
If you make it through all of that, the salary will be great. But the hours are nearly 24/7. You may get a nasty call at 5am asking why something went wrong. At the same time, you do have some flexibility in your schedule, which location you will travel to that day, etc.
Keep in mind that you may need to relocate, because there are only so many district positions in each area. This also varies by how many locations a store has across a state or region.
Overall I’d say very few managers who pursue that level of management achieve it. And it takes years. So you would need to consider all of that and maybe have a solid backup plan. Keep in mind that some companies are structured differently - I am mainly taking about large retailers like Sears, JC Penney, Home Depot, Walmart, etc. You can work at small mall stores and work your way up faster, but the pay isn’t as good and neither are the benefits.
I need to get back to the office but if you have anymore questions, let me know!