How to land a job at Macy’s

Many people think of retail jobs as temporary, but Laura Britton isn’t one of them.

In 1992, Britton was living in St. Louis, Missouri, when a neighbor told her that Macy’s was hiring. She landed a role at the department store’s South County St. Louis location with a long job title that she still remembers to this day, “sales manager of moderate sportswear, better sportswear, petite and dresses.”

Today, Britton is a Group Vice President of Talent Acquisition for the company that first gave her that job 26 years ago. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) there are almost 5 billion retail workers in the U.S. Macy’s is one of the biggest retail employers in the country, with about 130,000 employees across the organization. In September, Macy’s announced that it plans to hire 80,000 more workers over the holiday season alone.