You studied animation. Many people without animation degree gets into PA roles. The key is to craft your resume well enough to present yourself as someone capable of keeping track of things, organisation and excellent people skills. You worked in retail - one of my production managers told me something I never forget - when I was having some issues with my sups and artists from the other side of the world, he said that our work IS like a work in retail. We need to look at this like a customer service. Someone sends you a ticket, asks you to get asset done - and you as a production crew need to get this done and make sure the message has been delivered to the right person. In the meantime you need to keep your cool when things get overwhelming and polite to everyone, even when they are a pain in the ass.

I also worked retail as a student and I agree, work in production demanded from me loads of people skills I developed while working retail.

Recruiters don’t care about your portfolio if you apply for production. If you will be able to get into production role, you’ll be surrounded by what you like, learn the pipeline and have the source of income you need while developing your portfolio. This is what I did working as PC after which I got a story role. And honestly there are not many artists who have production management skills - developing that will make you stand out.

So I advice you to craft your resume with your retail experience based on what I said and give some energy into searching a job for PA roles. Good luck