Emily Wiederrecht

Major: Apparel, Merchandising, and Design
Company/Organization: TJX Companies
Company/Organization website: https://www.tjx.com/
Destination: Framingham, Massachusetts
Timeframe: Sumer 2022
Advisor/Coordinator Email: briaj

Responsibilities

My responsibilities include shipping and allocating kids clothing to Marshalls stores. I am responsible for creating a shipping strategy from my specific category every Monday at our weekly meeting. I am responsible for pulling the inbound reports or shipping reports every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. My team and I can create and update our strategies on a weekly basis. I am also responsible for shipping products on our shipping program. Lastly, I send out emails, and create PowerPoints when needed for my team.

Accomplishments

My greatest accomplishment during my internship program was my intern merchant challenge that I just presented to my manager. I pulled multiple reports to help me analyze the swim business based off of vendors, styles, and zones. I also shopped from our competitors to see what products they offer and how we can improve our current mix. Then I put all of that information together to create recommendations for how we can improve our swim division for next year. This was my biggest accomplishment because I completed it all on my own with my own ideas and recommendations, and when I presented it to my manager she said she was impressed.

Learning experience

The greatest lessons I learned so far from my experience is that curiosity and asking questions is a skill and will help you grow as an employee. This was a big lesson I learned because there is a stereotype that asking too many questions means that you aren't knowledgeable and you don't know what you are doing. Since I have been working at TJX I learned that asking questions is actually looked at as a strength because you are willing to learn and and gain knowledge from other employees.

What advice would you give?

A piece of advice I have for future students in my major is to really pay attention in class and make sure you are learning the materials because you will use them in your internship(s) and future career. Another piece of advice I have for future students in my major is to look for and apply for internships early. The fashion industry is very competitive, thousands of people will be applying to the same internships as you. To make yourself stand out, apply to internships during the fall semester, and apply to a lot of internships. The more internships you apply to, and the earlier you apply, the better chance you will have at receiving a good internship that matches your goals.

Career Connections