McKenzie Gulledge’s Post

Transcript

Hi guys, My name is McKenzie Gulledge and I'm currently an incoming junior at the University of Arkansas and I'm double majoring in supply chain management and Marketing. I'm also from Fayetteville, so it's been really neat to get to see all the different companies that my peers are getting to intern for that are companies that are right inside my backyard. I have the Super special opportunity to get to intern for the Hershey Company as a field sales intern, so it's only fitting that I'm getting to film this in my car. As a lot of our role is to get to go to the different retailers within the territories. For this case, it's primarily Walmarts and neighborhood markets. And so I get to work really closely alongside our territory sales leads who get to analyze the retailer data for each of these stores and really learn how to create a comprehensive story around what those numbers mean and how we can communicate that to our store managers. In store leads and how we can just truly drive impact within each of these retailers. As a supply chain student, it's definitely sparked my curiosity with how the retail world works hand in hand within the supply chain world. And so that's something that's one of my really big goals this year throughout this internship is to continue to learn how those two critical components of a business work closely together and also just how all the different components of a business work in this tight knit web that we might not initially be familiar with. It's really blown away, blown me away by how much retail works with marketing, how it works with supply chain, how it works with our operations teams. And just getting to get to see those connections has been really cool and I can't wait to continue to see. All those develop as someone who just started an internship and just went through the interview process and just finding a position. I would highly encourage anyone to really utilize the opportunities that Walton gives you. The career fair is a huge opportunity to find one. I know so many people that have found internships through that directly. Another opportunity that I would highly advise those looking for an internship is the resume workshops in interview. Practices for my internship specifically, I went through around between 5:00 and 6:00, different phone calls and interview processes. And so really being comfortable doing an interview and knowing what you're going to talk about is huge. One of my biggest pieces of advice is to really reflect beforehand on opportunities that you've had, maybe not within the corporate world, as we're all new to it, but just opportunities that you've had in your life that have challenged you. That have maybe shown out some of your strengths, maybe even some of your weaknesses and really reflect on those opportunities that you had and have those ready to talk about. Interviewers truly just want to get to know you. And so being able to communicate effectively what has made you into who you are, I think is so valuable to them and really just gets to show them a glimpse of who you are before you work for their company. And so I really think being super proficient in your interview. Skills and being confident is a huge asset to your interview process and so I would highly recommend anyone to do that. I am so excited for this internship and I can't get wait to get to reflect on different lessons I've learned and get to share with y'all along the way. Thanks.