In this “Day-in-the-Life” blog post series, we will be featuring the profile and internship experience of our students from Syracuse University’s Martin J. Whitman School of Management as they reflect on what a typical day in their internship role looks like.
Name: Mia Sandberg ’23
Major(s): Supply Chain Management and Retail Management
Internship Title/Company: Assistant Buying Intern at Ross Stores
Describe your position and what it entails?
I am an assistant buyer. This job entails building relationships and negotiating with vendors in securing goods, managing data and using that information to make informed decisions, writing orders and tracking the goods to make sure they arrive at the right place at the right time.
What does a typical day in your role look like?
This job varies day-to-day, so typically each week I am handling many tasks. On Mondays, I am running and analyze all sorts of reports. We see how well our items sold in stores, how many items were allocated to the stores and start thinking about what products we should continue ordering.
Tuesdays include lots of internal meetings to plan for the week, start reaching out to vendors and organize your thoughts and coming up with a game plan for the rest of the week.
On Wednesdays and Thursdays, I am usually attending vendor meetings. Additionally, I am continuing to reach out to vendors for more products and setting up meetings if necessary for the rest of the week.
Fridays are a great day to wrap up and prepare to start the upcoming week organized. This usually includes writing orders to give to vendors, seeing which items are on their way to stores and making sure we received responses to any inquiry emails.
Specifically, with my internship role, Ross Stores internship program offers approximately five different trainings or speaker sessions each week to enhance our learning and teach us important tools to be successful in this role.
What do you look forward to most coming into work?
My favorite part about being an intern is having the opportunity to talk to and learn from so many people within the company. I have meetings with dozens of different employees aside from my supervisor and mentor where I can ask questions about their jobs and learn more about the company.
How did you land this internship?
I applied through Handshake, then was contacted by a member of the Ross college relations team. I went through two rounds of interviews, which included speaking to four different buyers before I received an offer.
How has Whitman prepared you for this internship?
Whitman has prepared me in many ways for this internship. Many of our classes include hands-on projects such as creating a marketing campaign and analyzing data from real businesses. These projects and lessons have helped me transfer what I have learned in the classroom to a real experience.
What have you learned so far from this experience?
Through this experience, I have learned the importance of asking questions. As an intern, it can be confusing walking into a new office in a new position, so it is important to feel comfortable asking questions to learn and grow professionally.
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