Drey (Audrey) Eaton

Responsibilities

During my internship with Rue21, I was responsible not just for myself but for all of my coworkers as well. I held a leadership position that required a lot of knowledge and confidence to lead and teach others. Some responsibilities that I held were the simple associate responsibilities such as running the cash register, recovering and refreshing the sales floor, greeting customers and treating them like a GIFT. As an assistant manager, I had the additional responsibilities of counting and storing the tills in the safe, reporting daily back to the district manager about sales, fragrance sales, and loyalty card conversion, training new hires, opening and closing the store, handling and processing shipment, planning out and setting up visuals, and providing an example to new hires on what is expected of them.

Accomplishments

My biggest accomplishment was training the new hires that we employed when I was newly hired. Although I still have struggles with confidence and leadership, this role of training manager forced me to step into the leadership role that I was afraid of being in. Being in this position and teaching the new hires ignited a new confidence in myself as well as an excitement that I had the knowledge and the experience to properly train them. It was a good feeling to find out that I was someone that the new employees could come to with questions or when they weren’t sure what the next step would be. Being relied on me gave me even more confidence in myself and probably left the biggest impression on me.

Learning experience

One amazing lesson I’ve learned from my manager is that there is always room to grow. Finding new information or aspects about the job that I didn’t know gave me a new goal to better myself and strengthen my foundation as a manager. I am not perfect, but I’ve come to learn that the small mistakes are just lessons to remember for the next time something similar occurs. I’ve also learned that asking questions can only lead to better things. I have always been someone who asks questions, but in this position, there were many instances that certain situations popped up that I had never experienced before. It was then that asking questions and gaining more knowledge came into practice and I was able to expand my understanding of my position. A final lesson I would say that will stick with me for a long time is that constructive criticism is a positive way to build a better foundation for not just yourself, but those around you. No one is perfect, especially new hires that have never worked in retail or fashion. How one approaches will change the whole outcome of the interaction. You have to remember to emphasize on the things that they are doing well and show them that you are proud for the effort they are putting forth. Recommend different solution methods and help them to build their own solutions.

What advice would you give?

The biggest advice I would give new students would be to ask questions. Being curious and detailed will always be better than being satisfied with what you know. Without curiosity, there is no drive for improvement or change and you will be stuck in place. Questions lead to more knowledge, which will lead to more experience, which will lead to more opportunities. Always ask questions.