Isabella Mouradian

Major: Apparel, Merchandising, and Design
Company/Organization: Kohl's Corporate
Company/Organization website: http://www.kohls.com/
Destination: Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Timeframe: Summer 2020
Advisor/Coordinator Email: briaj@iastate.edu

Responsibilities

During experience as a Buying Office intern at Kohl's, I was faced with many different tasks and responsibilities. I was expected to meet with my coach daily and shadow her to learn the systems and her tasks as an analyst. I also met with my manager, who is a planner, and she gave me tips and feedback before and after projects. Overall, I was expected to learn the business and understand how to read and interpret the metrics and financials.

Accomplishments

My greatest accomplishment during this internship was being able to present my thoughts and ideas, along with my knowledge on the business to my superiors and other interns, and receive very positive feedback afterwards. I have never been one to love presenting and public speaking, but I am very proud of how much I've grown in that area with this internship experience.

Learning experience

With this internship being virtual and condensed into 7 weeks instead of 10, it made the whole experience very fast paced. With this being said, time management was something that I struggled with in the beginning of the internship being that every day was so full of meetings and classes. I've learned to prioritize tasks and to communicate to my coach and manager when I need help or more time on an assignment. I also learned that mapping out my schedule for the upcoming days ahead of time helped me improve my time management skills.

What advice would you give?

My advice for future students and future interns is to ask questions. Every day I wrote down questions that came to mind in my meetings and classes, and even if I couldn't ask in the moment, I reported them back to my coach or manager and continued to learn about the business and company. Not only did this show that I was engaged, but I also felt like I was more interested and excited to learn more as I asked more questions and dive deeper into the business. I also encourage future interns to make an effort to get to know the people they work with during their internship on a personal level, as it makes the experience that much better!

Career Connections