Mackenzie Frunzar

Responsibilities

During my internship at Dillards I had a wide variety of responsibilities each day. The main purpose of my internship was to shadow store managers and leaders to gain a better sense of what it means to successfully lead a team of people. Three times a week I had the responsibility of coming in early to complete RFID scans on our inventory. This is something that only managers can do and they do it in order to check location and inventory on certain items and it is reported back to district managers each week. I was also responsible for completing any chargebacks that the store may receive. Chargebacks are when the store has an abundance of merchandise that isn't selling well or is damaged that we send back to our vendors. Chargebacks typically happened only once or twice a week. I was also able to shadow our visual merchandisers while I was interning and I learned so many great skills from them as well. They assigned me a few large projects that I was able to take complete creative control on. Some of these projects included creating new visual displays for brands like Kendra Scott, Kurt Geiger, and Fjallraven.

Accomplishments

One of my greatest accomplishments was actually a project that I was able to work on for one of our visual merchandisers. I was in charge of setting up a large display to promote the Des Moines Wedding Show as well as promoting our wedding registry gifts. I loved being able to take complete creative control over something that I knew lots of people would see because it put a lot of pressure on me to make sure that everything was perfect but it also allowed me to have one of my visions come to life which was very rewarding to see. Someone from the Des Moines Wedding Show came to Dillards to post my display on their Instagram story and I felt like that was a really great accomplishment to see that my hard work had paid off and they appreciated how I was promoting one of their events.

Learning experience

One of the greatest lessons I learned from my supervisors was to always write things down and always, always, always ask questions. Store managers have so many day to day responsibilities and it was a bit overwhelming at times to learn all of this new information and new skills so writing things down was a great way to retain information and practice the new things I was learning. Asking questions is also a key factor in the learning process and I learned that no question is invalid. Asking questions is a great way to ensure that your mentors and bosses know that you are taking initiative and know that you are eager to learn from them.

What advice would you give?

My advice for future students in AMD would be to stay open to any opportunities that may come your way because you might find out that you have a passion for something completely new and unexpected. Don't be scared to try new things or take risks because in the end you might regret not going for it. I know there have been plenty of times where I didn't always put myself out there and challenge myself and I look back and sometimes wonder what it could have led me to, so I would say just go for it! I also want to stress how important it is to make sure you have a good work/school life balance, make sure that you are taking time for yourself and that you aren't over working yourself. Remember to have fun and enjoy it while it lasts!