My roommate and me love the fashion policy at Kohl’s: dress for your day! It’s fun getting to look chic and professional at the same time.

June 17th, 2018

Rachel Lynne
Sep 4, 2018 · 4 min read

Coffee solves all problems. Coffee saves me from droopy eyes and unproductive days. Coffee is the reason I survived Week 2 of a Corporate world.

Okay, that’s a little dramatic, but it’s true — I was so tired from this new schedule and information overload that coffee was the only thing to keep me going. I wake up every day at 6:00am to look nice for work and mentally prepare myself to have an awesome day.

But I quickly started realized that this was not the same as college, where I could survive on minimal sleep and an extra boost of caffeine; in order to be successful and contribute meaningful work, I have to be focused, motivated, and ready to socialize for eight hours a day. It doesn’t sound that hard, but learning about an entirely new industry and company while trying to seem like I totally have it all together requires a lot of brain power and, consequently, even more coffee.

This week, all the interns were still getting their feet on the ground by shadowing each person in their office to better understand the individual roles, how they all work together, and how they accomplish the same goal: drive sales. At Kohl’s, the career path in the Buying Office is very clear; however, they combine the planning (P) and the buying (B) side into one path, unlike most other companies that allow you to stick with just buying or just planning. In case you’re like me and don’t have a background in retail, here are some key takeaways from job shadows:

Analyst (P) — entry-level position in each office focusing on the planningaspect. Her main responsibilities are managing any products that are on replenishment (they’re not exclusive to one season so they’re continuously restocked; about 70% of what we buy is on replen) and allocating how many of each product go to each store. She also pulls many sales reports each week for the team in order to better understand the business.

Assistant Buyer (B)– depending on the office and products, there may be more than one in each office (mine has two, one for socks and hosiery, one for slippers and flip flops). “This is my business and my chance to use every resource to bring it to life — I supply the product our customer wants.” The AB doesn’t work with vendors at all but does submit information for print advertising and controls the pricing of each product. This role has the most creativity!

Planner (P)– in my opinion, this is the most challenging role to understand because each task involves a lot of numbers and calculations. Her role is to “balance the checkbook” by making sure the current season is on track, managing future seasonal plans, and decide how to mitigate current season risks.

Buyer (B) — Make executive decisions on the assortment and flow of products. She creates a high-level strategy plan for the department using information from last year to arrange the upcoming year, works with the Product Development team to create Kohl’s exclusive products, and updates tables for vendors.

Specialist: not part of the typical career path but is vital to the office. She creates every SKU (barcode on an item) for all the products we sell, creates orders for vendors and makes sure vendors have uploaded necessary information, send samples to the Photo Studio for the website. She explained that “nothing

As you can see, the roles bounce back and forth between buying and planning to ensure each person is getting a well-rounded experience. Everyone in my office talks to each other all day — they ask for help or a second opinion, so understanding what their counterparts do is extremely beneficial.

I love how they truly work as a team to make sure everyone is on the same page. They’ve also been very understanding of the interns asking lots of questions since it’s so unfamiliar to us! The buyer, planner, and AB go to “market” regularly. This is not a place to buy groceries, which was my initial thought. They travel to NYC to meet with our Product Development team and vendors on upcoming products. It sounds very fun and glamorous, like something Rachel Greene from Friends would do, but my team said it can be challenging to prepare for and attend meetings in such a short trip.

Other than shadowing my office, this week I practiced pulling reports and drawing conclusions on the data (it sounds boring, but it actually took a TON of time to understand). Everyone always gives the advice to ask a lot of questions, but I was nervous that admitting I didn’t understand something would reflect poorly on my skills; this is 100% false, and I will never be able to stress that enough. In fact, being able to seek help will only help you in the long run! You see, being able to ask questions will save you time, stress, and will show leadership that you are fearless in the pursuit of knowledge. Learning is power, so NEVER be afraid to use all your resources to tackle a challenge.

Although I’m pretty tired, I feel like I’m actually retaining all this information and applying it to the business. Being able understand what my coworkers are talking about and read a spreadsheet is actually pretty darn cool. I’m excited to see how I can further develop and apply my knowledge as the weeks continue.

My family came to visit for Father’s Day weekend! Although, after two weeks in Milwaukee, I still didn’t know what to show them.

INTERNal Jounral

An intern's professional journal that highlights her lessons learned in Corporate America

Rachel Lynne

Written by

INTERNal Jounral

An intern's professional journal that highlights her lessons learned in Corporate America

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