My mentor is Michelle Speaks, she is a Senior Merchandiser at Cheryl’s Cookies. Michelle has always envisioned herself in a merchandising role. She thought that she would always be in the fashion industry because that's where she started out before turning to the cookie field. Michelle realized then that the thought processes and skill sets for a merchant were actually the same whether it was apparel or food gifting area.
She also shared with me some of the main responsibilities of being a Senior Merchant. Those skills include being able to identify assortment plans, develop new products and designs that the customers want. The educational requirements for pursuing a career in merchandising is to have a bachelor's degree in merchandising. She also suggested that any type of internship experience for a semester in college would be beneficial for entering this career field. In addition having work history and background in retail sales would be helpful as well.
Some personal qualities, skills and abilities needed for a career in merchandising would require leadership and organizational skills, and also being ambitious. For a merchant its equally important to be analytical as much as you are creative. The advantages with being a merchant is that it is a very fast pace, exciting career while being responsible for a wide variety of tasks. The disadvantage is that because it is face pace, you have to be very flexible and willing to make changes as necessary for the business and the sales trends.
This career field is a competitive market. Columbus is very fortunate though to have many retailer headquarters based in our city so there are several companies with job opportunities for merchants available, such as Express, Bath and Body Works, Abercrombie, DSW and Justice. This career field impacts your work/life balance a lot. Since Cheryl’s is in the food gifting company, their business is very seasonal based. Therefore during holidays, Cheryl’s is extremely busy shipping out gifts to customers. All employees pitch in during these high peak times to assist. The advice Michelle gave me at the end was to take Marketing classes in high school and college, work in retail sales and gain experience with products and customers. Some other college activities to prepare yourself for this career field is to take the internship opportunities with a home office merchant focus and to stay close to trend and market place awareness.