“I’m just really frustrated. I think this is why people quit.” A Merchandising Consultant’s First Year

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The following is an excerpt from After School describing how’s life for a recent grad working as a merchandising consultant.

 

When people ask you “What do you do?” what do you say?

I’m officially what is called a Merchandising Consultant. What that means in layman’s term is that I am the strategist that figures out what to do with all the things that are sold with PC’s, monitors, microphones, and keyboard. We also sell TV’s, drones, 3D printers, etc. We have a whole retail store and that’s what I manage the strategy for.

 

I’m not going to spend 80 hours a work week when there are other people sitting on their ass doing nothing getting paid the same.

 

What are your hours like?

When I started it was like 45 to 50 hours. Now I’m working more like 65 to 80 hours because there are only two of us in this whole office and I really want to fix the business. I could work probably 45 hours, but next year would be a disaster. I have my resume bullet points of what I want to do, and that’s what I’m working towards. Once I’ve checked them off, then that’s it because I’m not going to spend 80 hours a work week when there are other people sitting on their ass doing nothing getting paid the same. Nobody’s going to give me an extra star because I worked 90 hours a week.

 

What’s the best part of the job?

It’s the learning. If some of my good ideas are executed and they work, I can take credit for it. If my ideas don’t work, somebody will blame me for it not working. My goal is to test things out and see what works – then I can say, “Well, I was able to grow this one category by 20 million dollars.” Five hundred million dollars is a huge number overall. For me to have any part in the strategy and say, “Actually I grew this market with less marketing and less support,” people will look at me and say “Wow, you are really good at managing the business.” That’s what excites me right now.

 

It’s not about logic or rationale. It’s about people guarding territory.

 

What’s the worst part of the job?

Yeah, the worst is the amount of “No” that you get. Everybody knows that there are things that are wrong and broken with the company, but there is nobody that will speak up on their own and defend a point or support. Everybody hears from above that we need to be more entrepreneurial and nobody does shit. They just wants to cover their own asses and do the things that worked for them in the past. Because changing things creates risks, it complicates things and makes people do more work. Nobody wants to go that route. It’s not about logic or rationale. It’s about people guarding territory.

 

I’m just really frustrated. I think this is why people quit. They deal with so much resistance, and in the end you can’t do what you envisioned to change the business. I’d rather spend my energy somewhere else where I can make the business. Ultimately I think the real success is the intersection of what makes you happy and what aligns with the company’s role. If you’re in a company that doesn’t value what you’re good at or one that puts you in a position that doesn’t take advantage of your skills, you both are missing out. Ultimately, the employee doesn’t reach his full potential, right?

 

If you would like to participate/be interviewed for the blog, contact me at nkem.nwankwo@lifeafterschool.co.