Christopher Cates Email & Phone Number

Texas, United States

Seattle, Wa, Us

Seattle, Wa, Us

Seattle, Wa, Us

Omaha, Ne, Us

I oversee the arrival and departure of all train traffic out of the Port of Los Angeles and Port of Long Beach. On top of servicing international and national customers, I also carry products for almost 50 local customers. I have 75 unionized employees and 4 junior managers who report directly to me. I am responsible for their training, safety, and professional development. I perform quarterly performance reviews and create plans to further highlight their strengths and overcome their weaknesses. As a terminal manager overseeing a highly populated territory, safety is one of my highest priorities. I conduct regular safety audits and organize team meetings in an effort to forecast risk. These efforts have allowed for the over 300 employees who operate in the area to work injury free for more than a year.

This job allowed me to indulge my love for wine by providing targeted and knowledge-driven suggestions to customers. I prided myself in maintaining in-depth product knowledge of our wine inventory, and enjoyed researching new labels and varietals that were added to the market. For me, this job really hinged on the personal relationships formed with customers through learning their specific wine preferences. The high points were instances in which I worked for several weeks with a customer, helping them transition from someone new to wine, to an individual who was confident in their own wine knowledge.Job Duties:• Researched and reviewed all current, and potential stock in order to effectively communicate the qualities, serving recommendations, and suggested pairings to customers. • Provided personalized service by ordering products not in the store’s inventory to meet customers’ specific needs and identified viable and satisfactory substitutions when their first choice was not able to be delivered.• Facilitated the selection and purchasing of beer, wine, liquor, and champagne to meet the needs of large social functions, while educating the customer on recommended quantities and product specifics.• Assisted vendors in the construction and placement of merchandise displays emphasizing brand visibility and customer engagement.

Arlington, Virginia, Us

As a recruiter, I constantly worked irregular hours to meet difficult quotas under strict deadlines. However, recruiting did more for my professional development than any other job. The job created the need and opportunity to finely tune my time management, organizational, and networking skills. My success in recruiting was a result of my ability to identify individual's problems and create a solution for them that often utilized my extensive network of professional and community connections. The greatest thing that recruiting taught me is that sales ought to strive to empower customers with useful and intimate product knowledge. A salesman who is capable of doing that will enjoy long term, loyal customers and will never have a problem finding new ones.Job Duties:• Educated and mentored applicants to achieve their personal and professional goals.• Organized community outreach plans that directly increased recruiting market shares.• Built strong working relationships with a variety of businesses and organizations. • Planned and organized community events that informed and introduced citizens to the United States Army.• Implemented territory development plans by identifying under-utilized market areas, region’s growing needs, and potential sales impediments.

Arlington, Virginia, Us

My time as a Staff Sergeant and Section Chief helped develop my most fundamental leadership tools. I learned that one management style is not going to see results in every employee, and that great leaders are flexible in their mentoring approach. I learned the value of the development of a skillful team, and the ability to to be able to identify your team's strengths and weaknesses. I also learned the necessity for great planning and delegation, because regardless of work ethic, even the most diligent leader is unable to accomplish difficult goals by himself. My favorite part of this job was the training and development that eventually led to promotion of employees. I believe there is nothing more satisfying and reaffirming than the nurturing of an individual into a mature, confident leader.Job Duties:• Oversaw orientation activities, skills qualifications, and basic duty training for new Air Defense Artillery soldiers at Hanau, Germany; Fort Hood, Texas; and Fort Bliss, Texas. • Wrote monthly performance evaluations for employees that highlighted professional strengths, outlined plans for growth, defined position expectations, and discussed future development and training opportunities. •Mentored and trained employees to exceed professional and physical standards resulting in the promotion of eight soldiers from the rank of Private to the rank of Sergeant. •Managed the implementation of new federally mandated hazardous waste laws, the integration of which required a complete restructuring of workplace safety procedures. •Coordinated the rail and air transportation of one hundred vehicles from El Paso, Texas to Killeen, Texas, without any safety incidents.