Although working at Chipotle has not given me specific skills that are inter-related to the field I wish to go into, I have taken away many beneficial lessons from working at Chipotle. Firstly, it is important to note the Chipotle I work at is a top selling Chipotle in the company that consistently outperforms locations in larger cities. That being said, hard work, and accuracy, is something that is always being pushed at the restaurant. We are constantly striving for the best product for the people that we feed and hard work is 100% necessary to achieve the level of sales that we achieve. Working at Chipotle has allowed me to encounter pretty much every kind of customer, and feel very confident in my ability to communicate with customers despite the situation I may be found in.

HNI Corporation has given me my first taste of life within the financial sector. Throughout this opportunity I have been able to work on numerous different projects and coordinate within different sectors of a company in order to accomplish our goals. This position allowed me to sharpen my skills using Microsoft office, as well as my knowledge of the interworking's of how financial activities are operated within a Fortune 1000 public company.

UpMerch is a custom apparel company that sells to organizations and companies alike. I work for them doing both prospecting and contacting of prospects. The position began as an 8-week internship program in which we were groomed to become better sales associates for the company. Throughout my time in the internship program, I was able to achieve a salesperson certificate and also lead a group of interns to become the top performing group of interns for the summer. This opportunity not only helped me develop skills but also gave me experience working within a large company, communicating with customers, communicating with superiors, communicating with designers, and communicating with developers. Working for UpMerch has been extremely eye-opening to the interworking's of business and how much goes into running a company.

This was my first experience working in a "business" related field. It may have been at a very low level, but this was my first sales experience. For this job I would travel to farmers markets in order to attempt to sell pickles to the consumers there. The company offered incentives for those who sold a certain level of pickles and I always stived to achieve this goal. This job really helped me break out of my shell when it came to sales and communication with customers. Before this job I was often timid when talking to strangers, however, this job taught me that when you have a product that is worth buying and talking about, the sales come naturally. This job also gave me many opportunities to think on my feet and problem solve. The company was small, so I would be going to these farmers markets by myself and often times my bosses would be at markets themselves. Meaning that if problems arose, it was up to me to figure out the best way to combat them. Such as ice melting too fast, events getting rained out, broken tents, or other unforeseen issues.

Lifeguarding gave me many opportunities to again, communicate with "customers" or in this case, pool goers. Often times children, or even parents, would break rules, or feel as though they were above the rules. Which resulted in lifeguards having to be the law keepers and often times had to communicate things people did not want to hear. A large part of what I took away from my time as a lifeguard would be patience. Being a lifeguard is an entirely patience-based job, because really, you hope all you ever do is watch and wait. If you have to do your job, something bad is happening. It can be difficult to remain focused while standing or sitting in the sun for a long period of time, however, it was crucial in order to protect the lives of those swimming in the pool.