-: Being a history major taught me to research and analyze
and draw out themes and big ideas
and then communicate those, those ideas.
And I think any sort of background
in a liberal arts environment will be sufficient
for a role like merchandising,
that is marrying that creative and analytical.
And we also do hire a fair amount of people
from design schools, so I always encourage students
coming from a liberal arts background or a school like UVA,
to make sure you're supplementing your education
with internships and extracurricular activities.
Generally, just being involved in just anything
outside of the classroom is key
because it helps you with time management and scheduling
and prioritizing your day,
and juggling different responsibilities.
It also requires you to think differently
than an academic environment like a classroom.
Specifically for merchandising, I think doing anything
in again, the arts arena or the design arena
would be especially helpful.
That being said, I wish I had taken some economics classes
or some classes in the comm school,
just to have more of that business foundation
that I ultimately ended up learning on the job,
but would have been helpful to have a little bit more
exposure of that during school.
But I also encourage just regular jobs,
like working in retail at the mall or in a department store.
That's really important experience and it might not be
quite as glamorous as a quote unquote internship,
but in terms of what you're learning,
it's just as important.