Pivot for Success by Amy S. Hilliard

Author:Amy S. Hilliard [Hilliard, Amy S.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781119780984
Publisher: Wiley
Published: 2021-05-11T00:00:00+00:00

Patience Can Unlock the Door to Dreams

The Harvard Business School acceptance came by the Christmas break of my senior year at Howard. Since I was fully anticipating going to grad school, I hadn't really started a job search. Now I had to go into full‐court press to get a job, and not just any job. Having had success with the “Start with the Top” approach in applying to grad school, I used that same approach to search for a job—apply to the top jobs I wanted and go from there.

Bloomingdale's was the #1 department store in the country at the time. The Queen of England had just made a visit to the flagship store in New York City, for goodness' sake! Given that I wanted a career in retail fashion buying, I knew I had to apply there. I did, and as backup, I also applied to Hudson's in Detroit, and other major stores in the country. But “Bloomie's” was my first choice by far. I also applied to Polaroid—not in retail fashion buying, obviously—but where I had worked at an awesome summer job. From that summer job, I maintained good contacts there and already had a good reputation. I knew it could serve as a backup plan. Importantly and strategically, all my options were blue‐chip companies. The “Top Approach” eventually morphed into a lifelong résumé‐building strategy that has served me well.

That approach, and Having Patience as I waited to hear back, served me well at this time, too. I got offers from Bloomingdale's, Hudson's, and Polaroid. Hudson's and Polaroid came after me hard with higher monetary offers. But my vision, mind, and heart were set on Bloomingdale's, and after making it past the on‐campus interviews, off I went to New York for further interviews to determine which department I'd work in. In New York, the HR department had interviews set up in the Men's department—socks and ties—telling me that was a good place for a new retail buying trainee to start. “Hmmm,” I thought. “That doesn't sound like much fun.” As I was waiting, the HR manager came back with more paperwork for me. Believing in Possibilities, here was my chance, and I was going to take it. I humbly asked her, “Since I'm here in New York, can I at least have an ‘exploratory interview' with the buyer of the Designer Dress department?” I figured, what did I have to lose? I remembered to go for the TOP. The HR manager must have known the buyer, because she made a quick call. The next thing I knew, I was sent up to the office of Miss Elaine Monroe, the buyer of Place Elegante, the Designer Dress department of Bloomingdale's. I'm talking Halston. Givenchy. Bill Blass. Oscar de la Renta. Anne Klein. Valentino. The Top of the Top. Miss Monroe, as she always told me to call her, and I got along great. She made a call back to the HR manager, and basically said, “I don't care what policy says, I want Amy to work for me.

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