Over the summer Paul Goulet (EC-FI class of ’17 and in the black and gray striped polo above) worked at TJX in the Merchandising Internship Program. Below is a little more info about his incredible experience. Interested in having your own TJX internship? The role is currently posted on BentleyLink – go apply! They’re also hiring current seniors into the full-time merchandising program and have internships and full-time roles in their new financial analyst program.

What were your main responsibilities as an intern for TJX?

As an intern in planning and allocation, I was responsible for the shipping strategy for certain classifications of product. For myself, this included men’s tee shirts in Marshalls which were broken up into 4 classifications including traditional, jeans labels, polo, and dressy modern. In order to create a shipping strategy, I would look into where certain styles and vendors were doing well around the country and decide whether or not to focus the shipping in certain stores or maybe even exclude shipping in poorly performing stores.

Describe a typical day at TJX.

TJX has an amazing corporate culture and as such my days began very relaxed. In the very beginning of a typical day, I would chat with my team about how their week was going and we would all go down to the cafeteria to grab some coffee to go. The rest of the day consisted of looking into our classifications to see what purchase orders were coming through, whether or not they needed to have a special shipping plan and also manually shipping goods that were not able to go through the system correctly. In addition to this we were given projects handed down from the buyers to look into how certain product was doing and if we might be missing any opportunities.

What was your first day like?

It was great! TJX has a large intern class who all start together so it is really easy to meet new friends your age. They had presentations set up, lunch, and finally we spent the last couple hours in our classroom training which would last for two weeks.

What was the most interesting project you worked on?

Probably the organized intern project that TJX sets up every year. They assemble interns into groups of 4 or more and give you an area of the business that TJX thinks it could improve on. You work together intermittently throughout the summer on the project and present it to at least 25 people at the end. My group had to find new ideas for the tech department which was extremely interesting. TJX allowed us to leave and shop tech competition a few times in order to find samples and get an idea of what everyone else was selling. The presentation was very relaxed, welcoming, encouraging and most importantly, fun!

What’s one word you’d use to describe TJX?

Encouraging.

How did the skills you’re learning at Bentley translate to your internship?

Bentley is not a traditional school nor is TJX a traditional company. In order to succeed with TJX’s creative business model an associate needs to be able to think critically and work well in the grey. Bentley students are asked to do this often at school and we are also given many group projects which is essential for success in the company.

How did your previous internship prepare you for this experience

I learned that I needed to be more confident and assertive when speaking and giving input. I think that those adjustments really contributed to the success I had at TJX. The CEO ended our internship with advice to be assertive in a nice way, I think that really sums up how I spent the summer.

Keep an eye out for Part 2 where Paul will share the process of landing at TJX and more on his experiences within the company.