You could ask Matille MacKorell, a Retailing major with an emphasis on Fashion Merchandising. Matille is a manager at HandPicked, a family owned jewelry store that has been in business for more than 20 years.

While in school, Matille wanted to complete her Retail internship with HandPicked. However, HandPicked did not have an internship program, so Matille’s project was to create one. She developed an original program for HandPicked that improved the company’s employee training programs and recruiting efforts. After presenting the plan for an internship program to General Manager Sonya Ingram, Matille’s first step was to recruit an intern at USC’s Career Fair.

After receiving more than 50 resumes, Matille and Sonya had to choose one exceptional applicant. HandPicked’s new intern will have the opportunity to receive intensive training in the art of merchandising, as well as the opportunity to merchandise the store, train with the buyer, visit other stores, and design a floor layout.

Matille is now the manager of the flagship HandPicked store, located on Devine Street. Her daily tasks include merchandising, creating action sales plans, analyzing numbers, and building customer relationships. She also helps hire, coach, and train new employees.

“Being able to go to school full time while working full time and being able to bring the Devine Street store back to being the number one store in our company are high points in my career thus far,” says Matille.

Matille plans to graduate in August, but while still in the College of HRSM she has enjoyed being a part of the first Retail class to travel to Italy.

A valuable skill Matille learned in the classroom and continues to learn on the job is the importance of networking. Her ultimate career goals are to be a regional manager at HandPicked and then eventually to have her own business.

Matille says that the best advice she can give students in her major or who are getting ready to complete an internship is to do what you love and love what you do!