Working with Purchasing Platform was an excellent opportunity to add to my diversified experiences in the CIBE! I was given responsibilities for marketing and merchandising for procurement and manufactured housing markets. I learned to use Microsoft Excel to sort through sets of raw data and organize them by categories for use in website taxonomy. I learned that taxonomy provides the structure for website storefronts to properly lead their customers to the items they are looking to purchase. Doing so while learning about the manufactured housing market taught my just how important management of online inventory matters when companies such as Purchasing Platform work with various department and hardware stores from the local to the national level to give their products the visibility necessary for potential customers.
One theme in particular I found interesting that my time at Wabash had prepared me for working at Purchasing Platform was keeping the fulfillment of service for others in mind. It was engaging to learn about the markets and businesses available to the industry of manufactured housing. Understanding how best to connect businesses together was reinforced by knowing that many special projects and initiatives are set up to provide opportunities to various types of people. I find that mission to be inspiring. It struck a chord with me especially remembering the responsibility of the Gentleman’s Rule leading to the opportunities available at Wabash. In learning about how these various parts of a broad industry came together, I saw an opportunity I could not pass up for the summer!
I wish to take the last part of this blog to extend a special thank you to CEO Dave Bowen, Vice President of Automation and Analytics Steve O’Connor, and Merchandising Manager Lizzie Wellnitz for their amazing support and wisdom working the course of this summer! I could not have been happier with the lessons and opportunities they opened me eyes to. It has provided me with a background good not only for work with manufactured housing and logistics, but also for several industries looking for business professionals looking to achieve success in customer service relations and software. I would lastly like to thank the donors of the Small Business Internship Fund (SBIF), without their generous contributions this experience would not have been possible.
