Grace McGregor Kramer
Vice president of strategy and operations at her family’s business, McGregor Industries Inc., Dunmore
Tell us about your first job. What did you learn and how did it impact you moving forward?
About my first job:
My first full-time job was working at Target in Minneapolis. I was in college (at Wharton Business School, University of Pennsylvania) during the financial crisis, so I thought I’d work in Wall Street and finance, but there were very few jobs in finance because I graduated in 2010. Target was heavily recruiting people in 2009 for internships the summer going into my senior year, and I got a full-time offer to come back, and I went back there and worked there full time the year after I graduated college. That’s where I met my husband. We met when we were interning for Target. We both got offers to work there full time after we graduated. So we both worked there for a year.
What I learned:
I think first, moving so far away because I went to school in Philly two hours away from home, I learned a lot even just from moving so far away from home. So, for your first job, you learn how to get up and go to work. You come out of college thinking you know so much, and you don’t, so, listen and learn and ask questions. I also learned how to be mentored, the people who took me under their wing and coached me and suggested things for me to do to increase my development. It was a really good experience for me to learn how to work and learn about an industry I didn’t know anything about. Target was growing really fast, and it was fun to be a part of that. It was really fun to work at a place where you could point to something you worked on. I also learned how much I hated being so far away from home. I eventually then moved to New York, and then from New York, I moved to Scranton. I couldn’t take the Scranton out of me. I had to be close to home. When you work somewhere that’s really big but you see the direct impact of, someone had an idea, and then the idea becomes a reality, seeing how fast something comes to a reality. Corporations are made of people and their decisions impact how things go forward. Working somewhere really big made me appreciate working at smaller places. I went to J.Crew from there, and there’s such a great team mentality. Coming back to Scranton and working in my family business, it made me realize and appreciate how great it is to work for a small business because you really are able to make such an impact quickly.
What advice can you give to anyone entering the workforce?
Ask questions, and try to say “yes” to as much as you can. I would say “yes” to trying different things, and learning new processes and maybe exploring a role that I may not have thought of, because you never know what door is going to open. There’s so much to say for just showing up and doing your best every day. Specifically, talking about a business office desk job, I felt like there was so much I didn’t know, but that’s such an opportunity. When you’re first starting, you’re in a position where you can ask all these questions and you can take the opportunity to really invest in yourself. I feel so lucky that I was able to do that. I never would have imagined where I am now versus where I started. I just feel so lucky that I was able to be a part of it. Now, I work in my family’s business, which is the opposite of working for Target. It’s a small regional business where, with Target, you can point to any store. So many of the skills I learned in my first job, I can apply here even though they’re different industries. Your career goes quickly, and I still think of myself as early career but I’ve been working for 15 years. You never know what experiences will help you later, or be something that you never really would have thought would pertain to one of your goals in the future, a path that you expected to walk down. I never would have expected to move to Minneapolis when I was in college, but that’s where I met my husband and we built this great life together.
What should a job seeker look for in a potential employer?
Opportunity for growth. A lot of it has to do, too, to your rapport who you’re going to be directly reporting to. You want someone who’s going to be a mentor and a coach and who’s going to teach you a lot. Pay and benefits are a part of it but you want a job that is going to teach you. “How is this job going to help me grow and help me learn? Are the people I’m going to work with going to allow me to be my best self and take risks?” So much of that is who you’re working with, and who you’re working for.
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