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My strength is creative problem solving. I have spent my time working retail jobs developing practical business skills and a unique customer service philosophy, and my goal is to identify problems that have not occurred yet or that I am not aware of and offer practical, supportive solutions. In my perfect world, the process goes so smoothly that nobody would even be aware that I was fixing a problem.

I value the future version of myself more than I value the present version of myself. "What will help the most for the least amount of effort?" is a question that guides my thinking. I seek to optimize any system I am involved in. I am adaptable and enjoy learning about all topics that interest me, and whatever is relevant to a problem I'm trying to solve is interesting to me.

My goal is not to be a "jack of all trades" but a master of all trades wherever I am working. I have a very well exercised sense of empathy and customer service is a field where I am able to put that empathy and problem solving together. As a cashier, my goal is to never have an unhappy customer, and I am constantly experimenting to find better approaches to accomplish that.

Psychology plays a large role in that, because usually if there is an unhappy customer, it isn't because of my service to them. I offer "drive by" emotional support to all of my customers because usually if they aren't happy, it's for reasons other than my service. My goal while cashiering, for example, is to create a bubble where my customers feel safe and protected and supported on top of their normal expectations as a customer.

I hate fighting and I will do everything I can to avoid it. I never make a customer feel bad. I strive to identify value in people and help them achieve that value. Customers and coworkers alike. I believe that in an efficiently run system, every single person involved is crucial to the overall success of that system.

People collaborating together have their efforts multiplied with each other, versus people operating in a "master/servant" type relationship only have their efforts added together. I believe that people who collaborate have to be getting along first, so I try and make sure that everyone feels included and appreciated where I am able to so that I can help them identify their potential and then incorporate that into the system we are working in. My weakness is that I am "slow" by most people's standards at accomplishing what I want.

My goals are high, so it takes a lot of planning and thinking. I believe that 95% of the process to whatever goals we are trying to accomplish occurs in our own minds, and then the last 5% is what we ultimately implement through our actions. I am also slow to acclimate myself socially to new environments.

I have to warm up to new places, and I am looking for places that will support me while I do that, because support makes the process go very smoothly. I will make mistakes, and I value my mistakes as learning opportunities.

Lead Cashier - Ace Hardware - Mundelein

(2021-09 - 2022-12)

Check customers out, organize carryouts, check in deliveries, stock deliveries, help manage front end inventory, handle returns. I helped all over the store and learned whatever I could in every department. For our business account program, I signed up the most companies out of all the stores in the area.

Lawn and Garden Associate - Ace Hardware - Mundelein

(2011-01 - 2013-12)

I worked here in 2011 as my first job as well as a lawn and garden associate. I took on responsibilities from most departments, experience stocking, assisting customers finding the correct item or tool for the job they needed completed, cutting keys, filling propane tanks, physical labor, backstock maintenance and organization, cleaning storefront, minor maintenance on various motorized and electronic tools, trained sales experience selling lawn motors, chainsaws, and other various motorized and electronic tools.

Maintenance, Service Clerk, CSR, Front End Supervisor - Jewel Osco - Mundelein

(2013-01 - 2016-12)

While I was in maintenance I would clean every department, keep the storefront and back of store cleaned, handled various miscellaneous problems beyond my scope of duty for all departments, hand washed all of the windows and repaired and repainted cart corrals. Efficient bagging and cashiering. As a customer service representative, I did pickups to clear excess money from registers, took and counted money out of the lotto machine, handle various customer complains and issues, ran closing reports, entered sales data into logs, balanced returns, and handled overrides when cashiers needed approval for various things such as liquor sales, price changes, etc. as well as kept our team coherent and efficient and making sure any issues were resolved properly.

Closing Supervisor, Event Supervisor, Ecommerce/Physical Sales - The Gaming Goat - Mundelein

(2012-01 - 2014-12)

The Gaming Goat is a board game and trading card store selling primarily individual cards and sealed packs of cards. I purchased cards for our inventory from customers, sold customers cards, and had to keep an extensive knowledge base to be able to recommend correct cards for the decks they were building. I ran sanctioned events and tournaments.

I handled most of our online sales, which were from our stock of over 25,000 cards that I would keep sorted and pull from for on average around 50-75 sales per day which had to be pulled from our inventory, packaged and labeled and mailed out.