Working Outside of School
August 2021 - Current 
Mankato, MN & Le Mars, IA

Throughout the summers and during my sophomore year and beyond, I held jobs outside of school. Over the summers I worked at Wells Blue Bunny. Out of my senior year in high school I worked on the production line making Dairy Queen Dilly Bars and Yasso frozen yogurt bars. My second summer there was during the pandemic still so my position was entitled a Wellness Screener where I was stationed at the different doors to the plant taking everyone’s temperatures and asking them their questions. I also helped run the COVID test site. At the beginning of my sophomore year, I was able to bring a job from Le Mars up to Mankato. I worked at Hy-Vee. In Le Mars, I worked in the gas station, and in Mankato I worked in the Deli. When it became clear that Hy-Vee was not willing to work with my school schedule, I quit and got another job at Kohls as a seasonal associate which I kept over winter break when I returned home. The summer before my junior year, I was able to go back to Blue Bunny as a qualitive analysis technician inside one of the ice cream plants. Then at the beginning of my Junior year I accepted a position as a tour guide on campus. Finally, the summer before my senior year, I had the honor of returning to Blue Bunny once again, but this time, I was an intern at their corporate micro lab. I have held many different positions from working in a factory, food service, retail around the holidays, tour guide and secretary in the admissions office, and intern in a micro lab. It is difficult to compare these jobs on the surface because they are all diverse and have many different components to compare.

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These experiences are important to my leadership path because of the many different things that each of the positions have taught me. An example of something I learned while doing these jobs is the different leadership styles. In my first honors class we learned about the different leadership styles, and I always knew that there was more than one way to run things. However, it is through my jobs that I truly discovered how many different types of leadership there are and what exactly those leadership types mean for the workers underneath them. One of my supervisors at Blue Bunny when I was working on the production floor was not necessarily fit for leadership as he took a hands-off approach. He was never on the line and always in the break room which lead to unhappy workers. On the other hand, my Kohls, Mankato, supervisor was amazing. She was always hands on asking if we needed help or days off. The sheer contrast led to two very different work environments.

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In all the places I have worked, there has been a team dynamic. At Wells while packing, our roles for the day depended on who was supervising or running the line that day. If our normal lead was running the line, roles were assigned at random, including break crew. However, if the backup line lead was running the line, then the break crew was established by picking the two hardest workers. That way the hardest workers could maintain the cleanliness of the line and ensure that it keeps running. This system worked for this job because no jobs on the side of the line that I worked on required any skills. At the Hy-Vee gas station, there was only one role, so no designation was required, but in the Hy-Vee deli, roles were assigned on skill level due to the price points of the meats and cheeses. This system worked most of the time, but there were times when someone skilled in the expensive meats and cheeses was not working. If that happened, we either turned customers away or someone not knowledgeable enough would cut the customer’s order. At Kohls, roles were need-based. Upon my first day at work, I was placed into a department, and then the roles inside the department were assigned based on what needed to be covered or done at that time. This system worked during the holiday season, which was when I was employed. It made sure that the registers were covered in case of an increase in customers and that the inventory got placed on the shelves in the right places. The last three jobs of mine, the Wells micro lab, the qualitative analysis technician, and the tour guide position, all assigned roles based off schedules. This works for the most part, but sometimes there are inconveniences that must be worked around that do not fit into people’s schedules.

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            Personally, I believe that those in leadership positions should earn their way to the top and completely understand every job below them. At Wells, one of my supervisors had been handed the job without working on any ice cream line before. He knew how the line worked, but he did not know how to do the job of the people below him. This led to distrust on the line. However, the supervisor above him had plenty of on-line experience which led to him having the trust of his employees unconditionally. I believe that this trust is the most important part of any leadership position because it also leads to respect. I have been able to grow my own patience because I did not have the best patience four years ago, but through all my positions I have learned the true importance of patience. As an independent person, I did not want to depend on others if I could help it, but I have learned that sometimes it is needed. In the deli, others who were more knowledgeable were able to help me out when I needed it, and in the lab at Wells, others were able to point me in the right direction or help me right one of my wrongs quickly.

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As for the future, I plan on pursuing a graduate degree online while working or working for a year before pursuing a master’s program. One aspect that my leadership experiences have taught me is that everyone thrives under a different leadership style, and often times, an effective leader will emulate multiple leadership styles at different times. My experiences in my jobs throughout my undergraduate years will stick with me, and they will help me through the path that I choose. One way that they will help me is that I now know how to work with various leadership styles, and another way is that when I eventually take a leadership position, I will be able to understand what leadership style I most want to take on. Eventually, I would like to become a crime scene investigator, and while none of my positions have been directly related, I believe that the experiences I had, especially in my internship, will help me out in my future as it taught me different techniques than what the school teaches. It also reinforced sterile technique which I will be using in my future career path. That being said, I do not have everything figured out. I still need to learn more about how I can implement my personal leadership philosophy with people actually leaning on me. I am also interested in figuring out how to lead those who have more experience or are older than I am because those situations are different.