September 2013

Hi everybody! My name is Megan, and I’m one of the newest trainees in Hajoca’s Management Training Program. I graduated from the University of Louisville with my bachelor’s degree in Communications. My background is in retail management and I never thought that my path would take me into the plumbing industry, but after just a month of working here, I’m glad it did!

After accepting the job offer in July, I was scheduled for a visit to the profit center in Kingsport, Tennessee so that I could see the facility before I received my official placement. After visiting here (I had already had an interview at the profit center in Raleigh), it was determined that this would be my placement for Phase 1, or my first year in the program. During Phase 1, I will learn about warehouse procedures, counter sales, and operations/purchasing.

I started on September 9. I spent most of the first week just getting acclimated to the office and doing some basic product research. They sent me several training workbooks to complete and those were actually pretty helpful, and then of course I jumped right into shipping and receiving in the warehouse. As a person with no background in plumbing whatsoever, it was really important for me to get in the warehouse and just start working and figuring things out (with the help of some very experienced people, of course).
I would say I had a normal amount of apprehension about starting something completely new and different in a town where I was unfamiliar. The transition couldn’t have been easier. Kingsport is a very friendly town, and everyone within the company has been super helpful and accommodating.

I am excited to have several trips coming up pretty soon. I will be travelling to the Greensboro, NC profit center to help them move to a new location in mid-October, and then I’m going to Philadelphia for a week-long conference at the end of October. Then I will be going to Atlanta for the annual forecast meeting. I am looking forward to meeting some other people in the company, especially all the other trainees and PC managers in the Mid-Atlantic region. I’ve heard all of their names so many times already, it will be nice to actually meet them in person. Until next time…

Megan