Partner Showcase: Old Navy

Michelle Hawkins, Stow Community Center Old Navy General Manager

12/28/2022

Here at Jobs for Ohio’s Graduates (JOG), we are lucky to have such great employment partners who want to see our students put in a position to succeed. From learning skills in the trades to developing interpersonal skills and even occasional management training, these companies provide valuable skills to our kids as part of the JOG program, setting them up for success in their future careers. Old Navy has been a partner of the Jobs for America’s Graduates (JAG) curriculum and is also a local partner to us at JOG. They have been involved in events we have hosted as an employment partner, including this year’s Leadership Development Conference.

Michelle Hawkins, the General Manager of the Stow Community Center Old Navy, was our guest speaker for December’s “Like A Boss” speaker series. In this Zoom meeting, she talked about her start at Old Navy as a “Sell-ebrity” and working her way to a “Sell-ebrity Coach.” Tasks that she has had to do that other oncoming associates may have to work with are things like customer service, unpacking product shipments, putting out new promotional signage, and managing fitting rooms.

Working in retail has its perks, such as the ability to work your way up the ladder to leadership positions. As Ms. Hawkins shared, after working with Old Navy for a couple of years, she was offered a part-time management position and was even able to move to Orlando, Florida to be a full-time Operations Manager. These promotions took time and included some bumps in the road along the way, but Michelle persisted and continued to advance her career. Despite how tough it can be to be passed up for a role you really want, she still advised, “Just keep trying because eventually you will get that promotion.”

Old Navy has been a great supporter of JOG and has been welcoming to all JAG kids. We at JOG are particularly lucky to have such amazing partners across all four of our counties (Summit, Stark, Medina, and Trumbull).

To see more from this session with Michelle Hawkins, please click here to watch the full session.

If you are a Career Specialist interested in showing the past “Like A Boss” presentations to your students, please contact Joseph Cantwell at jcantwell@jogworks.org, and he will be happy to get you the latest “Like A Boss” session.