When The Home Depot Vice President of Human Resources Sherry Yaskin shares her career story, she admits she anticipated that her journey would look totally different from how it ended up.
“My big dream was I was going to become an attorney like my grandfather. And then I went to the University of Florida where in that first year I spent a little too much money, so I had to get a part-time job at the Gap,” Yaskin says. “I thought at that time, ‘Hey, this is going to look good on my resume.’ Little did I know that starter job would turn into a lifetime career in retail.”
At the 2022 DECA conference, The Home Depot's Sherry Yaskin announced new scholarship opportunities that will be presented by the NRF Foundation and DECA in fall 2022. Learn more here.
In a keynote presentation to more than 18,000 high school students and instructors at the 2022 DECA International Career Development Conference in Atlanta in April, Yaskin shared what she learned from her part-time retail job and how it built valuable leadership skills. She also offered advice from her experience about how to build a great career in the industry.
“There's strong career progression and leadership opportunities,” Yaskin says. “By age 25, I was able to show my parents that I was running a $5 million business as a store manager in a specialty retailer. Think about the impact of that and how it can propel you to grow your career in unimaginable ways.”
In addition to leading human resources for The Home Depot, Yaskin also serves on the NRF Foundation's Board of Directors, supporting the efforts by the NRF Foundation to connect people to an industry that's a great place to start and to grow through its RISE Up credentials, scholarships and more.
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