Lorraine Haselden, who has been working as a domestic purchaser for Hubbell Lighting鈥檚 residential indoor brand, was recently promoted to demand planner.
Hubbell Lighting, headquartered in Greenville, South Carolina, is a leading manufacturer of lighting and electrical components and is part of Hubbell, Inc.
In her new role, Haselden will forecast demand projections, drawing on past demand and history, then looking at demand trends and updating forecasts as needed. She feels blessed that her classes within the Anderson University College of Business prepared her with skills essential to her new role. She specifically cited the problem-solving skills she learned, and has quickly applied them toward real-world situations. She learned not only from her professors, but also directly from guest speakers representing many Upstate companies, including Hubbell.
Haselden values the guidance she received from professors who helped her navigate the challenges of changing her major to business.
鈥淚 decided to jump right in my first semester sophomore year and took all business classes. It was definitely a challenging transition to make but my professors were great,鈥� said Haselden, who originally looked at majoring in marketing but soon decided to take on supply chain management and become a double major.
鈥淩eflecting on my time at 91福利社, one of the big things it helped with was character development and taking challenging classes,鈥� Haselden said. 鈥淪omething that helped me the most was just having a relationship with my professors, recognizing that they have experience in industry; they have wisdom and knowledge.鈥�
Haselden also had a variety of internships, one doing event planning and marketing for a nonprofit organization and another as a bank teller. Then, between her junior and senior year, Haselden landed an internship at Hubbell Lighting.
鈥淢y internship boss was good about letting me do different things and different projects,鈥� Haselden said. One of her most gratifying projects was analyzing sales trends to help with future project development, working with another intern to create a standardized customer process for product managers throughout the company.
On the last day of her internship at Hubbell Lighting, Haselden was offered a full-time position.
Her advice to others is 鈥淟earn as much as you can. Absorb as much knowledge as you can and internalize it,鈥� she said. 鈥淭he importance of time management, hard work, perseverance鈥攁ll of those character traits really pay off in the workforce.鈥�