Meet Sumiya

Describe your educational background. Where did you study, what degrees did you receive?
I attended Queens College, City University of New York, and received a B.A. in English Literature.

Describe your career history. What have been your professional experiences prior to your current position? 
During college, I worked at several part-time jobs and internships, including experience at a start-up internet company, a small law firm, and a small arts non-profit. Post-college graduation, I worked for a year and a half at Hachette Book Group in Special Sales.

What are your current roles and responsibilities?
I support two sales representatives who sell to Borders Group. Inc. My duties include sales reporting, data analysis, preparing presentations and sales kits, writing newsletters, and providing assistance on issues as they arise.

Describe a typical day at your job: 
Mondays and Tuesdays mostly consist of updating reports with new weekly sales, and writing reports based on current sales. The rest of the week includes the projects as listed above. The most important thing in a sales position is being available minute by minute for the needs of your customer. In one day, that can include tracking orders, analyzing inventory, following-up on new books, etc.

What attracted you to your company and position? What is your favorite thing about your job? I have always known that Random House is a well-respected company, and as a liberal arts major, taking on a sales position was a great way to acquire business sills.

What has been your most memorable moment (so far) in your job? 
There have been a few; I will speak of a recent one. In March 2009, the Random House Children’s division will publish a first book by a young debut author named, Carrie Ryan. (The book is titled, “The Forest of Hands and Teeth”). Recently, Carrie came to our offices to tell us her story and answer any questions we had about her wonderful debut novel. Carrie was passionate, informative and utterly grateful to see her dream of becoming a full-time writer come into fruition. Although publishing has gone through many changes over the last few decades, it still remains a very humane industry. Day to day in the sales departments we look at numbers, but ultimately our work serves to bring talent to an audience that is hungry for talent, and it serves to fulfill the dreams of our talented writers.

What qualities do you feel are necessary to be a successful employee at your company? 
The most important personal skill is passion and enthusiasm. The energy you bring to your job, any job, will affect your performance and your co-workers, and will ultimately affect the outcome. The most important professional skill is time-management. I think this is true for anyone at any job, but particularly true in the world of sales, time is always scarce. There is always more to do than can be fit into a day, so it’s very important to know how to manage time and meet deadlines.

Have you had the opportunity to travel as part of your job? 
Yes, on several occasions, I have traveled to Ann Arbor to visit the Borders Group Inc. headquarters.

My favorite book, movie and artist are… 
This changes all the time! At the moment, I am engrossed in reading “Circle of Life,” which is a non-fiction title that explores Native American culture, history, and spirituality. My favorite movie is the “The Life of Brian.”

Finally, please write a paragraph or two about yourself, your interests, hobbies, goals, meaningful life experiences, role models, memories, etc.:
My hobbies include meditation (different forms, mantra meditation, mindfulness meditation, etc), Reiki, several other holistic healing modalities that I am slowly exploring, and studying spiritual traditions.
My reading interests reflect my hobbies. I studied Buddhism for some time. Presently, I’m studying Native American spirituality (per my favorite book right now).
I would also like to study a few more healing modalities and other spiritual traditions.