Today we had the opportunity to have lunch with one of our Executives in Residence: Joe Pietropola. We heard about his career, and how he started working at a department store. He told us how he worked his way up through the company and then made the switch to Dick’s Sporting Goods. He shared with us that he was able to move around within the company to find the job that he enjoyed the most. Pietropola shared with us that during his time at Dick’s he moved to the e-commerce side of the company, and he happened to switch right before Covid hit- so he shared with us his perspective on the use of technology, in conjunction with analytics and marketing in order to increase revenue, while still handling the seasonality of the sports throughout many locations nation-wide. Joe also mentioned that he had been a consultant before he became an EIR at Pitt, and so he gave us his perspective on that aspect.

We also had the chance to eat at Grapow and meet the owner: Nima Sherpa. Sherpa shared with us how he was from Nepal, and his parents instilled a strong sense of hospitality in him. He told us that he had previously worked in restaurants, and that he had also worked in finance before opening his own restaurant. While the restaurant has only been open for a year, Sherpa shared with us that he is planning to increase their marketing efforts as students come back in the fall; he also briefly mentioned that because the restaurant relies on students, it can be fairly seasonal as well.

Overall, my takeaway from today after meeting with Joe Pietropola and Nima Sherpa was that you may start your career in one area, but end in a completely different area, and that it is important to work doing things you enjoy. Listening to them talk about their careers let me think about how the seasonality does affect the business that you wouldn’t necessarily think it would.