Cassandra Horne, who has worked for Goodwill for nine years, began her journey as a participant. Several years ago, as a single mom, Cassandra signed up for Goodwill University‘s former hospitality training courses. After finishing her courses, she worked at a hotel for a year and then was laid off. She got back in touch with her contacts, and they helped her find a job at Goodwill as a Merchandiser. From there, Cassandra never turned back.
In her time at Goodwill, Cassandra has seen a lot, including being part of the transition of our outlet store, Second Editions, from Freedom Drive to its current location at the Goodwill Opportunity Campus. She moved to a Cashier position, and then began assisting with training of our retail team members. From there, Cassandra’s managers saw her potential and encouraged her to apply for Retail Shift Manager.
“Goodwill is amazing with promoting within. As long as you’re executing what’s expected and you’re learning and asking questions, that opens the door for you to move up,” Cassandra said.
Cassandra moved up to a supervisory position at our Franklin Square retail location, which is now referred to as Assistant Manager. She then went through the Store Manager in Training position, floating around nine different stores while gaining valuable experience as a store manager. She worked at our Gastonia location for two and a half months, where she quickly built good relationships with the team. As of May 2022, she was promoted to Store Manager for the Gastonia store, which she calls her “second home.”
“I told the team, y’all are stuck with me now. I got the job, and I’m not going anywhere.”
As a single parent with three children and a new granddaughter, Cassandra is thankful to Goodwill for opening doors for her. Cassandra’s story embodies Goodwill’s mission – building pathways that help people pursue the life they want to achieve. She worked her way from being a participant of Goodwill’s free services to becoming a Store Manager, helping our retail stores collect and sell the community’s donations so others can access Goodwill’s free career training courses, job search support, family stability services and more.
Cassandra is grateful for encouragement from her colleagues and mentors at Goodwill, including Career Navigators and fellow leaders in retail.
“They want to see you move up. They want to see you succeed and move forward,” Cassandra said. “Goodwill is great. Not a lot of people realize what they do for their employees. If I wouldn’t have had the doors opened at Goodwill for me, I don’t know where I would be right now.”
You can begin a meaningful journey with Goodwill, too! Learn more about working with purpose at Goodwill here.
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