Wawa is here to support your personal and professional choices. Whether it’s a long-term career or a part-time job, they offer opportunities to fit your schedule and needs. Many individuals who started with Wawa as a store associate are now working in a leadership role years later—it happens a lot!
In fact, Wawa’s store career path is designed to foster promotion within the company, no matter what position you start in.
And that’s just one of the many reasons why Campus Philly is excited to be joined by Wawa for our final career fair of the spring semester, JobFest, taking place virtually on March 29 from 3-6pm EST. You can learn more and sign up for the event here.
At JobFest, you can connect directly with Wawa’s recruiters to hear more about their open roles, learn about the company culture, and ask any questions you may have about joining the team.
Pro tip: Looking for ways to prepare for the career fair? Here’s one…
Check out our below interview with Ashlee DeLuca, General Manager in Training at Wawa! Ashlee shares more about her role at Wawa, how her education prepared her for her career, and some advice on how students and recent grads in Philly can join the team, too.
Read more below, and register for JobFest today!
It’s so nice to meet you, Ashlee! Tell us about yourself.
Hi! My name is Ashlee DeLuca and I am a General Manager in Training at Wawa. I went to Saint Joseph’s University and graduated with a Food Marketing degree. I live in Bucks County, PA!
Tell us about your role. How did your job search lead you to Wawa?
When starting my job search, I attended multiple career fairs at Saint Joseph’s University and networked with different companies. Wawa stood out to me the most because of their College Graduate Program. I had to go through three different interviews in order to be selected for the position.
Wawa is a company that takes their core values to the next level. It is something they embrace throughout their everyday leadership. I have been with the company since June of 2019 and developed my skills over the course of 3.5 years in order to become a General Manager in Training.
I believe the success of my development has to do with what I have been taught from all of my different managers and teams. I have worked in nine different stores over the course of 3.5 years, so this has given me the opportunity to learn from others and create relationships along the way.
What are some lessons you learned throughout your role?
Some key takeaways I have learned throughout my role as a leader is that you can always listen more. This allows me to see the big picture in situations and listen to my team’s opinions when making important decisions. It also allows me to ask more questions and create conversation with my employees to get to know their strengths and weaknesses.
Being a leader is rewarding because it allows me to help develop those around me and create opportunities for them to expand their knowledge and skills!
How did your education prepare you for this position?
After studying food marketing, it gave me the ability to look at marketing in general through a different light. Food and beverage is an industry that is always evolving, and it always has its challenges and opportunities. It allowed me to understand trends in the food industry, and also to develop and learn leadership skills.
Food marketing can involve brand awareness, developing and promoting new products, advertising, and building and maintaining markets through loyalty.
A lot of my courses consisted of group work, such as projects and presentations, which allowed me to understand teamwork because we had to collaborate and delegate different tasks and topics to one another. Throughout the projects and presentations, we were building real relationships in the process. Those relationships then turned into the foundation of our team, which in turn allowed all of us to work toward the same goal and objective.
That’s great, and such an important skill to learn. Tell us more about how you are building your network in Philly—any advice for college students looking to do the same?
Wawa offers many ways to get involved with the community and it is a great way for me to build my network.
Wawa also has a program called Wawa Innovation Networks (WINs). These groups are Young Professionals, Women’s Alliance, Veterans Alliance, Unity Alliance, and Rainbow Alliance. WINs focuses on the development of leaders and increases engagement for Wawa employees.
There are newsletters, events, suggested readings, and videos/sessions in order to further my leadership and development.
My recommendation to any college student or recent graduate would be to get involved as much as possible. If you look at it from the big picture, building your network is beneficial to your growth as a leader because it gives you the opportunity to learn as much as possible!
What’s some advice you’d give a student seeking a job at your organization this upcoming spring semester?
My advice for students seeking a job at Wawa would be to get involved in programs and associations. I know at Saint Joseph’s University they have the Food Marketing Association that has a lot of networking events in order to educate you on the industry trends. It is a great way to network and get involved, especially if being in a leadership role is something you see for yourself in the future.
I would also highly recommend researching Wawa to explore any job postings that may interest you and understand the responsibilities that come with that position. Also, if Wawa is ever at a career fair (like Campus Philly’s JobFest on March 29!) or has someone speaking at an event, bring your resume with you to stand out from other candidates. I would also recommend asking for that person’s business card, so that you can follow up and stay in touch with them.
Last question: What’s the best part about your job?
The best part about my day-to-day experience is that I get to connect with all of our amazing customers daily. I have worked in many stores in the area and I’ve had customers on multiple occasions recognize me from my past stores.
For example, I just recently transferred to a new store and one of the days I had a customer come up to me and say “Weren’t you at the other store down the street?”
It’s definitely a feel-good moment because I created a bond with that customer in the past and they still recognized me somewhere new.
I not only enjoy seeing the customers, but I enjoy seeing my team daily, too. Creating relationships and bonding with my team allows me to understand their strengths and weaknesses, and allows us to work better together. There is never a dull moment. I am always learning something new about the business, the people, and even myself. Even if it’s slow, it still seems busy—and that is what I love because there is always something to do.
Overall, Wawa is an amazing company to work for and my everyday experiences push me to be a better leader for myself and my team!
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