Mike McCone

Business major Mike McCone considers himself frugal, which is why he’s always enjoyed shopping at Marshalls and T.J. Maxx – “off-price” retail stores owned by TJX Companies in Framingham, Massachusetts.

“I recently bought five shirts for $45, which is a tremendous value when you consider shirts cost $30 nowadays,” says McCone, whose concentration is in analytics and operations management.

McCone is no longer just a fan of TJX: Thanks to a six-month co-op and a three-month summer internship with the Fortune 100 company, he’s about to become a full-time employee.

“It’s a big relief to have a job lined up before I graduate,” says McCone, who was offered an allocation analyst position two weeks into his final semester at UML. “Seeing they had a corporate opportunity in something I was majoring in, I thought it was a perfect fit. Lucky for me, they thought I was a perfect fit too.”

The Winthrop, Massachusetts, native followed in the UML footsteps of his brother, plastics engineering alum Tim McCone ’19, who is now program manager at Mar-Lee Companies, an injection molding manufacturer in Fitchburg, Massachusetts.

“I visited him a few times on campus and really felt at home here. I thought it was a good fit for me,” says McCone, who also chose UML because of its diverse student population.

“I saw that it’s a minority-serving school, which is really important to me,” he says. “Winthrop is not very diverse, and I wanted to broaden my horizons, meet other people and learn about their ethnicities and cultures, which I’ve been able to do.”

A football and lacrosse player in high school, McCone was happy he could continue playing intramural sports in college.

“I love the team-building and connections you make with fellow players,” says McCone, whose flag football team overcame a slow start to win its league championship. 

“If you stay the course, things will always get better if you put the work in,” he says.

Through the Professional Co-op Program, McCone applied to “50 or 60” companies during his junior year. He was “pumped” when he landed an allocation analyst co-op position at TJX, where he got experience managing inventory, studying customer trends and forecasting supply and demand. 

“There’s a lot more that goes into how a product does than I thought,” says McCone, who wondered how he would readjust to classes when he returned to school for his senior year.

“I ended up getting my best grades yet,” he says. “I felt more professional.”

McCone was invited back to TJX for a paid summer internship, this time on the retail buying side.

“I saw how they negotiate with vendors, which was a lot of fun,” says McCone, who is taking courses in logistics and transportation, retail, negotiations and sales in his final semester to “hone those skills while I still have the opportunity.”

He’s excited to be starting a career in supply chain and operations at a company he’s long admired. 

“Sometimes companies are blinded by profits, but TJX goes out of its way to offer customers the best price. And I feel those price points also support people from more economically challenged backgrounds,” he says.

McCone draws parallels to the accessible price of his degree at UML, which he was happy to see was ranked the No. 1 public university in Massachusetts by the Wall Street Journal based on student outcomes, learning environment and diversity.

“Seeing how this school gives you these opportunities, without having you go in debt for years and decades down the road, is a big reason I came here,” he says. “I’m happy I chose this school.”