There are few sectors of the economy that offer as wide and interesting a range of career opportunities as fashion. Role Call highlights some of the industry’s most interesting jobs and the talented people who do them. For more information about fashion industry roles like this and others, visit BoF Careers.

LONDON, United Kingdom — Melissa O'Malley is the director of global merchant and cross-border trade initiatives at Paypal. A graduate of Boston University, O'Malley began her career at French publishing house Éditions Fixot and later the TF1 TV channel in Paris. She then moved to Zurich to become marketing communications lead at application service provider, UPAQ. In 2009, O'Malley joined Hewlett-Packard in California, becoming director of global social media and influencer programmes, a newly created role. O'Malley left HP for Paypal in 2014, where she is responsible for creating and executing global campaigns to help Paypal's customers and merchants shop and sell in the 203 markets in which the company operates.

BoF: Please describe your current role.

My job is to help make it easier for PayPal’s 10 million merchant customers to sell internationally. I create programs that are based on research, trends, consumer buying behaviours and insights that enable our customers to make important decisions: which new markets to enter, how to market to new customers and how to tackle issues like currency, logistics and fraud when they are selling into a new market. I love what I do because I get to talk to our customers and take their feedback to create initiatives that help them succeed internationally. With clothing, shoes and accessories being the number one category for international purchases, I work with a lot of people in the fashion industry who are trying to find the next market opportunity for their business. It’s pretty exciting to help people grow their companies.

BoF: What attracted you to the role?

I wanted a role that was global in responsibility and flexible in scope, so that I could leverage my international experience. Second, I wanted to meet as many of the team members to ensure the company was a good fit. Like most people, I spend more time at my job than I do with my family, so I want to work with people that I respect, admire and can learn from. Lastly, I wanted to be sure that the role was important in the organisation and that my contributions could really make an impact. Although my role was newly created, the importance of cross-border trade is clear as it drives 25 percent of PayPal’s business.

My advice would be say yes — a lot. Take on projects that can help you grow, even if it means you are going to have to say 'I don't know' often. It builds character and a heck of a career.

BoF: What is the most exciting project or initiative you have worked on?

I’ve worked on some incredible projects in my career. One of the most exciting and personally-rewarding initiatives I led was a few years ago when I was at HP. I represented my company on the “Summit on the Summit” climb of Mt. Kilimanjaro to raise awareness and bring change to the global clean water crisis. My role was to ensure we had a “connected climb” — using HP technology to share blogs, tweets, Facebook posts, photos and videos in real time as we climbed 50 miles up the world’s tallest freestanding mountain. It's not the easiest thing to do when you are dependent on foreign SIM cards, satellite availability and hoping your battery life holds out!

It was an incredible challenge to climb all day and spend most of the night ensuring our content was reaching the world. To watch the impact on a daily basis was an incredible motivator (although when you haven’t showered in a week, the last thing you want to do is see those images on the Internet.) Nonetheless, the cause was worth it.

BoF: How is your role changing? What are the forces driving this change?

My role evolves constantly because I work in an industry that changes swiftly. Just think of how much transformation is occurring — how people choose to shop, how they pay and where and how merchants sell. When I look at those new opportunities for business owners, the possibilities can be overwhelming with each new “must have.” As the industry evolves, the toolkit I have to help our merchants succeed changes as well. It’s a constant learning process and I love it.

BoF: Tell us about a time you failed and how you learned from it.

At the beginning of my career, I worked as a press attaché in Paris for a major publishing house. I arrived with seven years of French under my belt, assuming I would nail it. No one warned me that Parisian French is a far cry from the French taught in the US. I literally spent the next six weeks going home everyday with a massive headache and wondering how to survive a job with journalists yelling at me all day, because they couldn’t understand me. This taught me two things: resilience and being prepared. I clearly wasn’t prepared for what I had signed up for, but I wasn’t going to back down from it as a result. I am sure my French colleagues had a field day behind my back when I started, but as time went on, I earned their respect because I didn’t back down from the challenge. To this day, I always do as much as I can to be prepared, but I also stick it out when life or work throws me a curve ball. It’s the hard times that teach you the most.

BoF: What advice do you have for people who are interested in doing what you do?

Keep an open mind and be willing to take on roles in unproven territory — my last three jobs didn’t exist before I came along. It's important to know your comfort zone and be honest about how much risk you can handle. When I joined a startup in Switzerland some years ago, they sprung a surprise on me. On day one, I was told that I had to write the business plan as they were running out of their seed money in three months. I was hired to run marketing communications, not raise VC money! I figured either I was out of a job in three months, or I could rise to the challenge and maybe pull it off. Two successful fundraising rounds and 30 million Swiss Francs later, I knew deep down something that Richard Branson would later tell me at PayPal: “Life is a lot more fun when you say ‘yes’ more than ‘no.’” So my advice would be say yes — a lot. Take on projects that can help you grow, even if it means you are going to have to say “I don’t know” often. It builds character and a heck of a career.

This interview has been edited and condensed.

For more information about fashion industry roles like this and others, visit BoF Careers.